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Seagate hard drive problems

bartman0 said:
I have two of the Barracuda 7200.11 750 Gig hard drives that I got from OWC. According to Seagates web site the ST3750330AS is a drive that the firmware is supposed to be ok but it also has the firmware SD04 that everyone says there is a problem with.
I called Seagate on Thursday and was give to the second tire help regarding my issue with the firmware. He said the problem was from quite awhile ago and that I wouldn't have a problem with it. I'm also not getting any love from Apple as I ordered my early 2008 Mac Pro on Jan 17th with the 500 Gig hard drive that they aren't shipping. Anyhow, the guy at Seagate said I wouldn't have a problem but "just in case" he'd send me an email with the file to do the update. Today I called OWC and talked to tech support and he said that the problem with the drives is a year old and I don't have a problem. I asked he why are all these people posting that they are having a problem and he didn't have an answer to that other than don't worry about it. I really don't want to have to mess with flashing the drive as I'm not real confortable with that process, but the tech said he couldn't take them back unless there was a problem. I guess my quesiton is my wife has a newer G3 computer and I wanted to know if I put the drive in her computer would that give me an indication if there was a problem with the drive or not.
Sorry for being so long winded, but I just want my computer and put the drives in it and gooooo.
Thanks
Click to expand...

My two 500GB 7200.11's also came with firmware revision SD04. The drive model number was being reported in System Profiler correctly (some others have seen 'INVALID' appear in the model number). AFAIK there is no way to check what size cache the drive has reported in OSX. My drives worked fine - no errors, seemed quite fast, etc. Based on the above and info from the Seagate site, I also initially thought that my drives with SD04 were OK.

However, I went ahead and flashed them to firmware AD14. Xbench tests run before and after the flash show no change in sequential read/write performance, but a 45% improvement in most random read/write operations.

See post #37 for details of the results and how to flash the drives on a MP (although it's not a simple operation, so if you're not comfortable with the idea of flashing your drive it might be best to return it).

Unless your wife's G3 has a PCI SATA controller installed in it the drive won't work in her machine. If it has a SATA port and you did install it in her machine I don't think you would find anything that would indicate a problem. The drives with the bad firmware do work, just not as fast as they should since they are not fully utilizing their on-board cache.
 
Jumper Settings?

So, I've just received my 750GB 7200.11 drive and have been pouring over this thread for info. The firmware is SD04. I'm on hold with Seagate to confirm if I need to flash this or not.

My second query is, according to the following link, a "Normal" setting is one without a jumper block installed, which limits data transfer to 1.5 Gbits per second.

http://www.seagate.com/images/support/en/us/cuda_sata_block.gif

Is this something that I definitely need to remove?

The info in this thread really didn't seem to clarify the question:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/418604/
 
Tier 1 Support Confirms Removal of Jumper

Issue 2 resolved - the jumper can be removed for "normal" operation.

Issue 1 - after further reading here and confirming that my serial number does contain a "3" in the specified location, it appears that I will not need to flash the firmware.

I'll go ahead and format the disc and try running a benchmark to see if it conforms with findings from previous posts.
 
sketchguy said:
Issue 2 resolved - the jumper can be removed for "normal" operation.

Issue 1 - after further reading here and confirming that my serial number does contain a "3" in the specified location, it appears that I will not need to flash the firmware.

I'll go ahead and format the disc and try running a benchmark to see if it conforms with findings from previous posts.
Click to expand...

Be sure not to rely on the label. Seagate told me that SD04 firmware is one with the cache problem. If your system profiler shows something other than the correct Seagate model number, you've got the bad firmware. If you're still not sure, you can call them, give them your serial number and they will confirm whay you actually have.

I got two of the 7200.11 drives with the bad firware and returned them to Newegg from whence they came. Got two Samsung F1's that run just about as fast as the WD raptors with a lot more bang for the buck. Bought a third one (all 1TB) and they are running great. Knock on wood.
 
snagitseven said:
Be sure not to rely on the label. Seagate told me that SD04 firmware is one with the cache problem. If your system profiler shows something other than the correct Seagate model number, you've got the bad firmware. If you're still not sure, you can call them, give them your serial number and they will confirm whay you actually have.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I forgot to mention that I did use the online chat help at Seagate. They said the same thing.

