Seagate Firmware Update for Barracuda 7200.11

[Starman]

Seagate offers fix, free data recovery for bricked Barracudas
by Cyril Kowaliski — 3:54 PM on January 16, 2009

Well, how about that. Seagate has acknowledged the bricking issue surrounding Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives, and it's trying to make things right by offering a firmware fix and data recovery services. Here's the full statement we received from company spokesman Mike Hall:

Seagate has isolated a potential firmware issue in certain products, including some Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives and related drive families based on this product platform, manufactured through December 2008. In some circumstances, the data on the hard drives may become inaccessible to the user when the host system is powered on*.

As part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, we are offering a free firmware upgrade to those with affected products. To determine whether your product is affected, please visit the Seagate Support web site at Seagate Knowledge Base.

Support is also available through Seagate's call center: 1-800-SEAGATE (1 800 732-4283)

Customers can expedite assistance by sending an email to Seagate (discsupport@seagate.com). Please include the following disk drive information: model number, serial number and current firmware revision. We will respond, promptly, to your email request with appropriate instructions. There is no data loss associated with this issue, and the data still resides on the drive. But if you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services. Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business.

For a list of international telephone numbers to Seagate Support and alternative methods of contact, please access Seagate Technology - Contact Us

*There is no safety issue with these products.

The free data recovery for already-bricked hard drives seems like a nice touch, especially considering the cost of third-party services. According to the knowledge base entry, though, the issue may affect a fairly large number of drive models—not just the 1TB four-platter drive we talked about earlier this week. Seagate recommends that users with 1.5TB, 750GB, 640GB, 500GB, 320GB, and 160GB Barracuda 7200.11 drives, along with some Maxtor and ES.2 models, all install the firmware update.

Update: Seagate has amended its statement to remove the following sentence: "Retail products potentially affected include the Seagate FreeAgent® Desk and Maxtor OneTouch® 4 storage solutions." We've put up the new statement above.

Seagate offers fix, free data recovery for bricked Barracudas - The Tech Report

Firmware Recommendations for Seagate Drives [207931] - Seagate Knowledge Base

 

[Kryten]

Ah, you beat me to it Starman
These units have been dropping like flies, with quite literally a 1 out of 2 failure rate. Glad to see Seagate are taking the hint and doing something about it. Their drives are normally fairly solid but of course problems like this have plagued all manufacturers at some stage in their lives.
In the meantime though, just posted a decent price for a 1TB samsung unit from Scan in the deal of the week thread.

 

[Bodhi]

Err, al my media is on a 500Gb Barracuda 11, and the only thing I have to back it up to, is a 500Gb FreeAgent Go

 

[Kryten]

Not actually had any issues come up with those as yet Bodes.

Come to think of it, wonder what my 250gb backup drive comes under - it's a Barracuda ES (enterprise level) drive - suspect its either a .10 or .11 unit but either way, it served as my OS drive for an age and runs as backup now without problem.

 

[Starman]

If you have one of the affected units then the best thing is not to reboot until you can get the firmware update.

 

[smurkin]

Samsung spinpoint ...


[groan] I just bought two of those from ocuk ... 4 quid more each ... theyve been in the warehouse queue for a week now - wonder if I should cancel - in fact I wonder if theres a problem with ocuk, as I never had to wait in the past....

 

[Kryten]

smurkin, the spinpoints or the barracudas? If the latter and they're being delayed get in touch with them and enquire as to the reason. You never know, they might be flashing the firmwares for you or changing them for good parts. But are OCUK as responsible as Seagate? Phone them and find out

 

[smurkin]

No, it was the samsungs I ordered :lol: I seems to have crossed the threads

 

[Yaka]

got one of the 1.5tb ones from oc.uk but its not got the dodgy fw on luckily enuff

 

[Yaka]

well mine was a diff firmware and was supposed to be ok. as of today it is dead only had a few apps and windows 7 installed. spent 7 hours trying to sus wtf was wrong. turns out its the hdd

 

[Starman]

Unluckly Yaka

 

[soze]

Out of 4 1tb drives i had 3 with the problem, upgrade went on ok so fingers crossed.