[coltrane69]

Wow.... 36 pages and 3 hours later, I'm much more informed and really rooting for Pichi to come up with a cure. Thanks to all of those that have put so much time into this, your effort is much appreciated. Luckily the data on my failed ST31000340AS:SD15:Thailand is not time critical, so I'll be waiting in the wings to see how this all pans out.

It sounds as if Seagate might actually own up to this problem, but I'll only believe that after the first person gets his drive restored.

I'd still much rather spend $20 bucks on electronic parts, and resurrect my drive at home. Please continue your efforts guys, It sure seems like you're not that far off from a solution.


Thanks again everyone, ........keep up the good work.

This post has been edited by coltrane69: 17 January 2009 - 03:20 AM

[pantera]

today, on germany's largest it news site heise online
you can find a reply from seagate about different
harddisk series hangouts. suddenly seagate admits
issues with their harddisk and will offer a tool
to reactivate the affected drives!

greetings
pantera

This post has been edited by pantera: 17 January 2009 - 07:13 AM

[Fuzzy_3D]

pantera, on Jan 17 2009, 04:01 AM, said:

suddenly seagate admits issues with their harddisk and offers now a tool to reactivate the affected drives!

pantera

Can you please link me to the tool that reactivates the drive? I can't find it.

[icefloe01]

The only thing I'm a bit nervous about with whatever they release to update our drives is that it will most likely require a bootdisk to be made so the program can access the drive from a pseudo-DOS environment. That means a reboot. And we know what potentially happens on reboot. I have three 1TB drives that have not failed yet. I feel this most likely due to the fact that I keep my computer on 24/7. The only times I have ever rebooted were either from BSOD's (freakin' X-Fi Xtreme Gamer in Vista 64) or Windows Updates. So on each successive reboot it will take to repair the drives (I'm sure we'll have to do them one at a time), I'm that much closer to losing one or all of them. I wonder if this failure has something to do with these "lists" I have read about that the drive writes to either the disk or the EEPROM. I don't know enough about this end of the technology, so I could be way off base, but maybe there is supposed to be some component of these lists that is supposed to be flushed at either shutdown or power on. If that's the case and they're not always getting cleared properly, maybe that's what is causing the firmware to attempt to write data where it's not supposed to and the drive locks up in "BSY" mode to protect itself. Although that would not explain the few people that have reported it happening while their computer was still running... I don't know, I'm just throwing out some speculation.

This post has been edited by icefloe01: 17 January 2009 - 07:15 AM

[pantera]

Fuzzy_3D, on Jan 17 2009, 01:52 PM, said:

pantera, on Jan 17 2009, 04:01 AM, said:

suddenly seagate admits issues with their harddisk and offers now a tool to reactivate the affected drives!

pantera

Can you please link me to the tool that reactivates the drive? I can't find it.

sorry! concerning $eagate it was a great mistake to write 'offers now'

[Jackie78]

Hi,

I have found the list of drives affected on the seagat website, but no information which firmware versions are affected. Is it me or did Seagate forget to put that on their site?

I have an ST31500341AS, Firmware CC1H, is it affected or not?

[f00kie]

Jackie78, on Jan 17 2009, 11:15 AM, said:

Hi,

I have found the list of drives affected on the seagat website, but no information which firmware versions are affected. Is it me or did Seagate forget to put that on their site?

I have an ST31500341AS, Firmware CC1H, is it affected or not?

They didn't forget, I think it's purposeful. Seagate wants to manage this too, so they get out of it alive. Plus, the 'fix' isn't available yet.

[Kmuland]

hi guys!!

external USB HD with 7200.11 drive also have troubles?

It need the firmware update?

[fatlip]

Here is what has been said so far.

The NEW firmware won't be available until around Tuesday.
The NEW firmware WILL NOT unbrick your drive if it is already in a status where it is not being detected in the BIOS
Seagate will offer Free Recovery Service for a drive that is already bricked with this issue. (According to the official statement)

The only people that the firmware update will help is people with existing working drives, that being said, make sure you backup prior to doing any firmware update.

[kadolf]

fatlip, on Jan 17 2009, 06:50 PM, said:

Seagate will offer Free Recovery Service for a drive that is already bricked with this issue. (According to the official statement)

Good to hear. Hopefully it wasn't just an official statement for the media, but they will realize it for everyone who was affected by the bug(s).

[jpal20002001]

fatlip,

are you going to continue to find a solution?

[fatlip]

Depends on my friends drive. I should be getting it today.

jpal20002001, on Jan 17 2009, 11:20 AM, said:

fatlip,

are you going to continue to find a solution?

