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

[Perave2]

Hi iowabucks,

If you boot on the CD you will be able to upgrade firmware, you just have to choose the correct one (ST3500320AS for you).

Maybe this can help you :

My drive was bricked with firmware SD15 and I fixed it by myself (with CA-42 cable). After that I backup all my data and I decided to upgrade firmware to be sure my drive will not brick again ...

The problem is that my drive bricked just after the upgrade ... not exactly the same bick because drive was detected in BIOS but not usable in OS. I had to fixed it again by myself (again with the same cable).

So, from my point of view, first you should backup all your data. Then you can choose if you would like to live with this drive (It can brick tomorrow or never ...) or just after your backup you can try an upgrade and if it brick, try to RMA to seagate (I don't know how it works with seagate, as I said, I fixed it alone). The last way is to fix it by yourself if it brick but it's not easy.

I suggest you to backup asap (if it's not done) and then to not update firmware because I think that your drive has more chance to brick if you upgrade it.

This is only my point of view, I hope it will help you.

Good luck

[CarterCanada]

Hi folks here at page 78. If you've read this far or just jumped to the end to catch up, there's a good chance you're holding a bricked drive at the moment. I hope I can help out a few of you.

BradC the mod kindly gave me the green light to include a link to a page I created on my (non-commmerical) website that details the "Do It Yourself" method of unbricking 7200.11 drives that are no longer recognized by your system. In my case, it was two 1TB (ST31000340AS) models under WinXP but the method should work on other sizes in the series with the same firmware problem. I generated the information there from lots of the other threads on the net (which are listed as well) plus a bunch of old know-how from my engineering days. I'm no expert but the method worked for me and a few others in the specific case I detail so hopefully it can help a couple of you folks as well.

To be clear, this is only for the "drive not recognized" error and not the "0LBA error" or any other problems you might have arising from the SD15 firmware. This forum is the place to search for those other answers.

Also to be clear, this is NOT an official Seagate sanctioned repair but for those of you that may be caught outside their recovery programme it may be a solution. In my case, I just live too far away in the wilds of Canada for the official repair to be cost efficient for us both. I must say, they DID offer to repair and data recovery my drives free of charge with shipping but alas, the nearest UPS depot is about 400km away.

Here's the link. Hope it helps some of you.

http://www.mapleleafmountain.com/seagatebrick.html

[pvrone]

wow 78 pages

could someone please tell me what firmware to use and is the bricking fixed?

[Cantbecanit]

This one is easier to execute tbh, look for post number 1010 in the thread, and only cost me five uk pounds to get the right cables.

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=96c6a5559a7375748b4217121e9a0e80&showtopic=128807&st=1000

Good effort btw Carter, it's just a little bit complex to what most ppl will be able to absorb attempting it 1st time, where the phone cable method is simple.

And if you are using Vista, d/l a freeware program called Putty to open comms up between the drive and the computer

[CarterCanada]

Thanks for the kind word Cantbecanit,

I wrote the page with *way* more detail than was really needed because I had a friend who had tried the other cable-based methods (after waiting weeks to get the cable from afar) and couldn't get her handshake protocols (between the USB port and the drive) to communicate properly even after trying to follow a few of the guides out on the web. With so many different versions of cables/adapters out there,I wanted to go back to a "least common denominator" method with the most basic (old 9-pin) serial port and the XP-included Hyperterminal to try and take a few of the variables out of the equation.

It probably varies by region a bit too as to which is easier to get - one of the appropriate cables or a basic serial-TTL adapter. Between all the different methods, hopefully we can fill the gaps and get everyone that needs it a solution.

Cheers!

- Carter

[Cantbecanit]

The trick is to use a phone cable that windows finds as a new device, any cable that windows plops up the found new hardware will be suitable to use, for those looking for a CA42 the best places are market stalls and post office sub vendors selling mobile phone acc etc, the one I got had a white box with pale blue bottom and top with simply CA42 connectivity cable written on the box, so remember, if you plug it in windows and nothing happens it won't work and you will have destroyed a cable, like I did 1st attempt, lol.

[SaltyFog]

hi all, 

I thought the Schmartboard RS232 to TTL approach with a 3v watch battery was fine - I connected its TX RX pins to the drive - then attached the drive to an external sata enclosure (without cover) and plugged it into the wall. The com cable from the computer to the schmartboard and then simply fired up terminal and entered the commands - loosening the single screw by the centre to slide a business card under to leave power to the board, but remove power from the drive motor....  as the Gradius2 fix describes (google).  Total cost from Mouser? $30 including shipping and some other odds and ends I needed for other projects.

