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

[donidonidoni]

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jellokitty92 wrote:

doniX3

If theyre reported UNEFFECTED, then doesn't that mean that theyre not effected? 

that's why I asked the question - if the tool says it's good to go, then it's good to go, right?

Hard drives fail for all sorts of reasons, you know.  My guess is that these other failures on these uneffected drives are failures due to other reasons and that there's this conspiracy bandwagon jumping here.  Just a thought

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Does it? We can all guess, but nothing will be clear until Seagate clarifies. All we know for sure is that other widely-reported problems are also definitely firmware-related. They are not random failures within the standard margins for "all sorts of reasons." Too many reports of the same problems, linked directly to firmware updates. So if our drives are indeed unaffected by one firmware problem, but affected by another unfixed firmware problem, that still doesn't give us any answers. Net result: we're still stuck in limbo and still confused.

[SierraRat]

OK, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m tired of this little melodrama. I’ve been coming back to these post to see if I need to do anything further to ensure the integrity (not a word I use anymore with Seagate) of my hard drive (ST31000340AS). While Seagate’s serial number checker says my drive is not affected, I really don’t place my trust in a program written by a company that has spent months denying there was a problem to begin with.

I note that there is an SD1B firmware out there, which may or may not be worse than the SD1A, which may or may not be the old SD1A or "new" SD1A. There is also the new secret SD3B firmware, which may or may not be out there.

As I stated at the beginning, I’m now done with this melodrama. I flashed my hard drive once with SD1A and so far it works. However, if it does brick, its going in the trash.

Message Edited by SierraRat on 02-05-2009 10:59 AM

 (edited to comply with forum rules)

Message Edited by AlanM on 02-05-2009 11:15 AM

[Firm and Steady]

headcrash,

The page on this link (it's from the support knowledge base) (207931) was changed:

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931

Originally it had links to every affected drive model firmware download page. But now one has to use the serial checker, and if it is not within Seagate's internal affected serial list, you can't get to the firmware download page. But it is possible to reach the download page by searching for firmware for a specific model in the knowledge base.

Reading the document you found (assuming it was published by Seagate), it does seem to clearly advise that every hard drive from the affected models should have their firmware updated, in the FAQ part.

This suggests that the firmware update should work for everyone. Sadly however, this doesn't seem to hold, considering the number of problems people are encountering...

[donidonidoni]

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SierraRat wrote:

As I stated at the beginning, I’m now done with this melodrama. I flashed my hard drive once with SD1A and so far it works. However, if it does brick, its going in the trash.

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Can't say I blame you. If you have the means, it doesn't seem worth the agita.

(EDIT: Deleted my response to your side note, since your side note was deleted by the mods.)

Message Edited by donidonidoni on 02-05-2009 01:23 PM

[AlanM]

Firm and Steady said:  This suggests that the firmware update should work for everyone. Sadly however, this doesn't seem to hold, considering the number of problems people are encountering.

As better and fuller information comes from the engineers responsible for the firmware to the Support and KB departments, we update the information accordingly.  Let me urge you to go with the most up-to-date information.

Also, there is a great deal of bandwagon-jumping going on here.  Many, even most, of the problems that forum users are posting are not involved with or affected by firmware, so please do take that into consideration as you make your plans to backup your data, etc. 

[sturner6]

Look, I dont have endless time to read the myriad of posts here and the endless debates.  I have a affected drive which I returned to Seagate.  They have replaced it with another DEFECTIVE drive...I kid you not!  Tech support has just verified the serial number for the replacement drive contains defective SD15 firmware.  Is there any solution to this whole mess.  I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day!!!

I am on Mac sytem so I have no way of implementinfg a firmware upgrade myself, and am not even sure if the suggested firmware replacment even is effective from what I can judge from these forums!

[AlanM]

sturner6:

I don't know if any user here can help you.  Your best bet is probably to contact Support again and not let them go until you have the answer you need.  If you encounter long hold times, let me suggest that you call during a low-traffic time, such as right when they open, which is 8 am CST, 7 days a week.

[Firm and Steady]

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AlanM wrote:

Firm and Steady said:  This suggests that the firmware update should work for everyone. Sadly however, this doesn't seem to hold, considering the number of problems people are encountering.

As better and fuller information comes from the engineers responsible for the firmware to the Support and KB departments, we update the information accordingly.  Let me urge you to go with the most up-to-date information.

Also, there is a great deal of bandwagon-jumping going on here.  Many, even most, of the problems that forum users are posting are not involved with or affected by firmware, so please do take that into consideration as you make your plans to backup your data, etc. 

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Alan,

When I posted my issue on this thread originally (see page 4 on this thread), I already acknowledged the likely possibility that the bad sectors I'm seeing may have nothing to do with firmware update, and were there before I updated my drive's firmware. I also acknowledged the fact that according to the serial checker, I may have not needed to update my drive's firmware in the first place. So there's no bandwagon-jumping here. 

The knowledge base currently suggests that only if the serial checker tells you your drive is affected you should update the firmware.

However, the FAQ part of the document found by headcrash (see page 7 also on this thread) suggests every drive from the affected models should be updated.

So as long as tech support doesn't respond, or a final official and clear statement address those issues is given, I can't assume anything one way or the other.

[AlanM]

The models listed are the model numbers/lines out of which the affected drive units will come.  In other words, in Seagate the numbering/identification scheme goes like this:

                                                 /  serial number

                         / part number     serial number

Model number  - part number   -  serial number           

                          \ part number     serial number    

                                                 \  serial number

So if you have a model number listed, use the serial number checker to see if you're affected.  If you don't have one of the models listed, you're good.  

I hope that helps clarify.

[HughR]

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Karlston wrote:

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HughR wrote:

If you could flash new firmware, your drive was not bricked. So you must have experienced a different problem.  At least that is my current understanding.

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Nope, the drive was invisible in the BIOS of the machine where it was the system drive. That's what I mean by 'bricked', sorry, should have made that clearer.

 

I moved it to my other box, where it was visible to BIOS, but would not boot. I did the firmware upgrade on that box and all was fine again.

I believe that there are combinations of SATA controllers and BIOS SATA settings that influence whether the 'bricked' (by my definition again) drives are visible in the BIOS or not, and I just happened to have one of each.  In case anyone's interested, the drive was connected to an Intel ICH7R controller in the 'invisible' box, and an ICH7 in the 'visible' box. I don't recall the BIOS settings...

Also, the SD1A upgrade fixed it, and since that upgrade was presumably to just fix the 'bricking' bug, that also suggests that that was the problem the drive had.

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I'm sorry for using the ambiguous term "bricked".

What I still believe, based on NO experience, but from reading things like http://maxxdigital.com/shop/images/seagate.pdf is that if your drive has triggered the bug, it cannot be reflashed via any SATA controller.

There are other bugs that might well match your observations.  For example, one earlier firmware upgrade was to fix a bug that caused a drive to appear to have 0GiB capacity.  Depending on your old firmware level, the new firmware might fix several old bugs, not just the one for which this version was created.

In my own case, I have a 1.5T drive that came with SD17.  I updated it to SD1A (I got that from Seagate 2009 Jan 8).  On Jan 23, SD1B was released for my drive model BUT the SN checker said that my drive was unaffected.  So I have left it at SD1A.

Was the SD1A you flashed provided through the KB article?  Because SD1B is what was suggested to me (if my drive were affected).

(I have a pair of these drives but I think that I'll leave them on the shelf until the dust settles.  I sure wish Seagate would explain what is known to them and what is not.)