Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing

[pally01]

Originally Posted by shadowpr As a side note, I left my drive in the external enclosure and it didn't have any problem. When it said to power down the drive and turned off the computer I just turned the external off and then turned everything back on.

I flashed my 500 gb drive, but had to remove it from my external cables and install internally. Neither the Seagate drive tool or the flash update could see it when hooked up externally.

[TwoRails]

Very interesting thread. Looks like I checked in at the right time. I was thinking about getting a 1.5 to pull out an older, smaller unit; even compared Best Buy's sale price ($99 for a 1TB) versus Newegg ($129 w/ free shipping for 1.5TB) .... I think I'll just hold off a while.

[glc]

The 1.5's that do not have "SD" series firmware appear to be okay.

[TwoRails]

Originally Posted by glc .. All these issues coincide with Seagate's reduction in warranty periods on a lot of drives and WD's expansion of their 5 year warranty.

I just picked up (tonight) a 1.5 Barracuda in the new packaging scheme, and it still states "5 year" warranty on the box.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Got the retail version at Best Buy on sale for the same on sale price from Newegg for the OEM version: $129.95, plus I used a $5 off coupon. So I got some more extra wires (SATA and power cable) to boot.

And, no, the model is not listed as effected, and the firmware listed is CC1H.

[FalvinP]

I haven’t been looking at the PC Mech forums lately. I had seen something in the news a few weeks ago regarding Seagate hard drives but I didn’t realize until I saw this thread how widespread the problem is.

I’ve read through this thread and have also veered off to the Seagate forums as well. I have read a good portion of the 800+ posts, including the most recent posts, on the Seagate threads. I am now confused. From what I gather, there was a firmware update that was put out about a month ago that turned out to be defective. I couldn’t tell if a new firmware update has been released. Also, apparently the tool on the Seagate site is not totally accurate in identifying affected drives.

I have two 700.11, model ST3500320AS, 500gig drives made in Thailand with firmware SD15, bought from Newegg about a year ago. They seem to work properly, although in the last few months the primary drive seems to be taking a lot longer to boot up.

My question is: Is there a new firmware version now available that will solve the problem? And does it effectively fix the problem? I’d like to be preemptive before disaster strikes. I’ve printed out the instructions from Seagate regarding how to install the firmware update. I’ve seen references to firmware version SD1A in various places. In other places I’ve seen where this update for 1Tb drives actually bricks 500 Gig drives. I’m still confused.

Thanks for your help.

[shadowpr]

From when I last checked the seagate forums, there was a firmware release that was supposed to fix the drives.

I would follow the directions and update if your drive has the old firmware that was described, which I believe was sd15.

As for does it fix the problem, I'm not sure, and I doubt anyone is yet. It will take a while before anyone knows if the rate of failure is dropping.

[Dominic753s]

Today I bought a 1Tb Seagate drive, have checked it at seagate.com and that's written that my drive is NOT affected. Should I update the firmware? Is it possible, that the drive is affected in spite of the official info?

[glc]

What exact model is the drive, and what firmware did it ship with?

[Dominic753s]

The exact model is ST31000333AS, the firmware is LC15. Seagate DriveDetect doesn't show any HD info, so I used Victoria 4.46b to find out the firmware.

[glc]

Verify the firware by removing the drive and reading the label on it, please. I don't see where those drives used LC series firmware, just SD and CC.

[Dominic753s]

The label says, the firmware is LC15.

I checked the date code (09224) here: http://www.bugaco.com/calculators/seagate_date_code.php
It says 09224 corresponds to 2008 December 2nd

I've read, that drives with LC15 are dieing too. I downloaded a new firmware for my drive, but it couldn't be updated - the drive is unsuitable. I don't know what to do.

[glc]

They do not have an update for LC15. The update is only for SD firmware.

[Dominic753s]

Originally Posted by glc They do not have an update for LC15. The update is only for SD firmware.

So what can I do now? My drive can die tomorrow, and they do not have an update yet. Can it be somehow done by their current updater for SD?

[glc]

There is nothing you CAN do unless it dies. Apparently they do not feel that your drive needs an update.

Too bad you didn't do your research BEFORE you bought it. We've been recommending Western Digital Blacks ever since this issue reared its ugly head. I for one won't buy another Seagate drive for a LONG LONG time.

My drive can die tomorrow

So could *ANY* hard drive. There is no substitute for backups.

[Dominic753s]

Thank you! If my drive is damaged, I will change it with WD.

By the way, what is the Seagate support e-mail address? Or there is only phone support available?

[glc]

discsupport@seagate.com

[Dominic753s]

Thanks, glc.

[Dominic753s]

Me again My 1 TB Seagate drive makes a click while shutting down. The support team said that my firmware was OK, and the clicking sound could be caused by a hardware issue, and the drive could be failing. They advised me to RMA it.

Is my drive failing for sure or it is only a possibility?

And why do you advise Western Digital Black? Many people say they are very loud. Is WD Black better than WD Green? What can you say about Western Digital WD10EADS ?

Thank you.

[glc]

RMA it if Seagate advised you to.

The Black is a fast 32mb cache drive with a 5 year warranty. Yes, it's better than Green in MY opinion, the Green is designed for low power consumption, not speed. I installed a 640gb Black in my grandson's computer a few weeks ago to replace a dead Seagate, and it's no noisier than any other drives I've worked with. Sorry, but with this firmware fiasco and other recent failures of Seagates that are NOT affected by the firmware issue, I won't touch a Seagate till they have PROVEN their drives are back to high quality.

I would recommend that you do the following, being that you are obviously apprehensive about that drive - buy a 1tb Black and install it. RMA the Seagate, and get an external housing for it and use it only for backups.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817362003

[Dominic753s]

glc, thank you very much!

[Force Flow]

I just had a Seagate ST3500320AS that was purchansed in sept 08 and originally shipped with firmware version SD81 fail on me. It looked like some bad sectors cropped up, then SMART was tripped, rendering it unusable for normal use. Updating it to SD1A did not remedy the issue. It has been sent in for an RMA replacement.

Just thought I'd log it in case a pattern starts developing with these drives.

[glc]

The one that crapped on my grandson was a ST3250410AS - a 250gb 7200.10.

[chuck4456]

Originally Posted by glc The one that crapped on my grandson was a ST3250410AS - a 250gb 7200.10.

My favorite drive of all time, and I just had one go out on me.
Almost to the day that you told me that you had started recommending WD Blacks, GLC.
The thing that worries me is that I've got those later 410AS drives stuck in PCs all over the county!

[Masaki 7-11]

Regarding the WD Black vs. Green, the WD Black is better for desktops as they are faster than the WD Green, won't be moved around much and heat/vibration isn't that much of an issue. I recommend the WD Green for external drives though; they have much lower temps and vibration than standard 7200RPM drives. I just got a WD Green today to use with my external enclosure and it runs very cool and makes almost no vibration.

Does anyone know if there is a problem with the 320GB 7200.11 Seagate drives? Is the 8MB cache version of the ST3250410AS affected? I've been using a mix of Seagates, Maxtors(now Seagate) and WDs since I started building computers (I stopped using Seagate (and Maxtor) when I first heard about the firmware issues), so I may need to take a look at some of the computers I sold with the Seagate drives.

[ChoboSeki]

Lucky for me I'm a cheap bastard who bought $79 Barracuda 320GB (2x for 2 comps), neither has any problems.. been like 2 years now I think