Seagate failures - 7200.11

[Oldjim]

I have just seen this at the Inquirer. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...200-11-failing

SEAGATE'S FLAGSHIP desktop Barracuda 7200.11 drives, in particular the 1TB (ST31000340AS) units, are failing at an alarming rate and prompting outrage from their faithful customers.

Now it may be just scaremongering but I wonder if Scan are seeing a higher than normal return rate.
I am wondering whether to get a second drive and clone my present 500GB drive on it to save a load of aggro if it goes down

[looney]

Thats got me worried abit, as i have a 7200.11 320gb drive, fortunately my sharkoon thingy has arrived today, so might be able to do a backup!

I wonder if its anything to do with how dense these drives are? the next gen seagates will have single platter 500gb drives.

One thing I did ntice on my drive is when the front fans were out they got quite hot.

[Aden]

Getting worried a bit too as I have a pair of 500gb 7200.11's from my old system being transferred to the new one.. havn't used them for 3 or so months.. hope that they work :S

[Singh400]

Got a pair of 7200.11 (500GB) here too! Uh oh time?

[jamesy305]

I got one of the exact ones the article states (1GB with the SD17 firmware) and i bought it 3 months ago!

Emailed scan yesterday to ask if there was any updates etc and they just replied saying that they know nothing of the problem! I have heard that Seagate might release a statement tomorrow about this so fingers crossed they will release an updated firmware for the drives!

[Oldjim]

Paranoia strikes - just ordered and installed Acronis and backed up my C: partition onto a network drive and ordered a new 500GB Samsung F1 (it was on special offer yesterday) onto which I will backup the C: and D: partitions when it comes on Monday

[synaesthesia]

It's fairly true, had 4 known personally to me go tits up. Not a nice thought when they've just dropped the warranties. Maybe Seagate have just silently stopped manufacturing everything and just started to re-label Maxtor drives?

[Singh400]

Paranoia strikes - just ordered and installed Acronis and backed up my C: partition onto a network drive and ordered a new 500GB Samsung F1 (it was on special offer yesterday) onto which I will backup the C: and D: partitions when it comes on Monday

Or maybe it's just Scan turning the wheels to sell more drives?

Legal ****: It's a JOKE!

[looney]

Seagate have offered a press release: http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16246

hexus should put this on there website

[Oldjim]

Mine is on the list
Support email sent (system doesn't work on Firefox - may be my cookie defaults)

[Unique]

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=207931

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...nloads/cuda-fw

it looks like they haven't put the firmware online, and they don't normally do that so people don't install firmware when they shouldn't

i don't suppose anyone has an updated firmware yet?

i would have thought if the issue was so serious and widespread they would have put it online

[mikerr]

You have to email them for the firmware:
discsupport@seagate.com

They are offering free data recovery for those with drives that have died due to this problem:
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/16246

I wonder if its anything to do with how dense these drives are? the next gen seagates will have single platter 500gb drives.

No, the fault is on the logic board (PCB) apparently.

[Chris P]

The 2 x Seagate 1.5TB drives I bought last week are ok

A decent, if not slightly delayed response from Seagate, Obviously this issue should never have happened, but mistakes happen and in my opinion the solution Seagate have offered is excellent, which is what really shows what a good company Seagate are...

[synaesthesia]

Quite agree, I've always trusted Seagate (well, at least until the acquisition of Maxtor which make me cross my fingers that they wouldn't actually use any of their "expertise" or hardware) and they're showing a good level of responsibility that I probably wouldn't have expected from a few other manufacturers.

[jamesy305]

Hey,

Small update for everyone, They have now added an online serial number checker so that you can easily see if your drive is affected.

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/cr...p?DocId=207931 (MAIN ARTICLE)

http://support.seagate.com/sncheck.html (SERIAL CHECKER)

Hope that helps,
James

[Singh400]

Thanks for that James. Just checked both my drives and they are not affected. Just our of interest, one of my drives is running 3.AAC firmware and the other is running 3.AAK firmware. Any idea on how I can bring them both to the same firmware?