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Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Troubles

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mikesw

mikesw

Posted
Posted (edited)

Here is a list of RAID controllers having issues with the ES2 line of seagate drives with fixes to the firmware

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=741652

And other links.

Seagate firmware AN05 for ST31000340NS, ST3750330NS, ST3500320NS, ST3250310NS

Seagate firmware AN05 for ST31000340NS, ST3750330NS, ST3500320NS, ST3250310NS

Only work with NS but Not AS

Use this link if you have the ST31000340NS (1 TB model ) and/or ST3750330NS (750GB model) drives.

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support...B-3D4DMoose.iso

Use this link if you have the ST3500320NS (500GB model) or ST3250310NS (250 GB model) drives.

http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support...C-1D2DMoose.iso

And, Adaptecs Knowledge base says this.

http://ask.adaptec.com/scripts/adaptec_tic...amp;p_topview=1

So what's the difference between firmware SNxx and ANxx? where xx is a number.

You'll also see at the bottom of the adaptec link a link to known problems with 7200.11 SATA drives with their RAID

controllers.

Perhaps, it may be helpful to search the knowledge bases of all RAID controller manufacturers since they will

get the latest info from the drive manufacturers about known problems and solutions for a given HDD type and/or

interface type. This will provide an indirect means to find solutions and may provide more insight into all

the different problems ones HDD drives can have for a given part number whether one uses RAID or not.

Here's some info from 3ware.com on their RAIDS for ES drives.

This Seagate ES series (ES series include ST3750640NS 750GB, ST3500630NS 500GB, ST3400620NS 400GB, ST3320620NS 320GB, and ST3250620NS/820NS 250GB) with older code (fw 3.AEE) might exhibit drive off-line after many occurrences of cable CRC errors under direct attached configuration. Please contact Seagate for latest drive firmware.

For all SATA type drives, 3ware.com says the SATA controller auto-negotiation for 150 or 300 mb/s speed may

not always be reliable which could tell the BIOS the drives aren't there when the port gets locked. My guess

is it may appear as a hardware hang and the busy light always on due to lockup - especially during BIOS POST.

It could be a simple race condition triggered by the auto-neg: it's to bad that it took so long to trigger this though.

Can someone jumper their drive that they are having problems with in this thread for a) no-jumper - auto-neg,

b ) 150 mb/s and c ) 300 mb/s with the jumper set and see if their symptoms change for one of these settings?

Edited by mikesw
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icefloe01

icefloe01

Posted
Posted
So what's the difference between firmware SNxx and ANxx? where xx is a number.

In another thread from somewhere else in the cloud (maybe this forum maybe Seagate, I can't remember) ANxx series firmware is for SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives and SNxx is for SATA drives. Both series of firmware are only for the ES.2 drives. These are the drives that end with NS instead of AS. Because of the advanced features of these drives for enterprise use, your drive will be bricked if you use their firmware on the AS series.

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mikesw

mikesw

Posted
Posted (edited)
So what's the difference between firmware SNxx and ANxx? where xx is a number.

In another thread from somewhere else in the cloud (maybe this forum maybe Seagate, I can't remember) ANxx series firmware is for SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) drives and SNxx is for SATA drives. Both series of firmware are only for the ES.2 drives. These are the drives that end with NS instead of AS. Because of the advanced features of these drives for enterprise use, your drive will be bricked if you use their firmware on the AS series.

Although, I think the Seagate firmware installer (like the PC BIOS firmware installer) will not only check

the hardware manufacturer, but also the manufacturers part number and complain that it is incompatible.

The same applies to CD/DVD firmware updates too for a given manufacturer.

This prevents me from updating a Seagate with Maxtor firmware, and updating Seagate PATA vs. SATA, and

even for a given SATA HDD part number etc with the wrong firmware.

Edited by mikesw
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poolcarpet

poolcarpet

Posted
Posted

They can do that, I will continue to post to ask people to come here to discuss. Is that in violation of their T&Cs? I'm sick of Sh*tgate's response and handling of this matter to be really honest.

Unless they close off my account, I will continue to visit *that* forum and ensure as many people as possible find their way HERE. And may I suggest everyone else who still has a login in that forum do the same.

Here we can discuss all the details/technicalities without our posts being deleted/modified and yet the admin claims that no posts of technical content was modified.

Hey poolcarpet, I've just noticed that your most recent posts on the official seagate forum (asking other people with similar problems to come over to this forum) have been deleted..

I guess your initiative for gathering as many data as possible on the failures has struck a sensitive chord ;)

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Nichev

Nichev

Posted
Posted

I am yet another victim of the disappearing hard-drive...

I just got off the phone with seagate, I waited nearly an hour to get to a human. I told the rep about my problem and that I am not the only one, who is experiencing it, but he wouldn't acknowledge that it was a bigger issue. I was given a soft sales pitch for the data recovery service option ($1000 ha!) even though I told him it wasn't realistic for me. I feel pretty ripped off by seagate, I will definitely not be buying another one of their drives...

I asked about the RMA options, it looks like I have to pay for shipping my drive. The kicker is that they replace the drive with a refurb, and they can't guarantee that the problem will not return...

So, what do I do? RMA it or hope for a fix? Ebay the refurb and buy myself something else? This is pretty frustrating...

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Styleman

Styleman

Posted
Posted (edited)

On a more serious note than my previous post....

This isn't one guys fault (Alan M) although it's easy to view it as such.

