SeaTools

[kseba77]

I am sorry to be a pain but I was trying to compile your code and I am getting an error message. It states the following:

"The type or namespace name "Assembly could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)"

Do you know what is happending here?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Meharin]

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AlanM wrote:
It's true that Seatools for Windows is not supported in 64-bit OS, but Seatools for DOS is an option.

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I echo the complaint that there should be some sort of error message regarding lack of 64-bit support.  I am seeing a different error "Index and length must refer to a location within the string. Parameter name: length System.String InternalSubStringWithChecks(Int32, Int32, Boolean)" 

Seatools for DOS does not work for me either!  It boots up and just says "FREEDOS".  What the heck?  I am thinking of taking my erring drive out of the RAID and trying again, but don't know if this will help. (I booted linux without raid and it looks like it sees the individual drives so hopefully I can at least get SMART info that way.)   I am a software developer and to me it is not good to provide software to users that either gives unhelpful error messages to known error scenarios, or to distribute software knowing full well it won't work on a significant percentage of users, and leaving them to scratch their heads and google until they find obscure references in forums.

I suspect the dos tools don't work because I am using Intel Matrix RAID -- the drive detection utility shows both my RAID volumes but with blank data.  If so, I think this is also unacceptable, and this scenario of RAID or blank volume information should not result in an internal error message.

My story:  4 x ST3500320AS ICH10R RAID.  All drives still working, since Dec 2008, but one with intermittent errors.  All drives have SD15 Firmware, but one is not affected according to Seagate's web serial number tool (starting with 9QM61xxx), and I heard someone mention this tool has bugs so I don't believe it. I didn't know about the issue, and for all I know I have another problem, in addition to the SD15 problem of drives being on the verge of dying at any moment, and according to one website, having firmware upgrades brick my drive (someone in this forum I think said they fixed it soon after it was a problem in January, but isn't this mentioned on the seagate firmware page?  Now I have to spend more hours doing research about if the new firmware is truly safe, or gamble.  Seems like a mistake to me -- either increment the version number, or have a big notice on the download page saying "Note: SD1A downloaded prior to Jan ## had a fatal flaw but has now been corrected.").

My Vista x64 apps were stopping to respond (I assume as they accessed disc), within a few minutes of rebooting, and Intel RAID said "an error has occurred" (what error?  Tell me please Intel!), and said I should backup my RAID0 so I rebooted and ran chkdsk, which proceeded to very slowly (70 hours or so, before I killed it) obliterate my Vista OS partition, don't really know what happened there.  I ran chkdsk again and it quickly this time deleted orphaned nodes which was everything.  Now I am running a new Windows 7 x64 RC1. I was trying to backup this partition before I lost it, but another company (DriveImage XML) failed to mention that their backup software didn't work with x64, so I wasted several hours trying to get their backup software working and then ended up losing the partition, and now find out why it wouldn't work. 

After searching the net and hitting a bunch of stories from January 2009, now I am finding monster threads with many upset people.  I wonder if the execs at Seagate give a hoot and understand the magnitude of their customers' problem, and what a huge problem it looks like it is turning out to be for Seagates reputation?  AlanM and the other guy, thanks for trying to put up with many extremely upset people (thanks for the sticky summaries), I would not like to be you -- I just hope Seagate becomes enlightened and makes a drastic turn to give its customers confidence that they are taking this seriously and care about their professional image.  It seems more could be done to provide us or people like AlanM with connections to technical information and solutions.

[Edited by Meharin to calm a bit of frustration]

Message Edited by Meharin on 05-30-2009 10:35 PM

[zickvon]

Here is another complaint asking for Vista 64 support!!

[AlanM]

Though I have reason to believe it is not quite as reliable as SeaTools for Windows generally is, let me suggest using the new, 64-bit compatible Seagate Manager software diagnostic test as a workaround.  I know that this new software launch is specifically directed to the FreeAgent drives, but it will not hurt anything to download and install it to try it on another kind of Seagate or Maxtor-brand external drive.  If it doesn't work, it doesn't work and you can uninstall it.  But it might work.  It is perhaps worth a try.