Regarding that jumper issue, there's still some confusion, as a co-worker has mentioned something about NCQ and the drive not being able to transfer at such high speeds?

It sounds like the drive I got should work fine WITH the jumper attached, and, no firmware flash will be needed. (according to this, my drive should work provided that, once installed, the model number matches the label.)

I'll have to wait until I get home later tonight to try it out. I will note that last night, i did have the drive in the bay and Disk Utility recognized it as a Seagate drive.
 
sketchguy said:
Regarding that jumper issue, there's still some confusion, as a co-worker has mentioned something about NCQ and the drive not being able to transfer at such high speeds?
Click to expand...

Last night I ran xbench with both the jumper intact and jumper removed. Sequential score for the 750GB was about 2 points higher with jumper removed, no change to random... so the xbench measured performace difference is in the noise.

The 500GB seagate provided by Apple does not have any jumpers.

The drive functions the same otherwise with or without the jumper but the jumper is a PIA to remove.
 
Flashing on a Macbook Pro through eSata

Hey guys. I'm using this Seagate 7200.11 SD04 drive on my Macbook Pro with an external case and an eSata expresscard 34 adapter. Do you think I can flash it through eSata or is it a fact that it has to be internal? I can always try it, but my concern is that it may mess up the internal drive of my laptop somehow, since I will not remove it... Thanks in advance.
 
Zeeno said:
Hey guys. I'm using this Seagate 7200.11 SD04 drive on my Macbook Pro with an external case and an eSata expresscard 34 adapter. Do you think I can flash it through eSata or is it a fact that it has to be internal? I can always try it, but my concern is that it may mess up the internal drive of my laptop somehow, since I will not remove it... Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I believe you can only flash the Seagate firmware on a PC as an internal drive.
 
Thanks for the reply, but if take a look at post #37, a guy has done it in his Mac Pro...

When you put a drive inside a Mac Pro it is a SATA connection, right? How different is that from eSATA, does anybody know? Thanks again.
 
eSATA is the same as SATA except that SATA was intended for internal box connections. Once you start getting out of the box, signal integrity becomes an issue. eSATA defined a shielding and signaling standard robust enough to allow a couple meters, and a connector robust enough to withstand numerous plug-in/unplug cycles.

The MacPro should treat a eSATA external drive connected to one of the spare mother board ports just as it would an internal drive. The mother board uses a SATA style connector, so an appropriate eSATA to SATA adapter cable (or extender like OWC sells) is required. They are available in many places.

As with any external drive housing, a eSATA enclosure contains a OEM SATA hard drive and a signaling and connector adapter that satifies the eSATA standard.
 
Error 2?

I got the firmware update from Seagate, made the CD and tried to flash 2 drives (1 at a time) in a PC.

Both gave me an "Error 2" response, with no indication of what that means.

I have an email into them, but has anyone else seen this and have a clue what it means?

Fred
 
Quick update: Level 1 and level 2 could not help me, I am now waiting for a call from level 3 support.

Could it be that there is no PC partition on the drives, just mac?

Fred
 
I'm presently dealing with this situation. My ST31000340AS came with the SD04 firmware, but displayed the correct identification number. However, SiSoftware Sandra Lite XII.SP1 refused to show a cache for the drive in Windows. My other four seagates all showed a cache. I decided to jump through the hoops and update the firmware. After updating the firmware to AD14, I'm still seeing the same thing in SiSoftware Sandra Lite XII.SP1. I talked to Seagate support and was told that they don't 'support' SiSoftware Sandra Lite XII.SP1. They were only worried about the ID numbers displaying correctly in Device Manager.

Seagate questioned if SiSoftware Sandra Lite XII.SP1 was capable of 'seeing' a 32MB cache, but couldn't recommend any other software that has the ability to determine the cache. Does anyone know of any other software that can determine the HD cache? Windows or Mac, I'm flexable.

I need to get out of Windows... NO spellchecker!!

fredr500, I got errors about drive partitions too. After about 5-10 minutes it went on to a command screen and I was able to flash the drive. I was booted to the DOS CD and had the seagate flasher on a USB pendrive.
 
fredr500 said:
Quick update: Level 1 and level 2 could not help me, I am now waiting for a call from level 3 support.

