Seagate Firmware Update Bricking 500GB HDDs

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The firmware update released by Seagate yesterday is apparently bricking 500GB hard drives. There are hundreds of people complaining in the Seagate forums that, after “successfully” updating their drives, they no longer work. If you own a Seagate drive, you might want to hold off on any firmware updates until this whole thing is ironed out. We’ll keep you posted. Thanks to Tremulant and Marcin for the heads up!
 
Seagate seems to be slipping lately with all these firmware issues. :/
 
What a PR nightmare for Seagate. I guess it's time to stay the HELL away from this company for a while.
 
With Bill Watkins out, it seems everything's gone to hell in a handbasket. :( Bummer!
 
As with everything, never update firmware on critical production or information storage devices until it has been confirmed 100% by others.

I would have not updated any of my drives that quickly regardless of who releases the firmware.


I also don't know what Seagate is up to, from one fumble to the next.
 
So I read about the initial brick-risk,and tried to apply the updated firmware. It said it could not find the drive and for some reason hosed the boot manager.
A Windows repair or two later, I am back up and running, but still, what a joke.
I have a 1TB 7200.11, and I am tempted to brick it on purpose to get a replacement.
 
Makes me glad I've chosen Samsung for my last two hard drive purchases.
 
Thanks for the news. Good to know beforehand

I do have a 500GB Seagate hard disk. Though I wasn't aware there's a new firmware actually.
 
Ockie said:
As with everything, never update firmware on critical production or information storage devices until it has been confirmed 100% by others.

I would have not updated any of my drives that quickly regardless of who releases the firmware.
Click to expand...
In any other case I'd agree with you. However, with the original firmware being buggy to the point where just rebooting your system might brick the drive, I can see where a great number of people would want to avoid it, and would apply this firmware update right away, believing they were doing what was best to insure their system's data integrity.

I updated my 1TB 7200.11 without incident. My two 500GB's are not a model that is affected, which I'm thankful for because it appears that the firmware update is a problem primarily with 500GB drives.
 
Christ...and I loved Seagate so much.

Second look at Samsung, I guess.
 
for some reason at this point in time i am glad i went with WD this round...

the only seagates i own are all 15k U320 Cheetahs...in that market...they CAN'T AFFORD to have a mess like this happen...consequently...i have 0 issues with them
 
I've always heard that you shouldn't update your firmware if everything is working properly. Am I wrong here?
 
LoneWolf said:
In any other case I'd agree with you. However, with the original firmware being buggy to the point where just rebooting your system might brick the drive, I can see where a great number of people would want to avoid it, and would apply this firmware update right away, believing they were doing what was best to insure their system's data integrity.
Click to expand...

But to apply the firmware, don't you have to reboot anyway?

I'd think you'd want to get the data off of that drive while it is up and running, and store that back-up onto something other than yet another drive of the same model. (And you certainly wouldn't want to update both drives at the same time, as someone on those forums did...)

I remember back in better days when a new firmware would either also contain the old firmware (in case the new one didn't work), or would save the existing firmware before attempting the update.

I don't know. Until the 1.5TB issue, I can't say I'd ever heard up updating hard drive firmwares.

Sounds like Seagate's full of fail lately... With everyone having three-year warranties now, not sure why Seagate still wants $10 on average (last I knew) above the others...
 
LoneWolf said:
the original firmware being buggy to the point where just rebooting your system might brick the drive.
Click to expand...

Oh no... Am I going to have to replace my drive? I have this drive, but haven't had any problems.
 
We have a bunch of these drives at work and we put our backups on them and also have them installed on our archive server. Well, at least we don't have the 500GB ones. Since we only use the 1TB and 1.5TB drives I hope we're okay... haven't updated the firmware yet though.... *sigh*

Time to ditch Seagate.
 
derek533 said:
I've always heard that you shouldn't update your firmware if everything is working properly. Am I wrong here?
Click to expand...

I generally follow this rule as well. The issue with the drives (1TB and 1.5TB mostly) is with the bad firmware they can brick at any time without warning. So essentially they're all bad right now, the issue just doesn't manifest itself until some point and then its too late.

When the release the final firmware (and other lab rats test it first), I'll be upgrading my drives.
 
Seagate was a premiere manufacturer. Now they are bungling something that is their primary business and confidence is quickly exiting stage left.
 
That's why I don't upgrade firmware for the Hell of it. If there is not a real need, I leave it be.
 
darkpaw said:
I generally follow this rule as well. The issue with the drives (1TB and 1.5TB mostly) is with the bad firmware they can brick at any time without warning. So essentially they're all bad right now, the issue just doesn't manifest itself until some point and then its too late.

When the release the final firmware (and other lab rats test it first), I'll be upgrading my drives.
Click to expand...
Actually, it tells you to download the drivedetect program that gives model, firmware revision, etc. & when after you click your HDD model # on the Seagate site, the page it takes you to tells you which firmware revisions aren't effected. I just got a 1TB drive last week & was lucky enough to get one that's not in the bad batch.
 
ugh. i have 2 750 seagates. not sure if they are on the list. i might have to wait for a while on this update.
 
Until now I had never heard of the possibility of upgrading firmware on hard drives. I wouldn't do it if I didn't need it. And Seagate I think will come out of this. The important thing is brand neutrality because if you don't hate Seagate for this, it is possible you will see some good deals on hard drives from them as a result. So long as it doesn't kill the company, which isn't likely.
 
