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

[FredDerfson]

If updating, please check the stated cache.  There has been at least one report (different forum site) of the drive no longer reporting 32MB cache.

[andeks · Accepted solution]

Solved.

The update here now worked for my ST31000340AS.

Burned the image to a CD, and booted from the CD (using my SATA connected DVD-burner).

Selected option C) for the ST31000340AS, and when it reported that the update was finished, I turned off and on the system (power cycled).

FredDerfson: How do I check the cache size?

Why does it report SATA/150? Should it not be SATA/300 ?!

Message Edited by andeks on 01-22-2009 09:31 AM

[FredDerfson]

The fellow with the unreported cache was using Everest and/or HDTune to get the info.  I know nothing about these apps or CrystalDiskInfo.

My concern is that the particular bricking bug may be fixed, but something else may be broken.  If upgrading a functional drive, take complete before & after snapshots of all the drive info and run before & after performance tests if you can.

[kryptonite]

Note: If you controller supports AHCI, its a good idea to disable it in BIOS and enumerate your drives in plain SATA mode before you flash.

Also, if your HDDs are on RAID, its a good idea to disable RAID and enumerate them as standalone SATA drives - before you flash the new firmware.

I have NVIDIA 780i & 790i systems, updated my 2xST3500320AS (they were on RAID-0) in a single go without issues.

I used the MooseDT-SD1A-2D-8-16-32MB.ISO - RAID is now enabled back, and everything looks good.

[andeks]

HDTune after update:

(A burst rate of 100MB/s sounds like SATA/150 to me)

This is on a WinVista x64 with a 9550 cpu

[dualdude]

Looks like it's done right after starting Vista? I recommend waiting a little while until SuperFetch is done caching programs and then run hdtune. It improves the quality of the results a lot. Also happend when i checked at first with Vista x64.

Whilst SuperFetch still active:

`

After waiting for a little while:

My burst rate is even lower but i'm sure it runs at SATA-II mode. Every tool i tried told me the same.

Message Edited by dualdude on 01-22-2009 11:45 AM

[kotlousko]

Question : Does the update for the model ST31000340AS SD15 affects the DATA in the disk? I mean, can I update the firmware without losing the data in the disk?

[phenix1819]

@ andecs have you removed the jumper from the back of the dirve?? That might be why its showing sata 150.

[Karlston]

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kotlousko wrote:
Question : Does the update for the model ST31000340AS SD15 affects the DATA in the disk? I mean, can I update the firmware without losing the data in the disk?

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Your data is intact.  Plenty of people, including myself (on the same drive as yours with P/N 9BX158-303) have done the upgrade and found that to be true.

There's plenty saying that if your drive is not visible in BIOS the upgrade won't work, but I have my doubts.

Has anyone whose drive is not visible in BIOS tried the upgrade? Please report your success or failure, and confirm the rumour or shoot it down in flames.

Message Edited by Karlston on 01-23-2009 04:17 PM

[piltaf]

Karlston,

The update will not work for drives already locked in the BUSY state.

Because the drive is locked in this state, there is no way for BIOS to recognize it, therefore, no Windows or DOS based program will be able to talk to it. 

The BUSY state needs to be removed, as well as some other things need to be cleaned up in the System Area of the drive before the BIOS will recognize it. At that point, the upgrade would work.