If you are using any of the Seagate 7200.11 series hard drives I suggest you urgently look at this article on the Seagate Knowledgebase: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931 In summary, some 7200.11 drives can get themselves in a state where they cannot be seen by the PC and the only fix is to RMA to Seagate. There is supposedly a firmware fix being made available by Seagate but you need to create a case with them to get the update. Mark
Worth checking if you have an affected drive and trying to get a replacement before it fails. This is not going to do much for the reputation of Seagate. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/16/barracuda_failure_plague/
Thanks for the heads up, I've got one of the 500GB models in my pc. Have e-mailed them to see if it has the affected firmware, will let you know how i get on with their support.
I'm fairly sure I also have one of the drives affected (by looking at that list). Unfortunately, you have to register to email their support team. How lame is that?! I'm gonna have to do it now Hopefully they'll say something magic like mine is OK though Edit: Their website is ****, will let me register to 'create a support case' but won't let me log in to email them. I hate stuff like that. I also hate going on the phone. And they don't support questions about drives with <1.5TB over the chat system. Utterly hopeless.
Updated - new firmware on Seagate site - Storage Seagate 7200.11 HDD Firmware Issues Seagate has posted updated firmware for a number of drives to fix the problems that people have been experiencing. It seems that you MUST follow the instructions exactly especially if you have multiple drives in your PC. Mark
Noooooo i was about to get a 1tb drive from them but now it seems there is a big chance its broken, or are the new drives good? Western Digital F-T-W
There have been widespread reports of the 1.5TB model failing left and right slathered all over the internet since its release; I would say this is becoming quite a fiasco for Seagate.
i checked with my housemate, who's got a 1TB 7200.11 drive for 1 year. his drive model number isn't on there......... he had the drive for 1 year, since it came out. could the problem only be present on recent drives??
I just got this upsetting new and I too have a 1TB drive that is affected. I want to do the firmware update but I wonder if I have to transfer all my data out to do the update? Good thing my 750GB is not affected.
more updated firmware from Seagate Seagate have issued another updated firmware for the affected drives - it appears that the original update did not work on all drives (from various postings elsewhere it seems that it had a liking for killing off 500Gb drives )
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=161456 well mine and a few others on the forums have already died...
Bought 2 1TB 7200.11 and the day after I placed the order a lot of articles spring up with reports of them failing all over the place. Gonna check with Seagate as I'm sure mine wil be affected