From a legal position, Seagate is better off not admitting they are aware of a problem. This is because if they are aware of a widespread product flaw and not doing anything, this makes them liable. You can bet Seagate trains their front line phone support staff not to take accountability or acknowledge these types of scenarios. Seagate may be holding out to see if only certain production batches are affected before acting.

Or maybe they only plan to act if a class action lawsuit rears its ugly head.

A class action lawsuit forces a company to live up to their obligations, however in this case, I am not sure what those obligations are. Seagate *is* offering to RMA the drive, and loss of data is generally not their problem in most situations. We are trying to make the data loss Seagate's problem by proving they are continuing to sell a product that is prone to failure in a specific way, leaving their customers vunerable and at a risk level that is much higher than expected.

Anyone care to talk to a greedy lawyer to see if we have a solid case?

I would think we would need a significant amount of people all with the same issue to convince a lawyer to do anything. The value of the drive is between $70 - $150 and the value of the data restore is about $1000 which may or may not be relevant. The value of company downtime may also play a factor.

Posted by icefloe01:

"SD15 is the most recent firmware for these drives and there is no knowledge of anyone working on a new firmware for any reason at all. The guy I talked to even works in the same office with AllenM (Seagate forum mod.) and said he hasn't mentioned anything about any unusual drive problems that need to be addressed. In other words, Seagate has been made aware of the problem, yet they are unaware of the problem.

Once again that wretched AllenM!

Edited by Styleman
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DerSnoezie

DerSnoezie

Posted
Posted (edited)
I am yet another victim of the disappearing hard-drive...

I just got off the phone with seagate, I waited nearly an hour to get to a human. I told the rep about my problem and that I am not the only one, who is experiencing it, but he wouldn't acknowledge that it was a bigger issue. I was given a soft sales pitch for the data recovery service option ($1000 ha!) even though I told him it wasn't realistic for me. I feel pretty ripped off by seagate, I will definitely not be buying another one of their drives...

I asked about the RMA options, it looks like I have to pay for shipping my drive. The kicker is that they replace the drive with a refurb, and they can't guarantee that the problem will not return...

So, what do I do? RMA it or hope for a fix? Ebay the refurb and buy myself something else? This is pretty frustrating...

Hi Nichev, could you please add your data to the following list?:

SerialNumber:Model:P/N:Firmware:DateCode:SiteCode:PurchaseDate:FailedDate:USername

===========================================================

9QM7VZBP:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09146 (09/Oct/2008):KRATSG:Oct2008:24Dec2008:poolcarpet

9QM6X90B:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09115 (17/Sep/2008):KRATSG:Oct2008:28Dec2008:DaftMule

9QM6W2JE:ST3500320AS: - :SD15: - : - :5Dec2008:19Dec2008:DerSnoezie

9QM4G4PK:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08503 (16/Jun/2008):KRATSG:Aug2008:Nov2008:dskbrk

9QM3RWHJ:ST3500320AS:9BX154-568:SD81:08464 (20/May/2008):KRATSG:Aug2008:23Dec2008:ToKuRo

9QM7KSQJ:ST3500320AS:9BX154-501:SD15:09134 (30/Sep/2008):KRATSG:28Oct2008:07Jan2009:jeroen__online

9QM2MFS6:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:08406 (10/Apr/2008):KRATSG:12Apr2008:23Dec2008:quattro150

Edited by DerSnoezie
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PrOdiGy1

PrOdiGy1

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just registered on here as the official forums have become farcical now. The mods keep saying how the forums are not customer support bla bla, but when you get no support whatsoever by email (or just a bog standard almost automated reply) and the phone lines just deny ever hearing of the problem (which is pure and utter nonsense - i spent 2-3 hours on the phone with them and they even hung up on me twice! they simply kept telling me it hasn't been flagged as a problem by their engineers which again i find to be ludicrous considering the number of people even in this thread that have called them about it), where else do they expect us to voice our concerns over one of their products? the behaviour of the mods over there is simply unacceptable.

Anyway, I ordered my drive back on around October 13th, had it installed in a system about a week later and then had it die (sort of) like all the others in here with the infamous BIOS disappearing act on December 14th. I had quite a lot of data on there and i acknowledge that it was my responsibility to back up properly, but knowing now there is a clear manufacturer error with these drives, i am simply not willing to take ALL the responsibility for this and Seagate really need to step up with something or they are going to be getting a lot of undesired attention in the coming months. I do not care really about my lost data, but it angers me to think of how many other people are having this failure and having to shell out to get it fixed. so many less technically minded people would not even think to look for a solution online on a forum like this and will no doubt get conned out of their money for data recovery services. All the while, this product is continued to be sold, lining the pockets of seagate! totally and utterly unacceptable and i cannot see how this can be allowed to continue. there must be some industry regulator (like ofcom for telecoms) that can be notified about this surely?

I would not have so much of a problem with the situation if they announced they were working hard towards solving it, but their current behaviour is irresponsible, AT BEST.

I am no longer willing to let seagate hide this problem and continue raking in the £££ at the expense of pc users. I will be writing to newspapers, magazines, retailers and watchdog (UK) to ensure that the spotlight is drawn on this issue and i am sure if enough of us do this, then something will get published eventually. It might not help us get our data back, but it will ensure nobody else has to go through the rubbish we have.

Oh and the details of my drive for the list (bear in mind it was not delivered or installed till about 10 days after purchase):

9QM717SF:ST3500320AS:9BX154-303:SD15:09114:KRATSG:13Oct2008:14Dec2008:PrOdiGy1

Edited by PrOdiGy1
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