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Last week an unusual number of Seagate 1TB Barracuda hard drive owners came forward complaining of lock ups and other related hard drive failures. The problem appeared to affect Barracuda 7200.11 drives made in Thailand (ST3100034AS), to which Seagate ultimately determined was the result of faulty firmware. But now users are complaining that the updated firmware Seagate posted has only made matters worse.
According to Tomshardware, "100 percent of users who attempted the update have bricked their drives with the new firmware" after updating to version SD1A. The update is now "temporarily taken offline as of Jan 19, 2008 8PM CST for validation," but users who managed to attempt the update before it was taken offline say they are getting read errors preventing them from accessing the data.
While the knowledgebase article makes no mention of manufacture date, one user who contacted Seagate customer support claims he was told only drives manufactured in December need to be updated, and his drive, which was built in October, failed because of this. Whether or not that's the case, we'll have to wait until hearing an official word from Seagate. In the meantime, if you're an affected owner, you'd do well to keep an eye on this thread.
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anonuser
April 14, 2009 at 6:47am
@periodhyphenunderscore:
Most of the firmware on these drives is actually stored on the disks (platters) in the SA (service area). Sending off your controller board is not an option when it comes to repairing these unfortunately.
Most hard drives from the last 10 years have the majority of their firmware on the media with just a few parameters on a ROM or NVRAM chip on the PCB.
periodhyphenund...
February 09, 2009 at 8:52am
Called Seagate this Morning to Swap out Hard Disk Controller!
They Refused!
They Demand ALL OF YOUR DATA to service these drives under Warranty!
If you want to secure your Data, swap out the controller on the hard drive with another drive that works and has the correct firmware!
Just remove the 6-little screws on the controller and it pops right off!
Funny, they will swap out controllers on Govt. and Millitary Hard Drives but not mine!
Sorry Seagate, your Security Clearance is too Low to be allowed access to my Data!
and Grinding Platters to Dust...............Now!
(Even Paranoid Schizophrenics have REAL Enemies!)
periodhyphenund...
February 08, 2009 at 5:18pm
I have the same Seagate 500GB with 32MB cache that you own!
It died INSTANTLY and without warning!
It can no longer be Flashed and is not seen in the BIOS
It is imperative that you back up your data and then take your chances if you wish
YOUR DRIVE MAY NOT BE FLASHABLE ONCE IT GOES BAD!
It ran perfectly untill I added a USB hard drive to back up the Seagate!
Go Figure!
Keith E. Whisman
January 20, 2009 at 12:01pm
I've been running a Seagate Baracuda 7200.11 32mb Cache 500gig hdd for a year now and it's freaking reliable as crazy.
When it comes to HardDrives you shouldn't mess with the firmware unless your hdd is actually dying. Becoming unreliable. I for one will not be touching the firmware. My drive is fast and I get no read and write errors that affect my performance or cause problems. There are always read and write errors but the rate should be so low and the built in error correction should keep you from noticing it.
So keyword here is don't mess with the firmware.
The only firmware to really care about is your motherboards bios and dvd burners and nic cards and sometime video cards but leave your hard drive alone unless you notice it's not acting right.
icebird
January 20, 2009 at 11:46am
I hate to see bad things happen like this to a reputable company, but this just bolsters my long-held belief that Western Digital makes the most reliable drives.
Caboose
January 20, 2009 at 9:38am
Yup. I'm one of the (suckers?) that losta 500GB drive. 2 infact... Thankfully the other 2 500GB drives that I have aren't affected by the bad firmware... Seagate had better fix my drives and recover the data lost.
After this latest fiasco, I'm not going to use Seagate anymore.
So, who's starting the lawsuit?
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
