I just finished upgrading my firmware on 3 31000340AS drives. It's been a long path to get here, because I didn't think a drive manufacturer would put out a product that was so subpar (ok, lesson learned). I have two issues that bother me about the firmware upgrade, besided the many other obvious ones:
1. In trying to backup my PC before upgrading the firmware, the STs would always get read/write errors and just no longer be visible in XP. Reboots didn't help, because they were not visible in my bios either. This would occur after an hour or so, but once I let the drives cool down, there they were ready to go again. I finally pulled apart my case and let the backup run all day today, with NO problems. This is before the firmware upgrade. Sure sounds like there is something to do with heat here. I have 4 case fans plus a PCI fan on this custom PC because my desk is a tight enclosure. I've never had issues though until these drives came along. So I'm really nervous that the firmware fixed a defect, but there are still other issues lying under the surface here. It's not like I'm confident they were thoroughly tested, as we can all atest to.
2. The second thing that makes me scratch my head is what is that clicking sound? Even after the fw upgrade I still get these periodic clicks. I don't recall my other hard drives clicking like this, except for theones that were dying.
I guess my question is has any one else seen heat play a factor in this firmware issue? And does anyone else experience the clicking noise?
As a lost thought, my backups are going on to WD system, just to be safe.
