ALERT - Seagate Firmware Problem - Data at Risk

[billseymour]

Nothing like needing to backup the problematic secure backup *shakes head*.

I have an external 500gb Seagate Free Agent drive. I didn't see any reference to this class of drives being a problem.
Am I correct in this (no reference to Free Agent external drives in the alerts), or has anyone seen a problem with these, as well.

Thanks for info, and for folks bringing the problem to the attention of forum members.
--Bill

[peterkrogh]

Bill,
I'd call Seagate.
Peter

[peterkrogh]

Arlen (and others),
I went back to my records and found that the Seagate drive I returned last October was not on the list (it is a 7200.9 500 GB drive). It experienced the symptoms described - worked fine and then one day would not mount, and I could not recognize the drive with any disk utility, Mac or PC.  The drive was spinning, but it was just not *there*.

I returned the drive, and got a replacement that's working fine.

Whether or not you have this particular problem, it's important to realize that any drive could just stop working at any moment. Don't be left without backup.
Peter

[Arlen]

Yep, good advice. I made sure my two backups were up to date, then followed Seagate's instructions for updating the firmware on my officially affected 1TB drive (model ST31000340AS, with a listed serial number). The update went without problem, and the new firmware is reported as expected. So at least I didn't encounter the updating problems that some of the early updaters did.

[billseymour]

Peter-
Yes, good idea- I'll touch base with Seagate directly. Thanks. --Bill

[BobSmith]

The good news is that drive replacement under warranty is fairly painless if you've maintained proper backups.  In the past year I've had two Seagate and one WD drive go belly up for no apparent reason.  All were replaced under warranty with minimal hassle.  Both Seagate and Western Digital have web sites where you just plug in the serial number and they verify warranty validity.  They'll then print the shipping labels for you.  No time consuming phone calls or lots of paperwork needed.  One of Seagate's service facilities is in Texas so even with ground UPS shipping, I had new replacement drives in less than a week.

For what its worth, I tried accessing service on an older Maxtor drive.  I was forwarded to Seagate's site (where I found that this drive was too old for warranty coverage).  I hadn't realized that Maxtor and Seagate were one in the same now?

Bob Smith

[peterkrogh]

Bob,
Yes, Seagate bought Maxtor a few ears ago.
And I agree, the RMA process is pretty easy (as long as the data is backed up, and all you are asking for is a straight replacement - which it how it should be.)

I've had to return a pretty alarmingly high number of drives in the last 4 months - 3 totally dead, and 3 with SMART status failures. At least one more was out of warranty. I wonder how that will play out as I bring the rest of my drives (I've checked maybe 10, and have 30 or so left to do) through SMART status checking. I'm assuming even more drives with be headed back through RMA.

Peter

[Arlen]

I guess I must be lucky. I've only had two hard drive failures ever. The first was many years ago, so I have to admit I was starting to feel a little complacent. But the second failure hit me last September, and woke me up. A 2-yr-old WD Raptor failed completely, would not spin up, could not be accessed even by recovery software--just sat there clicking. Luckily I had a backup, and WD replaced the drive quickly.

[peterallan]

Hello all,

I have 3 x Seagate Barracuda 7200 1To drives in my Mac Pro.
I checked via the Seagate website and 2 of my 3 drives are affected.
Note that as yet I have had no problems with my drives but I chose to carry out the firmware upgrade.
I have read on various forums that problems are more likely to occur with RAID set-ups, other say the problem happens after 320 boots - whether that is true or not I cannot say.

I am posting here to explain how I successfully carried out the upgrade on my Mac Pro.
The information on firmware upgrade procedure for Macs provided by Seagate is non-existent. If you open the upgrade package downloaded from the Seagate web site you'll only see a Read Me text file and an .exe folder. Mac users will automatically assume (as I did) that the download is therefore not compatible with Macs.
If you follow the instructions and burn the package to CD many Mac users may still not understand that this is a bootable CD - it is !
Mac users may then be surprised by a scary black screen at start up with text - as in the old days of DOS - with commands to enter !!!
Again, Seagate information on what to do next is pathetic (who wrote this ?).
By trial and (no) error I was fortunate to 'stumble' upon how to proceed - see below.

Note that this only works with an INTEL-based Mac.

1/  If you have an affected drive (identification procedure has been well documented elsewhere), download the appropriate file from the Seagate site according to your hard drive model.
On a Mac the download will appear as a 'virtual drive' on the desktop.

2/  Open Disk Utilities > select the virtual drive > burn this element to a new CD

3/  Before proceeding with the update BACK UP ALL DATA ON THE AFFECTED DRIVES.

4/  Load the CD.

5/  Shut down computer.

6/  REMOVE ALL UNAFFECTED DRIVES including any that your system may be on - remember you're booting from the CD so you won't need a drive with a system on.
For safety's sake I removed even the only non-Seagate drive in my Mac Pro.

NOTE :
I actually did the update to each of my two drives individually - i.e. leaving only one drive in at a time. I believe that the upgrade process can be done to two or more drives at the same time. Doing one drive at a time will allow you to check if all went ok before proceeding to the next (instead of maybe destroying both drives).

