Seagate bungles firmware update
A FEW DAYS after our original article, Seagate had scrambled the techies and produced a new firmware to flash the drives. So far so good.
The new SD1A firmware promised to take away the pain even though it did not solve the problem for people whose drives were already KIA. It would - according to the company - avoid the bricking feature before it happened...
... If it worked.
Adding insult to already injured customers, there are reports streaming in to our inboxes of users who have attempted the firmware flash and have ended up with bricked drives. Yes. That's right... Paperweight city all over the place. Seagate customers are up in arms.
Right about now, a very angry mob is giving phone support a good yell and filling the forums with complaints. If you want to join the festivities and leave a piece of your mind to Seagate's deaf, dumb and blind forums you can visit the forums.
Seagate has hastily removed the doubly-offending firmware before any more customers get their drives killed and is advising that a new firmware will be ready in 24-48 hours time. Naturally, if the drives are already bricked there won't be much you can do in terms of applying new firmware - RMA seems to be the only solution right now.
Oh, and if you want to ask someone at Seagate if it's safe, just forget contacting tech support via chat: the company will not discuss firmware updates on chats. Which brings us to today's mise en scène of "the devil's advocate": if we found we'd been telling people to apply firmware that bricks their drives we'd want the least amount of incriminating evidence (ie: chat logs) around, wouldn't we? But that's just us... because we're The INQ.
The situation, of course, begs the obvious question: how the heck does such a piece of firmware get launched without passing through thorough testing and certification?
We've tried contacting Seagate again, but it appears they think we're a customer.
Anyway, the dung should hit the fan at the stockholder meeting today... stay tuned. µ
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Quote:"The situation, of course, begs the obvious question: how the heck does such a piece of firmware get launched without passing through thorough testing and certification?"
The answer is simple, don't test the firmware at all.
"Seagate - sie geht, oder sie geht nicht". Old saying from the early 80's, and still true.
Quote:"The situation, of course, begs the obvious question: how the heck does such a piece of firmware get launched without passing through thorough testing and certification?"
It happens the same way the Inq's articles get published; without first being edited.
You can flash the affected 500GB 7200.11 drives back to SD15 without any problem. No need to RMA them. You can't call that a bricked drive.
It's not because slashdot says so that it's true.
some more details (if the source is valid)
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1098793&cid=26542735
http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1098793&cid=26543359
If the Seagate Forums and support guys can't unbrick your drive and have otherwise left customers hanging after the SD1A update, then it's as good as being bricked.
Follow the forum thread, fgs.
_bricking must imply that software error has rendered the device completely unrecoverable without some hardware replacement. If a software or firmware change can be executed to fix the device, it's not a brick._ (wk)
There will be a firmware update, just have to wait for it.
They need you, the customers need you, put a proposal together and see if you can take it on contract pricing ;-)
But it's no big deal really.
Just send the drive to Seagate in one of the boxes your other Seagate replacement drives came in and then copy your latest backup data to a spare drive.
Then just sit back and wait for the refurbished drive to arrive.
Simple
Remember the time IBM screwed up on their DeathStar? No matter how big you are, situations like these can make you exit the industry.
It's not just the 1TB version that's affected. I had a 500GB 7200.11 die on me just before the holidays and I'm still waiting for the RMA. Guess Seagate's folks will be busier now than they were last month packing gifts. BTW, when I returned my drive to the store there's this guy who had exactly the same model as I have and he's RMAing (yeah, this had better be a permanent term in Seagate's vocabulary) his drive for exactly the same reason as I was. It just died. BIOS can't detect it during POST.
Last week I got myself a WD Greenpower 1TB hard disk. I was hoping I had another competing product to choose from but I guess WD was my best (and only) bet.
I'll be avoiding Seagate drives for a year or two. And if everyone has the same intention then Seagate will have to peel potatoes for a living.
Guys, I've argued this to death on /. before. It's like banging your head against a brick wall, literally. Those of us from a hardware background know that bricking means an extended period of your day slaving over a hot air rework station and possibly a PROM burner. Others, of course, will argue until they're blue in the face that language changes, even when the very people who use that language professionally protest. Think of it as an extension of the endless September (me too 2.0) brought about by the Jesus 'phone mob using hyperbole to make their point and you'll not go far wrong. ;o) Oh, and way to drop the ball, Seagate. You're reeling from catastrophe to disaster. The Maxtor acquisition really added a certain je ne ce quoi to your organisation, non?
Is Seagate using ATI's QA process they use for their drivers...?
I own two of the affected 1TB drives, and after chatting with a Seagate tech support guy, he informed me SD1A isn't for the 1TB model drive. Then again the tech also denied there were any known problems with the SD15 firmware, and further ambiguated (is that a word?) the situation by saying "[Product Engineers] haven't said anything to use at this time" in regard to the failing drive issue. I have the whole chat saved, it's a short but interesting read. Either way, there is a problem and no one seems to know how to properly fix it.
Before hearing about the Seagate scandal, I had two WD 250Gb drives failing on me in one year. I'm not even a corporation! These where for personal use. Now the question is who to thrust for your personal data? Maxtor got buried alive already.
Take a look at how angry I was with WD, I locked the drive myself.
http://www.alinescu.com/wd_caviar_0.jpg
http://www.alinescu.com/wd_caviar_1.jpg
So answer me!
Drives which fail after the firmware update are not bricked - you can still replace the firmware and access all your data again. There is also a second update out now which fixes both problems. Seagate have released quality drives for years and yes they've screwed up this time but I don't want to see them go under for it. I'm going to buy a second 1TB Seagate and raid it with my existing 1TB seagate just to be sure though. All my other drives are WD.
I used Maxtor exactly once in a system I built and had to re-install windows on that system 3 times within 2 weeks. The drive tested fine with Maxtor's testing software, so even though I'd just bought it, they refused to RMA it. Put a Western Digital in, did the exact same install, no problems from then on out.
One bad experience (which happened to be my first) with a HDD company cost them my business forever. If I owned a Seagate drive during this mess, they'd get the same treatment from me since they're falling down on customer support as well.
"I had one drive fail on me and I'll never buy from <hdd again".
I don't want to defend Seagate in any way, I am convinced that they royally screwed the pooch on this one, but hey, what angst in the IT world. If you never buy again from a brand that made the one product you bought, you're going to run out of makers pretty soon in the IT business.
I've had HDDs from just about everybody : IBM, Maxtor, Seagate, WD, even Fujitsu at one time. Some are still fine, some didn't last. A dead drive is nothing to get your knickers in a twist over. It's not fun, but hey, you've got backups, don't you ? Slot in a new drive and you're in business.
A bad firmware update is a sight more worrying though, but in spite of the inconvenience, I wouldn't be chanting death threats.
The bloke who wrote the firmware had his salary slashed 10%. So did the Quality Assurance team. What did you expect?
http://www.crn.com/storage/212900600
I just did this for a BUSY problem (disk light stays on): http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128807&st=0&start=0 , and it actually works!, brings back memories of soldering class in 1'st year Uni, studying for my EE, those were the days... anyway, as mentioned somewhere else on the intertubes you only need to wedge a creditcard between the motor powerpins and the PWB, you don't need to completely remove the PWB, just loosen the screws, wedge plastic, follow instructions... when it's back online run the *correct* F/W upgrader from seagates page... that worked for me :D