Re: [tlug] Seagate Firmware Bug.

[Edward Middleton <emiddleton@example.com>]

Francois Cartegnie wrote:
> Le lundi 2 février 2009, Edward Middleton a écrit :
>   
>> You also need the serial number and that seems to be different from the
>> serial file in the same directory.
>>     
>
> Few seconds ago, this page had a 3 columns table listing with all the faulty 
> models. Eveything has gone and now you need to enter each number.
> http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931
> Am I sick ?
>   

I don't think the model number is enough, recently manufactured drives
of the same model apparently have the newer firmware.  I have two
identical Barracuda 7200.11 1T drives bough about 3 months apart, one is
reported as being unaffected.

According to the posts on this bug, the problem isn't so bad, the bug
only occurs on drive post and it is recoverable by re-flashing the
firmware.  Obviously re-flashing the firmware of a bricked drive isn't
something just anyone can do,  but if done the bug is un-likely to
result in irrecoverable data loss, which makes it a lot better then most
other mechanical or firmware induced mechanical failures.

Lyle, Up until now I have preferred Seagate drives because they seemed
to be the least worst of the lot.  IBM had a lot of problems with their
drives before they were sold to Hitachi.  IBM seemed to be the most
mechanically robust but I wonder whether that was at the cost to other
parts of the manufacturing process.  I have had bad experiences with all
the Western Digital drives I have owned.  The earlier WD drives
performed better then the equivalent Seagate drives, but run much hotter
and developed data corruption.  How many of the drives you have used
were bought new?  Do you monitor smart parameters on the drives you
use?  In particular, do you monitor temperature,  read error rate and
reallocated sectors?

Edward