Let me know if I can clarify or help.

[HughR]

Meharin:

SeaTools for DOS does not know how to deal with RAID controllers as far as I know.  I think that that would require a FreeDOS driver for the controller.

My impression is that updating the firmware, if Seagates indicates that your drive is affected by The Bug, is the right thing to do.  A minority disagrees, but of course they might be right.

There remain RAID problems, at least for some people.  Consider adding to this thread if you think your problem is related:  http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=11184

If you need support, consider contacting Seagtate.  This forum isn't a way of talking to Seagate support.

Message Edited by HughR on 2009-06-03 03:08 PM

[Meharin]

Neither SeaTools for DOS nor the SD1A firmware update CD will boot for me!  It says "FreeDOS" then hangs! And this is after I removed all but one hard drive, and turned off RAID.   [Update -- it works now that I changed a bunch of BIOS settings to disable RAID and put the SATA drives in legacy IDE mode, thanks to googling FreeDOS hints from http://tarnyko.net/freedos/details_en.html].  If this doesn't help, I will try the new x64 tools on Windows (thanks for the link, AlanM). 

In case anyone cares about my ongoing story, I got my RAID0 working in Linux (couldn't get RAID5 due to some known dmraid bug) and got to see some error messages (man I love linux, for telling me what in the world is going on).  I was copying several GB of data off the raid array, and got repeated errors on my suspected failing drive.  The failing drive gave the UNC error, and I looked this up in the linux kernel source code and believe it means 'uncorrectable media error'.  I also ran hdparm -tT, and the disk buffered read speed is only 5.9-8MB/sec (cached reads are fine at a supposed 4.3GB/sec), whereas other disks are around 100, 100, and 80 (I don't know why one is consistently 20 MB slower.)  I tried switching data cables and power cables but the problem followed the drive, not the cables. Oh I also tried ancient SeaTools for linux from 2001 and it runs and the query gets some info off the drive, but the fields don't line up with data so it obviously isn't working properly with this drive from 2008, so I didn't try anything else with that.

So I'm guessing I have a bad disk and yeah HughR I should really contact Seagate support. 

Message Edited by Meharin on 06-16-2009 01:09 PM

[HughR]

Meharin:

I guess that we are well off the topic of this thread.  Consider starting a new one.  Otherwise the people who should read your post won't know to look at it.

Added later: you did create a new thread http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=SeaTool&thread.id=567

Thanks.

Message Edited by HughR on 2009-06-16 09:44 PM

[Meharin]

Yeah, now that I know that the FreeDOS issue was BIOS settings and not x64, I will make a new post.

(BTW, my long test is showing tons of errors)

[jwcc]

Try the UBCD4Win tool that builds a bootable Windows XP CD using your installation media.

Requirements:

1)  Windows installation disks or a folder called "i386" that has those same files.  Usually placed at C:\Windows\i386.

2)  (Optional)  SP2/3 downloaded to create a folder with the 'slipstreamed' XP SP2/3 installation files.  Note that SP2 supports 48-bit LBA so if you need to access 128GB to 2TB drives this 'may' come in handy.  Many installation disk have SP2 already added - it should say so on the disk lable.

3)  Downloaded Ultimate Boot CD for Windows and installed it.

Once you have those 3 requirements, click on UBCD4Win's shortcut and it'll load up a boot CD builder.  Point it to the i386 folder or your installation CD.  It has an option to automatically slipstream (update) the installation files it copies to a work folder.   Tell it to build a disk image and it will make a file that you can burn to a CD.  When you boot a computer with that CD, it'll load up XP which supports your hardware!  The forums there tell you how to add programs like Seagate tools and drivers to the boot CD.

[ByrneIT]

According to the docs for version 1.2.0.1 64 bit is supported, but I couldn't get it to work on my Windows 7 x64 system.

It pops up  message about s string error.