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New 7200.11 symptom (firmware update only)


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So far, this applies only to those who just did a firmware update/upgrade to SD1A, without requirement of 0 LBA or BSY fixes.

It seems more and more reports are coming from those who just did an update/upgrade to SD1A. I was thinking on possibility on bads (AD14, SD15, SD16, SD17, SD18 and SD19) firmwares didn't write well the "journal sector" (I'll use this term) while those drives were operating before upgrading to the fixed SD1A.

If this is confirmed, then it explains why we read more and more reports talking about getting BSOD errors on Vista and unable to perform a new format to re-install Vista, leaving the drive unusable. There are also error reports while using Linux too.

From Seagate:

http://stx.lithium.com/stx/board/message?b...ing&page=10

This is my experience with this problem so far:

I completed a successful firmware upgrade on my ST31000340AS one week ago after receiving problems of an I/O device error in Windows Vista when I tried to access my data on the harddrive. Now, one week later, I am completely unable to access my harddrive. BIOS will not detect it.

Anyone else?

I have a computer w/ one ST3500320AS drive.

I went ahead and updated the firmware (to SD1A).

Everything seemed to be stable, but then I started getting blue screens (Vista x64) after a few days.

I got really upset and said: oh well... lets try to do a clean Windows Vista installation.

I did just that and noticed that after I start the Vista installation, it's not able to format the drive.

At the moment, the drive is unusable since I cannot format or reinstall Windows at all.

I tried setting the BIOS to either AHCI or ATA, but none worked. Please note that the BIOS does see the drive.

Looking at some other forum posts, I think this has to do w/ the I/O errors people reported regarding the firmware update (for the exact same model).

Seagate, do you have any known issues w/ the SD1A firmware update? Can you check this issue out (more poeple reported it) and revalidate the update?

I'm writing this from a friend's laptop, since my only computer is just a piece of metal atm.

A topic I opened few days ago has been deleted with no reason.

I was talking about a problem with ICH9R and two disks in RAID...

Sometimes the computer freezes, an event says "Device\Ide\IaStor0... not responding" and the RAID starts rebuilding or the disk is marked as offline.

Three or four persons seem to have the same problem and was explaining their problem before the removal of the topic.

This problem started with the new (second) firmware : SD1A.

I don't know why the topic has been deleted ?

Does Seagate want to ignore the problem or is it because the problem wasn't explained here ?

I flashed both of my ST31000340AS drives on the22nd and one died on the 30th, or it got so bad that mdadm pulled it from service anyway.. Several SMART errors were logged, including two reported uncorrectable. I'm going to bring the drive in to work tomorrow to run some tests and maybe do a low level format with SeaTools, but I'm not expecting much. This is getting tiring.
I have downloaded SD1A and tried to flash my ST3500320AS HDD. HDD had previously problems when I run Linux reporting some I/O errors. I have 2nd HDD als Seagate but is 250GB and it is somehow old. I have Windows Vista on him and problems still rise from time to time having no access to ST3500320AS from Vista or during startup BIOS recognizing. Yesterday I have returned all settings to BIOS to non-overclocked and I couldn't update to SD1A saying that can't detect Seagate drive model ST3500320AS. Does anybody else have this problem too?

More reports:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/messag...;thread.id=8569

Edited by Gradius2
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Important steps to follow:

- Always keep your OS updated;

- Check your HDD for any possible error (like cmd > chkdsk, or similar);

- Keep your drivers updated, specially drivers for SATA controller chipset;

- Always use a good anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall, and keep them all updated;

- Whenever possible keep a backup of your most precious data;

- If using Windows, keep the registry as clean as possible (for example: Registry Booster, or Registry Mechanic, or CClean [is freeware], or other).

To speed up a bit:

- Clear your browser cache (aka Temporary Internet Files), etc;

- Remove programs you don't use or need anymore;

- Remove services you don't use or need anymore;

- Remove auto-startups (msconfig) you don't use or need anymore;

- Use defrag disk like diskeeper (or your favourite tool).

Gradius

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How would optimizing the OS affect the HDD? if indeed it's a journaling problem (does NTFS use journaling?) Anyways, I've got BOTH 7200.11 500GB running on SD1A now (one of up unbricked using your solution, thanks!), I have a 640 GB Western D for my important files, and using Drive Image to back up the OS drive to newly unbricked drive. Seagate's such a b***h.

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How would optimizing the OS affect the HDD? if indeed it's a journaling problem (does NTFS use journaling?) Anyways, I've got BOTH 7200.11 500GB running on SD1A now (one of up unbricked using your solution, thanks!), I have a 640 GB Western D for my important files, and using Drive Image to back up the OS drive to newly unbricked drive. Seagate's such a b***h.

The real part of the OS <between> HDD is on SATA controller drivers, keep this always updated with most stable release.

The others are hints to keep your computer running fine and responsive.

About NTFS and journal, yes:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc781134.aspx

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great, so after all the work to bring our drives back (still waiting on the cable to fix mine) they are crapping out again?

It's looking like that. :wacko::rolleyes:

We'll know more in coming weeks.

Edited by Gradius2
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only to get this straight:

i have 4 identical st3500320AS drives, all were bought with SD15 firmware, 2 'died' with the BSY error, i was able to revive them via Gradius2's solution (thank you so much) then i immediately updated the firmware to SD1A in order to avoid that happening again...so i updated ALL 4 drives (at that time i did not know about this new symptom...).

now i just did a request here:

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207931

(click on 3.)

SNo Serial number Result Action

1 9QM62R7J Drive is affected. Proceed with Step 4.

2 9QM61Q0V Drive is affected. Proceed with Step 4.

3 9QM7FVZH Drive is affected. Proceed with Step 4.

4 9QM60X1V Drive is not affected. No action required.

now my question:

since i updated all 4 drives, is there danger especially for the 2 other drives, which did not yet have the BSY problem? also drive 4, which, after seagates information, does not even have this firmware-problem, but i still did an update to SD1A?

im getting more and more confused and this whole thing gets more and more ridiculous!!!!!!

regards,

cmburns

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Hi cmburns,

I tried to access the link, but it was just impossible, it never appeared here, perhaps is under overload.

You're not the only one disappointed with Seagate, I'm sure the company will suffer a big drop on profit, personally after all this I don't think I'll buy another Seagate product, specially with that kind of support they provided to the users when this thing "exploded".

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  • 2 months later...

well... looks like my 7200.11 got screwed up again... quite royally too this time. I've got 2 7200.11 500 GBs, one of them which died from the BSY and rescued, both of them were flashed with SD1A. The one which didn't die had Vista on it, and starting 2 months ago I was seeing some bad sectors, which gradually got worse. chkdsk /v /f didn't do much to fix it and Vista's event logs have numerous entries which states that it has bad blocks and there are corrupted file reports everywhere. Looks like I had better RMA that unit :(

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  • 2 months later...

Dear friends,

my HardDrive (Seagate ST3500320AS - 7200.11 - 500 GB - 3,5'' FW SD81 - Purchase Date : 11. Feb. 2009) had the BSY Error and is unbricked now. :rolleyes:

Sorry for this question, but I am very confused:

Will the FW-Update SDA1 prevent the HDD from further Errors or not ?

I see some messages in here that makes me think about.

Should I do the Update or not ??? :unsure:

Greetings

JDz

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