Any hoo.

Earlier in this obscene thread I mentioned my failed drive an ST3500320AS 500 gig drive that I had recovered all my data from was bought at the end of August 2008.

Date code of (surprisingly) August 21st 2008.

Well I PAID my $19 to get a drive before I send my old one back. Well today -  I have received my very first RMA drive.

YIPPEEE

but wait, it gets better! 

It's label says "Certified Repaired HDD" and has a large grey band of ink around the white label so there's no mistaking this drive from a "new" drive.

It's model number

ST3500320AS - 500gig

manufacture date (decoded) July 25th 2008

wait for it ----> FIRMWARE printed on label : SD1A

So i get a brand new to me hard drive that is physically OLDER than my drive and has the SAME firmware update that is reported to fail and has failed already on my drive and was sent to me at the END of LAST week.

Tomorrow I have to see a client who's an hour away and a bit, so when i get back in the afternoon I shall plug this puppy in and run Seatools and poll it for the firmware actually ON the drive.

Then we'll know whether Seagate has actually "fixed" the drive or if it still has the SD1A firmware on it.

I'll let you know tomorrow... 

- on a side note i think I'm actually more stunned to have in my hands an older drive labelled with the same crud that killed my first "newer" drive. I'm stunned they didn't actually send me a different model - or at least one of the mystical CC drives which are "unaffected" even though they are affected so sayeth this thread....

*sigh* 

Message Edited by SaltyFog on 04-30-2009 04:12 AM

[TrainSpotter]

Lucky me, I just bought an ST31000333AS... I haven't even opened it (OEM wrapper), and now I'm almost afraid to! I purchased it kind of knowing about the need to do a firmware update, and I had checked the Seagate site to make sure that the new firmware was available before I bought it. Everything seemed to be in place, and I figured that the low price ($88 for 1TB) was to compensate for the extra hassle of having to flash it.

Once I received the drive, I saw that the firmware was CC1F, so I went back to the update page to see if this unit needed new firmware. The Page said, "Note: If your drive has CC firmware, your drive is not affected and no further action is required." I didn't quite understand what was meant by "CC". Did they mean "CCxx", (which would include my "CC1F" drive), or did they mean that the 1F part of the firmware code excluded my unit? Sloppy nomenclature for a tech site!

Anyway, I started to dig, and now I see all this! I feel a little bit entrapped by the statements in the "knowledge base", which supposedly has a working fix.  I used to buy Maxtor as they were very highly rated, and I never had a problem. When Seagate gobbled them up, I figured that I could trust the new parent, and started buying their drives; obviously a BIG MISTAKE, and it hasn't even bricked on me yet! I have real doubts about putting this drive into anyone's computer - how can you sleep at night when you have even the slightest doubt that you may be risking somebody's data and your own reputation? What's wrong with Seagate that they would even let these drives out of the door, or at least recall them or issue a good fix for them?

Anyway, I have an ST31000333AS (1TB) with CC1F firmware and a date code of 09233 (December08, 2008) OEM and still unopened. I would not be using it in a array; I just need a single drive in a small mATX computer. What are my odds of this thing bricking? Will there be any firmware updates for CC1F drives? If I RMA it (unopened) what drive would you recommend I get to replace it?

Thanks!

[blckhm]

Hi,

I have 2 x 250gb seagates ST3250410AS drives. Now couple of weeks back 1 died, just got the new replacement today. The new one has updated 4.AAA firmware, old having 3.AAC.

I did a bit of benchmarking, which shows the disks raid0 performans avarage read 110mb.

Maybe the problem was firmware differences. Now I want to try update firmware of my old disk from 3AAC to 4AAA but How can i update firmware ?

Thanks

[Cribby]

Hi, I'm also one of the unlucky ones to have issues with this drive. Mine started locking up for a few seconds during usage, and now I can't boot windows from it, as well as having the drive connected won't allow other drives to run windows or run a windows CD. I guess this is a bricked state? It does show up in the bios though.

The firmware is SD04.

Model ST3100034AS

Is there a fix for SD04? What are my options? (for data recovery as well)