Sunday, January 18th 2009
Seagate Offers Firmware Fix for All Problematic Barracuda 7200.11 Hard Drives
Seagate has issued an official statement today, acknowledging all recent problems with some Barracuda 7200.11 drives. Based on the information posted in the company's forums here, select Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1TB 3.5-inch hard drives made in Thailand, suffer from a firmware issue that bricks the HDDs after a short period of time. After three to five months of normal operation these defective hard drives will suddenly lock-up as a protective measure and prevent the system from recognizing the drive from then onwards. In most cases the information won't be lost, but the drive will be completely useless, changing the drive's electronics won't help much either. This problem occurs not only to the 1TB Barracuda models, but to Seagate 1.5TB, 640GB, 500GB, 320GB and 160GB Barracuda 7200.11 drives, along with some Maxtor and ES.2 models. That's pretty disturbing, but now Seagate will provide its customers with an updated firmware if their drive is problematic.
Here's the full statement from the company's spokesman Mike Hall:
It is important however to use the online serial number validation tool to verify whether or not your specific drive is affected as not all drives of the same model necessarily share the same firmware revision.
Source:
The Tech Report
Here's the full statement from the company's spokesman Mike Hall:
Seagate has isolated a potential firmware issue in certain products, including some Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives and related drive families based on this product platform, manufactured through December 2008. In some circumstances, the data on the hard drives may become inaccessible to the user when the host system is powered on*.The following are potentially affected models:
As part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, we are offering a free firmware upgrade to those with affected products. To determine whether your product is affected, please visit the Seagate Support web site at seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931.
Support is also available through Seagate's call center: 1-800-SEAGATE (1 800 732-4283)
Customers can expedite assistance by sending an email to Seagate (discsupport@seagate.com). Please include the following disk drive information: model number, serial number and current firmware revision. We will respond, promptly, to your email request with appropriate instructions. There is no data loss associated with this issue, and the data still resides on the drive. But if you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services. Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business.
For a list of international telephone numbers to Seagate Support and alternative methods of contact, please access www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/
*There is no safety issue with these products.
It is important however to use the online serial number validation tool to verify whether or not your specific drive is affected as not all drives of the same model necessarily share the same firmware revision.
74 Comments on Seagate Offers Firmware Fix for All Problematic Barracuda 7200.11 Hard Drives
I haven't registered before so naturally I set up an account so I can email someone who will give me the update. Great all for doing that.
But why when I have tried 2 different emails and other combinations etc does it not let me login.
I have tried IE and FF.
I have yet to recieve an email on the accounts I have tried to use. I have tried lost password and that is no use.
If this is considered a large scale problem (which I would consider it as) do they not publish the updates without having to contact them and signup etc. Makes far more sense.
I have to try keep backups of my precious data and hope the drive does not conk out on me!
I think this will be my last Seagate drive!
Rant over :)
Though I registered at their site to contact their email support a few hours ago, still no confirmation and my user ID doesn't work yet.
I already had to replace that 500GB^ before because the first one i got was getting load and getting a grinding noise.
I think ill be going back to WD next time for my next comp.
ST3500320AS
ST3640330AS
ST3750330AS
ST31000340AS
Download: support.seagate.com/firmware/MooseDT-32MB-SD1A.ISO
More info: seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207951
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
ST31500341AS
ST31000333AS
ST3640323AS
ST3640623AS
ST3320613AS
ST3320813AS
ST3160813AS
In Validation*
More info: seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207957
Barracuda ES.2 SATA
ST31000340NS
ST3750330NS
ST3500320NS
ST3250310NS
In Validation*
More info: seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207963
DiamondMax 22
STM3500320AS
STM3750330AS
STM31000340AS
STM31000333AS
Download: support.seagate.com/firmware/MooseDT-32MB-MX1A.ISO
More info: seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207969
DiamondMax 22
STM31000334AS
STM3320614AS
STM3160813AS
In Validation*
More info: seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207975
and when I try to flash it I get an error that it's not a seagate lol
Burnt the CD and booted etc, scanned for devices and my drive were there. Hit "D" to flash my model, then after abit it says device not found or something along those lines, expected "my drive number"
I'm really un-happy with Seagate at the moment!
that same firmware actually bricks 500gb drives, plus probably other capacities.
They pulled it from the site for 'verficitaion' :nutkick:
It turns out it was actually the second firmware seagate had offered for the 7200.11
and according to the forums over there, they do have newer firmware past the SD1A (which is the one they had offered) (first one was under 1mb second was 1.6 somthing)
Good work seagate, youve just flushed your reputation down the toilet.
forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=5625&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
La unica solucion que encontre hasta el momento es la de llamar a empresas de recuperacion como OnRetrieval, Onrescue, Ontrack, entre otras para que nos recuperen los datos.
Esto es debido a que la garantia de Seagate no cubre los datos, solo el dispositivo...
Veremos que final tiene este tema.
Saludos
Actually, I found this bump useful. I also had a .11 drive. Was problematic. This is the first I heard of a firmware fix/update. And if I find an old .11 in the drawer, old PC, or NAS, (hey wait, was that my problematic linkstation? Hmmm...)
But my -ve experience with that drive encouraged me to jump off Seagate and try Samsung which I would otherwise never have bought for a HDD. And now I'm very happy with Samsung, both F1s and 2.5" drives, and buy them by choice.
The only solution that I have found, to date, is to phone recovery companies such as OnRetrieval, Onrescue, Ontrack, amongst others, to have them retrieve the data.
This is due to the fact that Seagate's guarantee doesn't cover the data, only the device...
We'll see how this issue turns out.
Cheers"
I know how it turned out for me: swapped for a Samsung and haven't looked back.
I actually bought a seagate .12 after one of mine died, but ive also bought a samsung f3 1GB after that, cheap, fast and reliable...
With all this 2 died on me...