Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Latest news is supposedly new firmware out next Tuesday (unless that's more BS from their support people) and ... Oops, the lawyers are beginning to gather...
Warning: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11
- Thread starter Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
- Start date
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Looks like the power of the internet has finally kicked Seagate in the nuts and got them to do something.
To keep everyone updated, Seagate have finally owned up to the issue here. Various news reports are also saying that Seagate will retrieve people's data for free (which is likely to be resetting the BUSY status and loading the new firmware, so not an actual full restoration is not necessary).
However, people (myself included) that have tried to get the firmware from Seagate Technical Support are being told that there is no firmware available until the next few days. I was told to try back again next Tuesday.
To keep everyone updated, Seagate have finally owned up to the issue here. Various news reports are also saying that Seagate will retrieve people's data for free (which is likely to be resetting the BUSY status and loading the new firmware, so not an actual full restoration is not necessary).
However, people (myself included) that have tried to get the firmware from Seagate Technical Support are being told that there is no firmware available until the next few days. I was told to try back again next Tuesday.
Babel-17
Veteran
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
It's a bit disingenuous to say there's no data loss. For the customer there's little difference between the data being there and inaccessible, and not being there at all. The only advantage is that you can spend a lot of money to get your data back if you really are desperate. It's kind of like saying "well, your data is still on the platters, just the motors are burnt out. If you pay someone a thousand bucks, you can get your data back."
This is why Seagate offering a recovery is a big deal, but when you think about it, it's just a reset of a busy state, so it's actually pretty easy for them to do in comparison to a full restore. There are guys who have made a little serial terminal for a few dollars and could do this if they had all the right commands from Seagate. I'm sure Seagate with all the right connectors can reset a drive in a couple of seconds.
What's really annoying is it's taken the affected customers going to war to get Seagate to sort it out. Seagate kept insisting there was no problems, ignored customers, deleted their messages, and even now won't tell you that you need this upgrade to prevent bricking, just that "it's good to have the latest firmware" (in direct contravention to what they say on their support site about not upgrading drives for the sake of it).
It doesn't help people like myself who have already lost drives and data, and until I get the new firmware I'll still be worried despite backing up onto a second drive (and yes there have been a few reports of dual drives bricking at the same time). More fool me for trusting a big industry name to test their products properly, and respond promptly to major issues.
This is why Seagate offering a recovery is a big deal, but when you think about it, it's just a reset of a busy state, so it's actually pretty easy for them to do in comparison to a full restore. There are guys who have made a little serial terminal for a few dollars and could do this if they had all the right commands from Seagate. I'm sure Seagate with all the right connectors can reset a drive in a couple of seconds.
What's really annoying is it's taken the affected customers going to war to get Seagate to sort it out. Seagate kept insisting there was no problems, ignored customers, deleted their messages, and even now won't tell you that you need this upgrade to prevent bricking, just that "it's good to have the latest firmware" (in direct contravention to what they say on their support site about not upgrading drives for the sake of it).
It doesn't help people like myself who have already lost drives and data, and until I get the new firmware I'll still be worried despite backing up onto a second drive (and yes there have been a few reports of dual drives bricking at the same time). More fool me for trusting a big industry name to test their products properly, and respond promptly to major issues.
Dont think this has been posted yet, so:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/technology/business-computing/13seagate.html?_r=2
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/technology/business-computing/13seagate.html?_r=2
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Yeah, that was from last week. If you've ever read any interviews with Watkins, he's basically a self-publicist ass, and he's been failing to ensure the company executes. The massive failure of the current 7200.11 line and corresponding stock price drop was probably the final push over the edge. This last month as the 7200.11 screwups have come to light will hurt Seagate for years. Not just costs for replacements and repair, but lost business for years to come.
That's what happens when you put out products with 40-50 percent failure rate and then spend months covering it up while you continue to sell your broken junk to your (soon to be ex-) customers.
