This firmware issue has been around since late last year, with the fix released in January. They did publicize the issue somewhat, you just have to know where to look (read: tech enthusiast websites). The reason; end users shouldn't be meddling with firmware in the first place; those that do should/would have known the risks of doing so. Quite a lot of people bricked their working 7200.11 in a so-called attempt to "fix" the problem before it happens.
Anyway, here's a link related to plenty of news/discussions regarding the 7200.11 firmware issue.
http://www.google.com/search?sitesearch=techpowerup.com&q=seagate+firmware
@ShadowTek: The issue only affects the 7200.11 range. Older and newer ranges are not affected.
Just to add for everyone; just because you know how to assemble PCs doesn't mean you know how to fix them. That's what technicians are for.
You might want to think again before flashing your Seagate hard drive with whatever firmware the company provides as a 'fix' to pending firmware issues with some of its Barracuda 7200.11 series hard drives. The latest firmware by the company, version SD1A turned many hard drives to paperweights.
If you are affected though, and if both drives aren't already full (if like mine then they probably are ;) ), maybe back up the important bits of on onto the other and try updating them one at a time?Amazing how we manage to fill up our multi-TB drives in no time isn't it? lalalalala :D
Amazing how we manage to fill up our multi-TB drives in no time isn't it? lalalalala :D
The drives in question are fine and do not need a firmware update. I double checked the serial numbers and they do not suffer from the issue that has been mentioned.
@ Eugenet: Great news; sigh of releif for you ;D
@ Chlow6: That's odd; I'm based in Western Europe and was able to get the whole thing done free (including pickup & return by courrier). I know for a fact that the actual retrievel was done in their labs in the Nederlands as I was able to track its progress every day. Can't see a reason why you'd be told to send it to US? What did their serial checker utility tell you to do?
Seems a bit unfair that they aren't willing to pay for shipping from Malaysia :-\
Did you lose much data? For me; it was the photos that were the biggest blow as movies, apps & music can all be downloaded again (albeit with a huge inconvenience overhead!). Stupid, I know, but I'd got photos from the past five or six years on only on my secondary HD (mostly my GF's photos - she's a keen amateur photographer and would have been gutted to lose the lot).
I've ordered two new 500GB WD Caviar Black drives which I'm going to set up in RAID 0 array, then use existing 500GB and 250GB as manual redundancy (manually back up the important files onto them). I was hoping to set up a RAID 10 array but can't really afford a 3rd new HD to make up the 4 HD's I'd need for that :'(
I've ordered two new 500GB WD Caviar Black drives which I'm going to set up in RAID 0 array, then use existing 500GB and 250GB as manual redundancy (manually back up the important files onto them). I was hoping to set up a RAID 10 array but can't really afford a 3rd new HD to make up the 4 HD's I'd need for that :'(Few hundred GB from a 500gb drive but most of them are just games, anime & music. Too bad that you lose your pictures, i would have been hit hard if i was in the same place. Raid array is quite good for data redundancy but very expensive.
I didn't lose anything in the end; got the drive back from Seagate all working and all data intact - Yippee!
dexbot.fallout3 is right; a RAID 0 config alone doesn't offer any redundancy, just speed increase. That's why I'll manually backup to my old HDD's (when my two new ones arrive - looking at watch and tapping foot impatiently!)