Sigh unfortunately my 500GB is on that list with it's current firmware. Aren't all these drives using perpendicular recording? I know mine is...
 
Seagate is dead to me.

I went 10 years with Seagates and not a single failure. In the last 2 years I've had 3 or 4 (I've lost track).

On top of that the continuous Firmware flops, and I'm done.

I've moved to WD Green Drives.
 
The problematic firmware was from drives that were manufactured in DECEMBER. If your drive was not manufactured in DECEMBER, this firmware will brick your drive.
 
Tolyngee said:
Sounds like Seagate's full of fail lately... With everyone having three-year warranties now, not sure why Seagate still wants $10 on average (last I knew) above the others...
Click to expand...

because they have a 5 year warranty on all drives including OEM drives...

but i agree, i had the issue with the 1.5tb disks and im very disheartened with seagate... i have been happy with my WD green drives tho :)
 
TechLarry said:
Seagate is dead to me.

I went 10 years with Seagates and not a single failure. In the last 2 years I've had 3 or 4 (I've lost track).

On top of that the continuous Firmware flops, and I'm done.

I've moved to WD Green Drives.
Click to expand...


If you had started with the green drives, you would have not judged so biased. Green drives were plagued with problems at the start.
 
TechLarry said:
Seagate is dead to me.
...
I've moved to WD Green Drives.
Click to expand...

I'm a huge WD fan but will be the first to tell you that they have issues too, particularly in 24/7 operation scenarios.

The place WD is 100% win is their RMA policy. Goto their web site, enter the serial number, print a lable and ship the dead drives back for replacement. You pay shipping. No biggie. For me it was $18 to ship three drives back.
 
The one thing that makes this issue the mere tip of the iceberg, is this:

The firmware problem itself began manifesting itself in drives manufatured nearly as far back as a year ago, with the 7200.11 models, and affected equivalents.

Seagate kept stonewalling, refusing to acknowledge there was a problem, even to the point where they were deleting posts, asking about this mounting problem, on their forums.

The latest chapter in this saga is not doing a great deal to convince consumers that the issue is being fixed...Which I know that Seagate is trying to do, but it seems only after failing to escape the PR minefield they made for themselves.

They could have easily garnered a bit more sympathy if they appeared more willing to communicate.

One wonders if this is going to dwarf the Hitachi Deathstar scandal from years ago.

I do have 2 500gb 7200.11's currently, sitting unformatted in a build I haven't yet had the time to finish. They are going to sit unformatted until this issue with the buggy firmware gets resolved.

Before anybody recommends I brick them to RMA, what's to say I'm not just going to get a refurbed 7200.11, with, you guessed it....BUGGY FIRMWARE?
 
I consider myself a bit lucky. I got mine (1TB) at best Buy when they were on sale and only spent ~$10 more. The great thing is that Best Buy covers manufacturer's warranties in-store.

That means no-rma for me. I am considering bricking it and then exchanging for a WD GP.
 
FLECOM said:
because they have a 5 year warranty on all drives including OEM drives...
Click to expand...

They who?

If you meant Seagate, no they don't, at least not anymore...

Which was my point in saying "everyone."

Why should a Seagate drive cost $10 more still if it's the same warranty that everyone else offers, and I have to worry about firmware issues?
 
Satyrist said:
One wonders if this is going to dwarf the Hitachi Deathstar scandal from years ago.
[/B]
Click to expand...

Difference here is that IBM (not Hitachi) was the problem, and Hitachi turned that around after they bought 'em.

Seagate bought Maxtor (Crap company IMO), and it's turned Seagate to crap, too.
 
TechLarry said:
Seagate is dead to me.

I went 10 years with Seagates and not a single failure. In the last 2 years I've had 3 or 4 (I've lost track).

On top of that the continuous Firmware flops, and I'm done.

I've moved to WD Green Drives.
Click to expand...

well it seems that their external drives are working ok. i have one i'm using for backups and its fine...

but it looks like its western digital or bust for me at this point.
 
Chiplg said:
That's why I don't upgrade firmware for the Hell of it. If there is not a real need, I leave it be.
Click to expand...


Yep. Certainly not blaming the users, absolutely no doubt this is the company's fault and their duty to rectify, but there are people in that thread claiming they've lost 7 and 8 years of invaluable data. You would think being in that position, 8 years worth of invaluable data one one HD with no backups, you would be a bit more cautious about flashing the darn thing same day as a new firmware was released.
 
I've got 8 x 1.5TB HDDs that are waiting on this firmware :(
 
animosity said:
The problematic firmware was from drives that were manufactured in DECEMBER. If your drive was not manufactured in DECEMBER, this firmware will brick your drive.
Click to expand...

They started out saying that it was just drives from December. But it basically now includes almost all 7200.11 drive manufactured on or before December. If you go the the website, all of the firmwares before the "repaired" one are subject to the problem.

Not to mention people have been having major problems with this since the end of October/early November.

Chiplg said:
That's why I don't upgrade firmware for the Hell of it. If there is not a real need, I leave it be.
Click to expand...

If you have a 7200.11 drive with the SD14-SD19 firmware then the drive has a faulty firmware. This represents a hell of a lot of drives, basically all of them from launch through December.
 
For work we use 320gb 7200.10 drives with no issues. But now moved to 320gb 7200.11 drive, and damn, we have rma'd 20 of them so far for failures. We also use the ES.2 drives in 250gb and 500gb but we have the AN05 (newer than SN05) firmware from AMCC/3ware that make them work great.
 
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