Community: Hang out with the Boleh family > General Discussion
Warning to Seagate 7200.11 hard drive owners
geebox07:
Hi Eugenet,
I'm no technical expert, and the guys above may be right about the dangers of a firmware update; I believe it can lead to you 'bricking' your drive if you don't follow the steps exactly.
Apparently; Seagate release an initial 'patch' that actually stuffed up the hard drives even more (caused them to fail immediately, or 'bricked' them). They subsequently released another patch which was 'safer' to perform. However, certain drives (I believe the 500GB series in particular) are still susceptible to failure when the 'patch' is applied.
I'd DEFINITELY recommend that you contact Seagate (I think I entered this route via the support page on their website - direct email address - discsupport@seagate.com) and ask them to advise. They offered to 'guide me through' a firmware update (until I told them it had already bricked) but I believe that they are also willing to perform the update themselves if you send the drive off (DEFINITELY THE SAFEST OPTION).
However, if you did/do attempt a firmware update yourself and it goes wrong (bricks your drive), they'll perform a free data recovery for you at their labs.
Whatever you decide to do, I'd BACKUP your important data before you try anything whilst your drive still works ;-)
eugenet:
Thanks buddy, that clarifies. But a bit expensive to backup 2 x 1.5TB... ;D
FYI, Samsung has 1.5TB drives that is RM100 cheaper than Seagate. Also, prices for the 2TB drives are dropping fast. Soon it will be cheaper (RM per GB wise) to use them.
dexbot.fallout3:
eugenet, if you've checked the serial numbers with Seagate and they tell you "no action is required", then your drives are probably manufactured AFTER the whole debacle, in which case it already comes with the new firmware.
Off topic: I bought a Samsung 1.5TB recently and it is surprisingly fast, runs cool and silent too. The only thing that bugs me is that there aren't any quick online serial number checks for Samsung products; you have to email them.
The 2TB drives will not be value-for-money anytime soon, though. By the time it does, a 4TB drive will already be available, and minimum HDD capacities will probably be around 1TB. :)
geebox07:
Dexbot.fallout3 is right; i forgot to mention it but there is a serial number checking facility on the Seagate support pages which will determine if you need take any action.
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?
Best of luck ;D
dexbot.fallout3:
--- Quote from: geebox07 on September 06, 2009, 10:38:47 PM ---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?
--- End quote ---
Amazing how we manage to fill up our multi-TB drives in no time isn't it? lalalalala :D
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