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

[Firm and Steady]

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noegruts wrote:

I dont have time to respond point by point.  Much of what you say is correct.  However, Seagate's moderators have explicitly closed and deleted other threads and moved them into this one, hence having to read "almost 400 posts".

About "don't shoot the messengers".  This is one of the biggest problems here - if Seagate were handling this correctly they would have actual support staff here.  To be honest, I have no idea what the point is of having people here like Alan etc that can't answer basic questions. 

There is zero doubt here that Seagate has handled this whole firmware problem atrociously.  Many other companies release software with bugs and hardware with firmware bugs.  I have never seen a problem handled this badly.

Case in point - my simple question about whether or not the SD1A firmware was changed when the download was changed on 2/9/2009 has gone unanswered.  What is the problem with somebody from Seagate actually answering one of their customer's questions here? 

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Since the tech support staff can hardly handle the flow of support requests they receive, I doubt it will be more helpful if they needed to both handle support cases and read and respond to every forum post.

The typical purpose of having forums is to supply a quick answer to problems that already have a known and definite solution. It can be easier sometimes than searching the knowledge base, and may also provide answers that cannot be found in the knowledge base. Those two levels of support (forums and tech support) gives them the ability to split the load. There's no point of having to contact tech support (and sometimes waiting a long time, too, as result) for a minor, non-critical issue.

Obviously, the firmware update, as well as other issues mentioned in this thread are not minor, and don't yet have definite solutions.

But I agree that tech support should take more effort to provide up to date information about this firmware problem. If they did so (for example, making a news page dedicated to this problem, with frequent updates), it would have given them more time to investigate the problems encountered rather than having to respond to so many support requests.

[howardrg]

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Firm and Steady wrote:

4) If you have problems or questions regarding this specific firmware update, or after its deployment, this is the thread for you.

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Then I AM in the rights place.  Hooray!  I posted about this before in this monstrous thread but got no solution.  Here goes again:  My drive is working fine for now but IS affected and I want to install the firmware to prevent trouble in the future.  But I am having trouble with the DEPLOYMENT -- when I boot from the ISO image I get the "invalid opcode" error and cannot execute the firmware update.  How do I get around this "invalid opcode" error?  (BTW, the suggestion to switch from IDE to AHCI (or vice-versa) in BIOS is no good for me because my motherboard does not support AHCI.)

[Morbidsoul]

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howardrg wrote:

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Firm and Steady wrote:

4) If you have problems or questions regarding this specific firmware update, or after its deployment, this is the thread for you.

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Then I AM in the rights place.  Hooray!  I posted about this before in this monstrous thread but got no solution.  Here goes again:  My drive is working fine for now but IS affected and I want to install the firmware to prevent trouble in the future.  But I am having trouble with the DEPLOYMENT -- when I boot from the ISO image I get the "invalid opcode" error and cannot execute the firmware update.  How do I get around this "invalid opcode" error?  (BTW, the suggestion to switch from IDE to AHCI (or vice-versa) in BIOS is no good for me because my motherboard does not support AHCI.)

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Dont worry howardrg.  Seagate is working hard on a firmware that will actually update our drives.  Have faith.  They wouldnt leave thousands of customers stranded in a monster thread waiting for a response.  They are whipping those firmware developers night and day, ordering pizza for lunch so they get it done that much faster.  Thats how dedicated the support team is. 

[sham63]

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Mark1982 wrote:

@Bloodknight41.  Thanks for the info!  Well, the only reason I want to update my drive is so that I don't turn on my computer one day and find the BIOS doesn't detect it. 

To those who have had their drives disappear from the BIOS - are there any symptoms to suggest that it's going to happen soon?  I've experienced some slow bootup times after a reset, and some occasional freezes during normal desktop use, but the freezes may not be hard drive related

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There were no symptoms in my case. I went to turn on my pc and it would not boot, went into the bios and the drive was not shown.

Jim

[HughR]

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howardrg wrote:
  My drive is working fine for now but IS affected and I want to install the firmware to prevent trouble in the future.  But I am having trouble with the DEPLOYMENT -- when I boot from the ISO image I get the "invalid opcode" error and cannot execute the firmware update.  How do I get around this "invalid opcode" error?  (BTW, the suggestion to switch from IDE to AHCI (or vice-versa) in BIOS is no good for me because my motherboard does not support AHCI.)

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Since nobody else has said anything, I'll stick my oar in again.  All theory, no experience.

It seems that some firmware .iso files have silently changed.  Perhaps the latest one has been modified in such a way that it works on your machine.

Can you not find another PC with a SATA controller to use for this purpose?  You'd only need it for an hour or less.

If not, I'm pretty sure that you could RMA the drive to Seagate but you'd probably have to pay the freight one way.

This is what customers with non-x86 systems have to do.

[Firm and Steady]

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howardrg wrote:

Then I AM in the rights place.  Hooray!  I posted about this before in this monstrous thread but got no solution.  Here goes again:  My drive is working fine for now but IS affected and I want to install the firmware to prevent trouble in the future.  But I am having trouble with the DEPLOYMENT -- when I boot from the ISO image I get the "invalid opcode" error and cannot execute the firmware update.  How do I get around this "invalid opcode" error?  (BTW, the suggestion to switch from IDE to AHCI (or vice-versa) in BIOS is no good for me because my motherboard does not support AHCI.)