[free_electron]

I just got off a chat session with seagate. here is the offical message :

 
If this is in reference to the Seagate Knowledge Base article concerning the certain families
of Seagate and Maxtor hard drives, unfortunately, a firmware update is not available yet. 
Our engineers are currently working on the issue now, and they are looking at having the 
firmware updates available, hopefully at the later part of next week. As to which serial 
numbers of these drives that are affected by this, they are working on a addition to the 
web site for a serial number checker that should be up by Monday. When the serial checker
 is online, you can put in the serial number, and it will tell you if the drive associated with that
 serial number is affected by this firmware issue. If it's not affected, then you'll be good to go.
 If it is affected, it will say so, then you will need to call into 1-800-Seagate, have the model 
number, serial number, and part number ready when you call. Because this is a large issue 
affecting a large number of consumers and partners, we would request that you address this
 issue only when you call, so that we can assist as many as possible and expedite the 
resolution of this issue quickly.
Thank you for contacting Seagate. 

Thank you for using Seagate products. You may now close this window.
 

looks like they are looking at it.

This post has been edited by free_electron: 17 January 2009 - 12:29 PM

[Jackie78]

Hi,

just another question: can anybody please tell me what is technically different between drives with CC1H firmware and SD1A? I know you cannot change them between drives, but what is different in hardware (different number of platters?)

This post has been edited by Jackie78: 17 January 2009 - 01:29 PM

[ivanich]

Whether it is possible to trust seagate techsup?

Hello. How may I help you? 
Ivanich: Hi,can you let me know whether my hard drive is affected? 
Ivanich: Device Model: ST3750330AS 
Serial Number: 9QK0XQN0 
Firmware Version: SD15 
Jason H.: sure let me check for you. 
Jason H.: Your drives should be okay. 
Ivanich: this mean, i don't need firmware update? 
Jason H.: Correct. 
Ivanich: And problems which described on your forums about failing 7200.11 drives - it doesn't happen with my drive? 
Jason H.: Correct it is only certain serial and part numbers. Yours was not one of them.

[Leigh.Wanstead]

What about me living in New Zealand? Should I make a overseas phone call? Where is the seagate New Zealand's support phone call number?

Can anyone posted their firmware update url on this thread to save me to rescue my hard drive quickly? It is so hard to backup nearly 1tb hard drive. It will require around 200 dvd+r disk and lots of time sitting in front of the pc to do backup. I am not against backup. Just I am lazey. I know it is bad. But I think it is ok.

Thanks

Regards
Leigh

free_electron, on Jan 18 2009, 07:28 AM, said:

I just got off a chat session with seagate. here is the offical message :

 
If this is in reference to the Seagate Knowledge Base article concerning the certain families
of Seagate and Maxtor hard drives, unfortunately, a firmware update is not available yet. 
Our engineers are currently working on the issue now, and they are looking at having the 
firmware updates available, hopefully at the later part of next week. As to which serial 
numbers of these drives that are affected by this, they are working on a addition to the 
web site for a serial number checker that should be up by Monday. When the serial checker
 is online, you can put in the serial number, and it will tell you if the drive associated with that
 serial number is affected by this firmware issue. If it's not affected, then you'll be good to go.
 If it is affected, it will say so, then you will need to call into 1-800-Seagate, have the model 
number, serial number, and part number ready when you call. Because this is a large issue 
affecting a large number of consumers and partners, we would request that you address this
 issue only when you call, so that we can assist as many as possible and expedite the 
resolution of this issue quickly.
Thank you for contacting Seagate. 

Thank you for using Seagate products. You may now close this window.
 

looks like they are looking at it.

[PrOdiGy1]

great, have to ring them again! stupid thing is i spent 3 hours on the phone to them about this issue already and they would not acknowledge it!!! i do not want to be going through that again

in terms of the number, it is a freephone number so you should be able to ring it from new zealand if you get the right extension. personally, i am in the UK and i rang it through skype no problems and didnt get charged

[lavan]

If Seagate will recover my data, should I send my disk to them?
I live in Russia, to send the disk abroad cost about 100$. Who will pay for it?

[meihong]

Jackie78, on Jan 17 2009, 11:15 AM, said:

I have an ST31500341AS, Firmware CC1H, is it affected or not?

seagate support says not yet affected, whatever that means

[Leigh.Wanstead]

PrOdiGy1, on Jan 18 2009, 09:52 AM, said:

in terms of the number, it is a freephone number so you should be able to ring it from new zealand if you get the right extension. personally, i am in the UK and i rang it through skype no problems and didnt get charged

I think that Telecom New Zealand still will charge me. I can not find landline term. The reference is for mobile phone.

Reference:
http://www.telecomro...Conditions.aspx

Anyway what is the point for Seagate to ask their customer to call them to get a free firmware? It just waste their resource and my time and money. They want to keep their support center's job? That is the only reason I can think of. I heard from tomshardware that seagate got their staff redunant before this hard drive's problem disclosed.

My college told me that his hard drive was broken which is the exact model mentioned here and he personally sent back to the shop and waiting for Seagate's assessment and not get the drive back now. My understanding is that the good practise the shop should just simply swap a new hard drive for the customer. The shop should not let the customer waiting the hard drive for months.