That's what happens when you put out products with 40-50 percent failure rate and then spend months covering it up while you continue to sell your broken junk to your (soon to be ex-) customers.
hoom
Veteran
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931
According to this KB article, its not just Seagate 7200.11s, they list several model types & lists model numbers:
Barracuda 7200.11
DiamondMax 22
Barracuda ES.2 SATA
SV35
They say to contact by email (need a login to the seagate website for that) including model number, serial number and current firmware revision & they will reply with presumably the relevant firmware revision required.
Or call the local office.
Looks like my 2 * 1TB drives are included so its a call to the local office for me tomorrow lunch time.
Me, I guess I've just been somewhat lucky but I've experienced ***gripping my wooden pencil because I'm pretty sure that my fibre-board desk doesn't really count as wood*** no HDD failures ever so-far (give or take one that I gave to my flatmate & seems to have failed shortly after this).
I've only ever actually bought Seagates too.
According to this KB article, its not just Seagate 7200.11s, they list several model types & lists model numbers:
Barracuda 7200.11
DiamondMax 22
Barracuda ES.2 SATA
SV35
They say to contact by email (need a login to the seagate website for that) including model number, serial number and current firmware revision & they will reply with presumably the relevant firmware revision required.
Or call the local office.
Looks like my 2 * 1TB drives are included so its a call to the local office for me tomorrow lunch time.
Me, I guess I've just been somewhat lucky but I've experienced ***gripping my wooden pencil because I'm pretty sure that my fibre-board desk doesn't really count as wood*** no HDD failures ever so-far (give or take one that I gave to my flatmate & seems to have failed shortly after this).
I've only ever actually bought Seagates too.
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Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Don't bother yet, as there is currently no new firmware available. It's possibly going to be available on Tuesday (national holiday in the US on Monday), but I've also heard "towards the end of next the week".
I spoke to US support on Friday night, and they told me my drives needed updating, but to try back first thing next week to see if they had the new firmware.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
You either won't get the email, or you'll get a link to the KB article that tells you to "contact support". That's what I got from email, along with another email telling me to reset the drive size and zero the drive - the usual not-actually-read-your-email response from support staff that are asleep at the wheel.
Seagate are basically still a mess. They have a new serial checker on line that tells me my drives are safe, but a couple of days ago their US support told me that my drives needed updating. Other people are finding the serial checker tells them their drives are unaffected by the problem - even though the drives are already bricked.
Keep us up to date on how you get on with your email.
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They've started posting the new firmware for selected models publically. My 500GB is in the first batch here: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
A lot of people are saying the updater won't run because it won't detect certain hardware revisions of these drives, even though Seagate says they need updating. Looks like another Seagate screwup. The headers on the updater say it's for all revisions of the drive, but some of the notes say it's only for the earlier revisions, so it's looks like it's been hacked together badly. It's just one screwup after another from Seagate.
I know I had a 303 drive die, and people are saying they can't update 303 drives with this firmware.
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If it wasn't for Bouncing Zabaglione Bros. and this thread I would have been oblivious to this problem. Just wanna thank you guys for the info. My next HDD will not be a Seagate. I just can't help but wonder about the people who've purchased these HDDs who will never know about this problem until they lose a bunch of data. It's not like Seagate can notify owners like car manufacturers can.
Is there anyway to put the ISO file onto a bootable flash drive instead of burning to a CD?
Is there anyway to put the ISO file onto a bootable flash drive instead of burning to a CD?
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Probably if you extract the files from the ISO, but I wouldn't recommend it with something like drive firmware. It might just not work unless the OS used to boot the ISO can talk to USB and read the filesystem.
There is software to write these kinds of boot images to a USB drive. When your PC boots from the CD/Floppy/Thumb Drive it'll basically be working from a FreeDOS RAM drive. Shouldn't be an issue depending on your mobo/bios capabilities.
I gave it a go and the flash program wouldn't run. I got the drive not found message, I think because my Serial number did not match the one expected. Booted and scanned fine, just wouldn't apply firmware update. My drive is still working fine for now.
I gave it a go and the flash program wouldn't run. I got the drive not found message, I think because my Serial number did not match the one expected. Booted and scanned fine, just wouldn't apply firmware update. My drive is still working fine for now.
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