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

[CarterCanada]

Hello Salty Fog,

I think you're in pretty good shape, actually. The SD1A version of the firmware is the fixed version and the current version distributed on the website and via the RMA centre. I know there was a short-term problem just as they released the fix in January but that has been sorted for a couple months now.

The "gray band" label sounds just like the one I have on a drive I sent in for RMA back in Oct 08 before the firmware problem became obvious. I believe what they do is take in the drives (older ones) from customers that have problems and then wipe them, flash them, and put the "new" label on them. That would account for the various time codes you're seeing stamped on your RMA drive.

I would only be worried if you check the drive with Seatools and it still shows an older version of the firmware like SD18, SD15, AD14, etc. which are the ones with real issues. Check the firmware update page in the KB to see the whole list of "old" versus "new" revisions if you're curious.

I'm running 10 of the 1TB drives now, all on SD1A, and they all started life with various earlier versions (mostly SD15). Granted, I've been keeping a close eye on them but no problems since I got them all onto SD1A. Good luck!

- CarterCanada

Message Edited by CarterCanada on 05-01-2009 10:29 AM

[TrainSpotter]

Now that this thread has been moved, a search for "firmware CC1F" brings up this page:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&message.id=9079&query.id=4353#M9079

The last post (post #7) closes that thread and provides a link; http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=9060 that is supposed to lead here, but is now a broken link.

It should be replaced.

(Moderator note:  Thanks for pointing out our mistake.  It has been fixed!)

Message Edited by AlanM on 05-04-2009 06:21 AM

[RJWRJW]

79 pages proved a bit too embarrassing hey! 

so the forum has been shutdown?

why not just stop hiding ?

[scottylans]

What about the constant clicking noise from some of the CCXX firmware disks? I have 2 of 4 drives with this problem, one is having Windows detection issues, the other works, albeit slow.

Click is loud and worrying.

[Ckott]

Ok, so I just received a replacement 750 GB drive (ST3750330AS) from Seagate. The "new" drive is a refurb with firmware SD1A. After formatting it with Win XP, I rebooted my PC and then ran Seagate's SeaTools for Windows.

The drive passes all of the tests except for SeaTools' SMART test - it fails that test every time. What now??? Should I ignore the fact that it fails the SMART test? Can I trust this drive or will it fail on me in the near future?

I'd appreciate hearing from others who might be in the same boat as me.

Cheers,
Carl

[jdjdjd]

i posted in the forum if you guys check it out.. i can't even zero the drive for more than 30 seconds..

CC1H (2) at the datacenter and 4 at home. doing seatools long test now with vista 64 (since i got the x64 hack/mod for seatools)

i wonder if seagate is still shipping out bad drives.

[0lithium0]

hi!

Sorry for my bad English....

I' ve a Seagate Barracuda SATA :

Model: ST3500320AS

Serial: 9QM49MQS

Firmware: SD15

that perfectly works but  that needs to be updated!

But when the bootable cd starts, it doesn't  see my hd!!! I made also the scan for device, but it is invisible!

My PC:

Proc:Athlon XP 2500+ Barton

Mobo: DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B (Silicon.... SATA controller)

Thanks for help!

Message Edited by 0lithium0 on 05-04-2009 09:10 AM

[Cantbecanit]

Is it the cd that won't see the HDD or the bios, check when the machine boots that you see the HDD name in the list of devices in the black boot screen, i.e memory test,bios revision etc screen, it sounds like yours is bricked tbh as there's no reason other than you may not have selected boot from CD that it can't find the HDD.

P.S, your processor is a Barton, not a Burton ;->

[0lithium0]

ahhahahahah, my English is a........ :-)     "Burton"...AHAHHAAH

 Sorry :-)

well:

1) I removed all drives but HDD and DVDrom;

2) I set out "first boot device= CDrom", in the BIOS;

3) the firmware upgrade tool  starts properly, but it doesn't  recognize any device (also with scan!)

and when the machine boots, I see the HDD name in the list of devices!

Message Edited by 0lithium0 on 05-04-2009 09:17 AM

[Cantbecanit]

Ok I got it, you have a blank unformatted drive?

You need to get it *SATA driver* formatted before you can update it I think, give that a try, do an O/S install, go as far as when Windows asks if you need a 3rd party driver, load that and then try to update the FW, if that fails, do a full format and then try again,hth.

Message Edited by Cantbecanit on 05-04-2009 05:25 PM