Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[AlanM]

This is an official Seagate announcement.

Seagate 1.5TB Customers,

Some Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB hard drives may show uncharacteristic operation when used with Mac and Linux operating systems in multi-drive configurations. Users may experiences pauses in video streaming applications or a dropped drive from RAID arrays. Customers seeing these symptoms should contact Seagate Technical Support directly by phone or by email for a firmware upgrade.

In order to assure the proper application of the new firmware, please communicate/have ready a description of the issues you’re seeing when you contact Seagate Technical Support.  Please include the following disk drive information:

• model number (see here for help determining the model number)

• serial number (see here for help determining the serial number)

• current firmware revision (Seatools for DOS can tell you, and it should also be listed on the drive label)

Also, please describe

• your system

• your operating system, and

• the application in use when the issue arose.

You will receive a prompt response with appropriate instructions.

Message Edited by AlanM on 11-21-2008 07:10 AM

[irish.david]

Ok, i've just got the firmware update but i've got my drives in a Drobo. I've only got access to a laptop, a drobo and a 3.5" enclosure. Anyone got a way of installing the firmware to a drive that's attached using a 3.5" USB enclosure?

Dave 

[jafa]

---

claes wrote:

New firmware SD1A, but still having problems (different this time):

Nov 20 23:26:32 kernel: ata5.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
Nov 20 23:26:32 kernel: ata5.00: cmd 35/00:40:d7:d8:54/00:00:57:00:00/e0 tag 0 dma 32768 out
Nov 20 23:26:32 kernel:          res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Nov 20 23:26:32 kernel: ata5.00: status: { DRDY }
Nov 20 23:26:32 kernel: ata5: hard resetting link
Nov 20 23:26:32 kernel: ata5: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
Nov 20 23:26:33 kernel: ata5.00: configured for UDMA/133
Nov 20 23:26:33 kernel: ata5: EH complete
 

This happened while compiling kernel. Not too promising... :/

---

Hi,

Command 0x35 = WRITE DMA EXT

(ie it failed to write to the drive)

You may have a failing disk... what does smartctl report?

smartctl --all /dev/sda

Nick

Message Edited by jafa on 11-20-2008 05:50 PM

[void4ever]

I contacted support via email about 45 minutes ago for the firmware, although i don't expect a reply until tomorrow Here's hoping we can put this issue to bed.

Void4ever

[netgo]

I have 4. All are 9JU138-300 and SD17.

Todays exprience.

Chat with support -> They don't support firmware update, it is web page error, they notified IT. I need to call them.

Call to support ->

We don't support LINUX. -> I explained him the situation.

Support said he needs to transfer this case to his supervisor so he can have instruction, then someone will contact me later about this.

Then he hung off the phone.

What should I do? Just wait until seagate calls me?

Message Edited by netgo on 11-20-2008 06:18 PM

[HFTobeason]

I own 4 1.5TB drives, all in a Drobo, all failing in the classic style covered in this thread (plus one that REALLY failed, and I RMA'd).  Today, after seeing the announcement above, I instituted a web chat with support at Seagate.  Almost instantly, I had a rep online.  He/She asked a couple questions (what was my failure mode, what was my firmware) and then gave me the link and passcode to download the firmware update.  No worries, no troubles.  My only problem now is that I have nothing but Macs (two laptops and an iMac), and the Drobo/DroboShare, so I have no idea how I'm going to flash the drives.  Any ideas much appreciated.  Thanks.

[netgo]

HFTobeason, Bootcamp?

[AlanM]

netgo,

This solution literally came out less than 5 hours ago, so probably the agent you talked to didn't know about it. Please try them back tomorrow and they should troubleshoot with you.

[HFTobeason]

@netgo -

Yeah, maybe...  But the readme that comes with the firmware update says you've got to burn a CD with the installer, and then boot that CD on a PC which has only ONE drive (the drive you're trying to flash) attached.  Clearly, in my case, that is not easily possible - laptops and iMac...

Woof. 

[HDGURU]

Got my drives about a week ago, called earlier for the update and installed it successfully. This has corrected the problem I was having in regards to Video playback and the drive disconnecting from the system, Thank You Seagate.

Couple of thoughts off my head.....

1. Everybody who said they are buying another manufacturer because of this problem crack me up. Clearly you have no experience installing multiple hard drives from multiple vendors in multiple systems. I have dealt with all the large drive manufactures and have had to update the firmware on each of their devices at least once. ( At least when I call Seagate I talk to someone in America)

2. Everytime I have done a firmware update from any manufacturer it is required to connect the drive directly to a DESKTOP PC(an intel based Mac would fall into this category). None of the updates I have applied could be done while the drive was in an enclosure. If you do not own a DESKTOP PC, your only options would be to....

A. Find someone who does

B. Contact a service center willing to allow you to connect the drive to one of their PC's and flash the firmware from it.(This is not nearly as hard as it sounds)

C.  Contact Warranty and find out if it is possible to send the drive in for an update or have it replaced with one the update has already been applied to.

3. I think this is testament to a forum at Seagate. Who knows how long it could have taken them to act if there was no forum. Once again, good job Seagate. As much whining as I have heard from other users I would like to be one that actually thanks you. The "Accepted"  level of support from hardware vendors is generally none at all. 

Message Edited by HDGURU on 11-20-2008 08:07 PM