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Like HughR wrote, it is possible the firmware update was changed since you previously downloaded it. Even if the files have the same name and size, they may be different!

So the first thing you should attempt is to download the firmware update for you drive's model again and try with it.

vcharts posted the following on another thread, here:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=7987&view=by_date_ascendin...

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vcharts wrote:

- invalid opcode -

- boots into windows even with boot from cd set as first in boot order - 

Ok.  After upgrading CD Burner firmware, changing out CD Burners, burning multiple CDs ...

1. On my Dell, I had to DISABLE RAID (AHCI) to boot from the CD ISO.  Otherwise, invalid opcode.  After the upgrade, I switched it back.  DON'T LET IT BOOT into Windows with it switched.

2. On my Gigabyte 78GM based mobo, I had to get the CD ROM off AHCI by moving it to SATA port 4 and set to ports 4/5 to IDE in BIOS.  Otherwise it just went into Windows without even attempting to boot from CD -- even though BIOS was set to boot CD first.

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What motherboard do you have and what is your hard drive model? Just for future reference for others who may encounter the same issue.

I assume you know your way around the BIOS, right?

Anyways, the post I quoted suggests that if you don't have an AHCI setting, disabling RAID might work.

If you don't have a RAID setting, there is another setting you might need to change instead - Native/Legacy (it switches between the two). 

If you are not sure, once you post your motherboard make and model, I might be able to find an answer for you by getting hands on the motherboard instruction manual online.

Just a few warnings, before updating your drive's firmware:

1) It is suggested that you disconnect all drives on your system except the one you wanna update and the CD drive.

2) Make sure you note every change you make to the BIOS, so you can return your BIOS settings to the way they were before, after the update.

3) Backup your drive before you do anything, just in case (at least the critical data).

Message Edited by Firm and Steady on 02-20-2009 01:54 AM

[howardrg]

Do I detect a trace of sarcasm in Morbidsoul's reply?  ;-)

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HughR wrote:

 It seems that some firmware .iso files have silently changed.  Perhaps the latest one has been modified in such a way that it works on your machine.

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I will again download the ISO and try it again.

[sham63]

I have new issue now. I opened a chat window and the tech said he couldn't help me, and I had to call support for this issue. So I call support, give my s/n and model number and tell him the problem(bricked drive). He says my drive qualifies for a replacement and not data recovery. So we go to warranty and returns and enter the info and a different drive comes up, a st3500641as. He said that is what he has listed, but on my drive it is shown as a st3500320as. He said the 641 is a better drive and I could still do the return even the model numbers do not match. My s/n # is 9QM68L9J. There is a Q as part of the number, so I tried using a 0 and O, but those were invalid part #, so I did not misread the number. The st3500641as is not shown as one of the drives affected by this issue. I just searched the site, and it is a 7200.9 series drive. So what the heck is going on here? Is the label on my drive wrong or is Seagate wrong?

Jim

[okayman01]

@Bloodknight41

Thanks for your update and recommendation. Actually I am still a fan of Seagate. I have money to buy a new drive but I didn't choose other than Seagate.

My drive's firmware is also updated with the new SD1A after the correction.

What I suggest to user "adam d" is a safe measure only. I would also encourage him to update to the new SD1A instead of the still SD15 which has known problems.

I suggest him to wait is because, first off, Seagate has changed the firmware (the problem one) to a new one. And then a newer one. I have a post earlier about the changes that I saw in the file (yes, it's support for more chipsets, RAID and AHCI). But then our concern is whether this is really a fix or not? Nobody knows until you try to run the drive for a certain period of time to tell. Even the known flawed firmware (old SD1A and the previous originals like SD15, SD18, etc), people reported problem from 6 hours to 8 months. So this is a long period of time before you know whether this latest firmware INDEED fix the problem AS SAID by Seagate.

adam d's data is more of my concern as he told us so, it's important. So I don't want him to lose any data because of a still unknown firmware fix (as advertised by Seagate). Yes, they said is a fix, but well, that we've heard many times. Seagate just recommend to people to upgrade but didn't really ASSURE us that THIS FIRMWARE REALLY FIX THE ISSUES.

That's why I started to register to this forum and hopefully see some real assurance.

I'm grateful Seagate do these fixes, pull off the problem firmware and QC and update it again. I'm grateful for this. Just not sure if this new latest firmware does what it is supposed to.

Regards,

Felix

[noegruts]

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Firm and Steady wrote:
 

Like HughR wrote, it is possible the firmware update was changed since you previously downloaded it. Even if the files have the same name and size, they may be different!

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This really shows the ridiculousness of this situation.  So what are users meant to do, keep downloading the firmware every day just in case it "might have changed"?  

Seagate, if the firmware for the ST3500320AS *did* change from the previous SD1A version when you updated the file on 2/9/2009 can you MAKE AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT about this?  And in future, change the version number when you change the firmware.  If you just changed the .ISO packaging and the firmware didn't actually change, then MAKE AN OFFICIAL STATEMENT.

How hard is this?