Could it be that there is no PC partition on the drives, just mac?

Fred
Click to expand...

Level 3 called last night and said I should not flash to the new level, they were having a lot of problems with it and were no longer giving it out. He said I should just be happy with what I have. When I asked about their website saying it needed an update he said he would get the website changed.

I'm now reluctant to trying anything else to force it in case it does induce problems, then I'll just get an I told you so.

Since they work fine I guess I'll just live with them for now. I'll put them back and raid them and see what happens.

Fred
 
Tbarr said:
fredr500, I got errors about drive partitions too. After about 5-10 minutes it went on to a command screen and I was able to flash the drive. I was booted to the DOS CD and had the seagate flasher on a USB pendrive.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean. I boot the CD I built from their download, it comes up with a readme, I escape from that and enter FLASH.

That brings up a menu - A to flash, Z to exit. I type A and it runs for a bit and I get an error message. Pressing any key reruns the FLASH file and presents the menu.

Do you mean I should have waited at the error screen for 5-10 minutes?

But per my previous post I think I'll not flash them right now since level 3 said not to.

Fred
 
Why even deal with it? Send it back, and get a new one from Macsales.com. From them, it even comes formatted with HFS+. Plug and play.
 
Let me see...
I think it went like this.
Basic instructions:
1) Create the FreeDOS bootable floppy or CD-ROM.
I used the Image that Seagate sent to make a CD.

2) Use a standard desktop PC with an integrated SATA controller, or
a common SATA add-in controller like a Promise SATA150-TX2.
I used the MacPro.

3) Disconnect all PATA or SATA devices from the system, except the
device needing the firmware update.
I pulled the three other SATA drives and disconnected my PATA drive in the lower Optical bay.

4) Boot the system using the update floppy or CD.
When I booted, I got an error about the Format/Partitioning. Could not escape. After a while, I shutdown and reconnected the Mac Disc. Booted to OSX and reformatted the drive to MBR/DOS. Disconnected the Mac Disc, rebooted and again got the formatting error again. After a while, I called Seagate. While tal..err bitchin' at Seagate, the screen changed to what I guess you would call a Readme with a Command prompt at the bottom. While still talking to Seagate, I was unable to exit that screen, until, I THINK, repeatedly hitting the escape key.

5) At the (Seagate boot) A:> run the flash.bat file
After finally getting the A:> prompt, I typed in flash.bat
The flasher ran normally and reported success. I thanked Seagate :rolleyes: and said I'd call back if I had any other trouble.

After reconnecting everything, I booted to Windows, ran SiSoftware Sandra, and called Seagate back. I don't know at which level I ended up, but, the final guy sounded well informed. He's the one that said he doesn't support SiSoftware Sandra, and couldn't recommend anyone he did support.

Look at the responses here,
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/24609792/m/701005381931

I've used it over thirty days (came from NewEgg), it appears to work fine. I partitioned it back for my MacPro with a small, fast system RAID slice on the fast end. Used Disk Utility to create a RAID 0 with a similar slice on my Seagate 750GB, cloned the OS back to the RAID... It works great. Just as it did before I went through the above BS :mad:
 
flashes on mac just fine...

SO I have 5 of these drives that i bought two weeks ago from best buy, I HAVE had problems running mine in a a RAID 5 set-up. When I called Seagate they said that no firmware update was available. but I had seen the bulletin, anyway I managed to flash the drives with minimal fuss.

1. I downloaded the files posted here.
2. Use disc utility to burn a CD
3. put the cd in the computer, open the system preference, start-up disc, and select it
4. Shutdown the computer
5. remove the start up drives and all other non-seagate drives
6. push power
7. Loads up to the README, read it, and then hit escape, type "flash.bat"
8. It flashes, then you turn the computer off and thats it.
10. hold down option key on next power up and select your mac start-up

Not hard and was very straight forward. I actually got a kick out of seeing freedos boot up on my ACD 30!
 
Yep - it was very easy once I found the drivers, but that was the difficult part. Seagate says you need to email them to get the firmware and don't simply post it like they should. Like you, I has a chuckle seeing my Mac Pro boot to freedos!
 
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