7/  Re-start holding down the 'C' key to boot off the CD.
Normal blank grey screen appears > then black screen appears with text and command line at bottom (I haven't seen one of these on a Mac for years !)
The text on the screen is the same as the contents of the Read Me text file on the downloaded 'virtual drive'.
___________

Just for info…
Most Mac users won't understand what to do next - I didn't. Don't worry !
I just about understood from the intro text that you could find the way to start the process by hitting one of the F keys.
I did all from F1 to F10.

it's F10 that works.
___________

8/  Type F10 - A new screen appears with more text.
The text provides choices - A), B) and C) in my case - which correspond to the different drive model types.
In my case my drive model type was choice C.

9/  Type the letter which corresponds to your affected drive model on the keyboard and then press ENTER (if your drive model is choice A, type A etc.).
You should see a new line of text which states that the data is being downloaded (to the drive).
This is the update taking place.
DO NOT DO ANYTHING during the process - DO NOT POWER DOWN.

NOTE :
When I carried out the update on the second of my drives, I entered F10 and was not quick enough to select choice C - it did it automatically.
This suggests that the procedure automatically detects the drive you have. In my case it selected choice C - the correct one.

It took about 20-30 seconds before another line of text appears saying that power should be cycled (i.e. restart computer).
The update has been performed.

10/  Hit any key to shut down computer.

11/  Re-insert your system drive (if that wasn't one of the affected drives)

12/  Re-start Mac normally.

You can check the firmware revision number via Get Info for your Mac. The new firmware should be SD1A.

Proceed as above for any other affected drive (remembering to take out all unaffected drives).


I Hope this helps Mac users - It worked for me.
Naturally I take no responsability if this does not work for others !

Regards,

Peter Allan

Mac Pro 2x2.8 GHz, 8 Go RAM

[BoglePhoto]

What is not comforting is that the bad drive identifier does not tell you what models are affected, and you punch in the model and S/N and it tells you either there is something wrong with the information entered, or it is not affected. Not the warmest fuzzy you could want, and it appears from all forums that there is no universal solution. I thought it might be best to try to upgrade the firmware just in case for the drive, but from what I have read, that is a serious no no. It will freeze your working drive. So I have three drives still in plastic and the box, ready to go into a PM box, and am wondering if it is worth while to do so. I can tell you that my externals are going to remain as the primary and secondary backup, as well as DVD's before I trust anything on these drives. It is a shame to say that after shelling out over $300 for these 750GB (2) and 1TB drives. UGH!!!!!

Thanks for the warnings and information.

Bill Bogle, Jr.

[peterkrogh]

Bill,
If you feel like you are not getting enough information from Seagate's website, give them a call and talk to a human.

Don't get too worked up about it.  No drive should be trusted all by itself, unfortunately.

Peter

[James Lauritz]

I don't know the serial number of my 750GB Seagate drive because it failed miserably December 22 last year and has since been replaced in my Windows Vista 64 system. Only 2 months old, with no warning, it just failed to boot up (as it was the system drive) in the morning and when removed and tested, the partitions had been corrupted to render all data irretrievable.

Pete's right.  Don't trust any drive by itself.

James Lauritz

[RGK]

Note to billseymour:

Yes, there are problems with Seagate Free Agent externals. Although I have several of their internal and external disks, I bought a Free Agent 1 TB FW/USB late last year. Files written to the drive disappear in the finder; diagnostics reveal directory damage. Upon repair, the cycle will just continue. Exhausted tech support and got another drive via warranty exchange, but this drive follows the same pattern and one of the partition volumes won't even mount now.

Note another owner having the same issues on this forum:
http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-3186-0.html?forumID=4&threadID=56614&messageID=1070957&start=0

Other Seagate FW and USB drives connected to this G5 tower are not affected. Seagate has sent me some software to further diagnose the issue; will post the results later.

I wouldn't get my hopes up on getting a phone call answered at SG as I have made many calls and hung up after 25 minutes each.

Rocky Kneten

[billseymour]

Rocky-
Thanks for the update, and for any further info you may run across. My Seagate external is over 1 year old (500 gb, before the 750 and 1 TB drives came out), and so far (knock wood), I have had no problems. Perhaps the problems are associated with the newer 'big drives'.

I'll keep an eye on developments in this thread. Thanks again.
--Bill

[David_E]

Hi, all.  The model number on the box may not be the same model number on the sticker attached to the drive.  I bought three of the 500 GB drives from Chicago's Microcenter about a month ago.  In all cases the SERIAL NUMBER on the drive matches the one on the box, but the MODEL NUMBERS do not match.  Something made me keep the boxes, and also prompted me to copy all of the details of the drive's sticker onto 3x5 cards attached to the enclosures.  (I'm now very glad I did, though I suppose putting the drive on the photocopier would have done even better.) Two of my drives are affected, so, like others, I'm now burning DVDs of everything on them before undertaking the firmware updates. 
David_E.