Seagate HDDs with buggy firmware, update your drives!

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dan

459 posts

Ultimate Geek

Topic # 60713 30-Apr-2010 16:23
Still to this day i am finding Seagate Hard Drives that have the AD14, SD15, SD16, SD17, SD18, SD19, SD81 firmware on it crapping out, ie they are getting stuck in a "BSY" state and are not detected by the bios People really need to update the firmware if they have these firmware installed, because it probably will happen at some point. ive had it happen recently to HDDs that have been working perfectly for nearly 2 years I have been able to fix a few of these so far by using a modified Nokia USB Phone Cable, Hyperterminal etc and wasting a few hours, restoring the disk and all the data to a working state, which you can then flash with the firmware update If you have this problem and need your data back, have a look at this video, this is what i followed and it works great http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29FztWJVxbM Seatools that you can download from Seagate can tell you what firmware your running The same method with the Nokia Cable, Hyperterminal can also solve the - 0 LBA error: but the commands you need to enter will be different, you'll need to search google for em If you dont need the data back may as well just RMA it. There are two common errors on Seagate 7200.11 HDDs (caused by bugs on firmware): - 0 LBA error: it happens when your BIOS can recognize your HDD at POST moment, but as an 0MB drive. - BSY error: it happens when your HDD enter on a halt state, or BuSY state. In this condition, your HDD will not be recognized by BIOS at POT

Ragnor

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Reply # 325354 30-Apr-2010 16:31
Yeah I'm sure there a tons of these out there, people who missed the big drama at the time and haven't updated their drives firmware or aren't the tech savvy sort.

reven

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Reply # 325358 30-Apr-2010 16:42
i had four drives with SD16 they all crapped out. ive now switched to western digital drives, so far no problems. www.reven.co.nz

sbiddle

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Reply # 325360 30-Apr-2010 16:47
reven: i had four drives with SD16 they all crapped out. ive now switched to western digital drives, so far no problems. Google the WD Green issues - no idea if they're all solved as I had one die on me a few weeks ago. I've got a spare 7200.11 with SD15 on it, must remember to upgrade it before I reuse it. *Need help configuring your Linksys ATA or IP Phones for New Zealand? Check my blog post

browned

430 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 327819 7-May-2010 19:58
We had a WD RE4 enterprise drive die a couple of weeks into use, that was quickly followed by the replacement failing one day after arrival. Not the best since we had to buy WD as noone else was making 2TB drives at the time. Home Server: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3, AMD FX-6100, 2 x 8GB RAM, 14TB, UPS, 2 x LSI1082E 8 x Port SAS/SATA, 3 x Norco SS-500, ESXi 5u1, WHS 2011 (12TB HDD), W2K8 R2, and XP. Media Center: Silverstone GD01, AMD A6-3600, Asus F1A75-M PRO, 8GB G.Skill Ripjaws-X 1866, 60GB OCZ Vertex 3 + 750GB WD7500BPK HDD, APC UPS, DVB-T AVerTV TwinStar D, Blu-ray player, Windows 7, Media Center, PowerDVD, Freeview HD. Sony KDL40W4000 iDTV. PC: Intel Core2Quad 2.5Ghz, 8GB RAM, 90GB OCZ Agility 3, 750GB WD7500BPK HDD, 23" LCD, Blu-ray drive, Windows 8.

allstarnz

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Reply # 328033 8-May-2010 20:31
yes, been there, done that. Had a 1TB Seagate drive die on me due to dodgy firmware, lost all my data on it. Was very very p_ssed off. Especially because had I known earlier, i'd have been able to update it.

Ragnor

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Reply # 328187 9-May-2010 15:27
With the particular firmware issue we are talking about the data is still there on the drive and can be recovered once you fix the firmware issue (there are various ways to do it) The drive just can't boot/initialise properly because of a full log.

GBristow

157 posts

Master Geek

Reply # 328205 9-May-2010 16:00
I have a 3-4 year old Seagate (3AAJ) which has worked flawlessly. I've never updated the firmware. Is it worth updating at this point?

Ragnor

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Reply # 328215 9-May-2010 16:20
Only certain models were affected by the major problem http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931 http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951&NewLang=en

wreck90

780 posts

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Reply # 328217 9-May-2010 16:29
This is hilarious. Last week, my Seagate 1 gig ST1000340AS (something like that) drive failed with read/sector errors. I don't think it is quite the same prob as above, as the bios would recognise the drive (initially) but I'd get a lot of bad block errors. After a while of semi-functionality, it would drop the bios. So, I upgraded to the new firmware anyway, but still the same read errors. Furiously recovered as much data as I could, and returned the drive. The funny thing is, that I've had 4 drives of this same 'type' (the seagate 7200.11 drives), and every last one failed. I never buy seagate anymore, too many have failed on me and I don't trust them. Unfortunately, my warranty replacements are seagate but I cannot do much about that.

Ragnor

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Reply # 328226 9-May-2010 16:46
Failure rates are actually pretty comparable across the main manufacturers in the industry eg: Seagate, Samsung and Western Digital. Most likely you just got a bad batch, rotten luck.

sbiddle

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Reply # 328230 9-May-2010 16:59
wreck90: This is hilarious. Last week, my Seagate 1 gig ST1000340AS (something like that) drive failed with read/sector errors. I don't think it is quite the same prob as above, as the bios would recognise the drive (initially) but I'd get a lot of bad block errors. After a while of semi-functionality, it would drop the bios. So, I upgraded to the new firmware anyway, but still the same read errors. Furiously recovered as much data as I could, and returned the drive. The funny thing is, that I've had 4 drives of this same 'type' (the seagate 7200.11 drives), and every last one failed. I never buy seagate anymore, too many have failed on me and I don't trust them. Unfortunately, my warranty replacements are seagate but I cannot do much about that. I've had 3 new HDD's all fail on me within a few months of purchase in the past 18 months. Despite them being wonders of technology they are something that can last for 15 years or last for 15 minutes! I'd actually made a decision not to buy Seagate drives and then had a 1TB WDD Green fail with a drive error after a few months as well - maybe it's just me. With the amount of data you can now lose from a HDD failure backups are paramount. *Need help configuring your Linksys ATA or IP Phones for New Zealand? Check my blog post