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Here is a test for you if you have bandwidth and can stop laughing after a logical period. Obviously it is a FIRMWARE UPDATER, don't actually run it!

Help doc (from a company who is very close to MS and others)
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=215451

Exe file (as I said, just don't run it!)
http://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/support/downloads/firmware/MomentusXT-ALL-SD25.exe

Idiots didn't even create a mechanism to alert false positive so we, "dumb users!" ignored the warning after doing a Kaspersky and Virustotal scan and run it.

yup, all true. No different for the others, so no reason to hate Seagate more than tham. Your choise to slam seagate is personal, and nothing more.

Drives CAN'T be flashed from Windows, that's a limitation of the SATA and IDE protocols, not the drive.

MOST of the reason you can't get HDD Firmware for your drives is they're OEM drives... That's part of the deal when you buy the cheaper OEM models is you have to deal with the vendor, not the manufacturer...

However: FACT: "Seagate now offers firmware updates as a routine matter for the general support of your Seagate drive."

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931&NewLang=en

I'm not sure we should start talking about Seagate!!! Latetly, I would'nt buy another drive from them. I guess we will have to wait and see what happens with their new firmware.

This Seagate KB article says it's normal for drives with 32MB buffers to show up as 0MB, because the current ATA standard can't report more than 32767.5MB of buffer.

Sorry, I meant to link to this article

Seagate's knowledge base article says it's affected and that you should email in if you're running older than SN06.

New firmware just released for the following drives (1.5 TB included!): ST31500341AS ST31000333AS ST3640323AS ST3640623AS ST3320613AS ST3320813AS ST3160813AS http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207957

Here is a list of affected models. If your drive is on that list, and has the SD* firmware, it's affected. It is that simple.

I thought you said the ST31500341AS with SD1A FW was not affected as the SD1A FW has the "bricking" and "stuttering" issues fixed.

I'm not here to explain what *should* happen to to lick boots of those that have been wronged; I'm here to try and explain what *has* happened and *why* things are the way they are.

Make your choices as you will. I'm just trying to help get some much needed information out that can't seem to make it through 'proper' channels.

Also Here is a list of affected models. If our drive is on that list, and has the SD* firmware, it's affected. It is that simple.

As for service issues - the facts are thus: Phone is slammed to the point of breaking. Email is slammed and every 'firmware request' is being dumped in a queue for a mass email as soon as they have a good working one to five out. Web-Chat is slammed to capacity.

They simply do not have enough trained people in place to help everyone, and they cannot just hire nosepickers off the street to help with this situation (both due to skill requirements, and budget reasons - if you hadn't noticed, there's not much money to spread around these days)

This is life. Welcome to it.

People keep posting that address here.

But http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931 says disksupport@seagate.com.

Oh.

But it links to discsupport@seagate.com.

Muppets.

Did it stop physically spinning up?

The known issue manifests itself where the drive spins up fine but either reports no data to the drive controller (or BIOS if applicable) or shows up with zero capacity.

If the drive isn't on This list, then it isn't affected. It won't even have the same firmware.

I can't encourage this, but if your drive has failed, you may try to swap the PCB. There are third-party parts suppliers that can sell you a replacement PCB (search for "PCB replacement" in google) - just make sure that the part number of the PCB matches *exactly* to your current drive, and if at all possible, match the firmware revision. But this is really hit or miss. It does have the potential to mess up any data on the drive and remove any chance of getting your data off he drive... *but* conversely, it may fire right up and work, or simply not do anything at all.

Here is image of the flash cd utility crashed (fortunately my drive survived).
Here is seagate page with affected models list and links to firmware downloads (if it wasn't posted by 1000 people already)

I would like to know where the hell the firmware update IS?

It was here, apparently, but as said in the summary it has been pulled at least temporarily:

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951

Just found it on the Seagate website. However, no md5 checksums provided for the ISO. Hope that the Flash utility has some internal checksumming...

Now they tell people that need to perform an upgrade. And to make a request, you need to agree to their EULA, which includes this:

You are solely responsible for adequate protection and backup of the data and equipment used in connection with any of the software and assume all risks associated with any downloaded software.

Way to go....

According to the linked Seagate Knowledge Base article, this is a new problem to the NCQ/CACHE FLUSH issue that Seagate publically acknowledge affects the 1.5TB models. This new problem apparently affects lots of current models.

I avoided the 1.5TB models like you, but the 1TB Seagate drives I bought instead turn out to be affected by this new problem (hopefully I can get a pre-emptive fix from Seagate before they fail BSY). D'oh!

Welcome, Seagate hard drive owners. A number of Seagate hard drives from the following families may fail when the host system is powered on:

• Barracuda 7200.11
• DiamondMax 22
• Barracuda ES.2 SATA
• SV35

Once a drive has failed, the data is inaccessible to users. Seagate has isolated this issue to a firmware bug affecting drives from these families manufactured through December 2008. Please use the following tools and instructions to determine if you have one of the affected products. If you do, we recommend that you update the firmware on the disk drive. See if your model number is in this list.

Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS ST31000640AS ST3750330AS ST3750630AS ST3640330AS ST3640630AS ST3500320AS ST3500620AS ST3500820AS ST31500341AS ST31000333AS ST3640323AS ST3640623AS ST3320613AS ST3320813AS ST3160813AS

Barracuda ES.2 SATA ST31000340NS ST3750330NS ST3500320NS ST3250310NS

DiamondMax 22 STM31000340AS STM31000640AS STM3750330AS STM3750630AS STM3500320AS STM3500620AS STM3500820AS STM31000334AS STM3320614AS STM3160813AS

I note that Seagate says (at http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=206091): "Desktop and Mobile SATA and PATA drives are not designed for firmware updates in the field."