Comments on: My Seagate hard drives are safe now http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/ It’s my turn now Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:44:45 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: steve http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-494 steve Wed, 04 Feb 2009 01:00:50 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-494 In my experience, you can leave non-affected drives in, and they're simply skipped over by the updater, as are drives for which the updater doesn't have the particular firmware that's required. With respect to the RAID drives, there's nothing actually written to the drive's data areas itself, so it shouldn't matter as long as the drives aren't connected to a RAID card (meaning they're directly connected to one of the Mac Pro's internal SATA ports). In my experience, you can leave non-affected drives in, and they’re simply skipped over by the updater, as are drives for which the updater doesn’t have the particular firmware that’s required. With respect to the RAID drives, there’s nothing actually written to the drive’s data areas itself, so it shouldn’t matter as long as the drives aren’t connected to a RAID card (meaning they’re directly connected to one of the Mac Pro’s internal SATA ports).

]]> By: Ray http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-493 Ray Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:19:29 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-493 Thanks for the step-by-step. Question: Should I remove my main drive from my Mac before performing the update? Also, the two Seagate drives in question are configured as a RAID 1 assembly. Should I do the update on one drive at a time, or leave 'em in place and just go for it? Thanks for the step-by-step. Question: Should I remove my main drive from my Mac before performing the update? Also, the two Seagate drives in question are configured as a RAID 1 assembly. Should I do the update on one drive at a time, or leave ‘em in place and just go for it?

]]> By: Brian Brumfield http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-492 Brian Brumfield Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:03:40 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-492 Thanks Steve - a friend sent me a link to this and I had one of these drives in my Pro - I have to check my off-site vault to see if there is another one there. The rest of my 1TB drives are Western Digital's. One curious thing is that I have a 1.5TB Baracuda 7200.11 drive at firmware level SD17 and Seagate's serial number validator said that it's not affected. Here's to hoping they're right. The internal drive updated just fine. Thanks again! Thanks Steve – a friend sent me a link to this and I had one of these drives in my Pro – I have to check my off-site vault to see if there is another one there. The rest of my 1TB drives are Western Digital’s. One curious thing is that I have a 1.5TB Baracuda 7200.11 drive at firmware level SD17 and Seagate’s serial number validator said that it’s not affected. Here’s to hoping they’re right. The internal drive updated just fine. Thanks again!

]]> By: steve http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-491 steve Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:58:33 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-491 Have you checked the Seagate support pages? You can start here: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=freeagent-downloads&vgnextoid=3723b5b59b7d5110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD Have you checked the Seagate support pages? You can start here: http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=freeagent-downloads&vgnextoid=3723b5b59b7d5110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD

]]> By: Rick http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-490 Rick Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:09:23 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-490 Can someone point me to some definitive text that confirms or denies whether my Seagate FreeAgent external hard disk is effected by this firmware bug? AND, if it IS effected, I'd sure appreciate a pointer to instructions on how I can fix it ... or at least follow along with the efforts to get a fix. Can someone point me to some definitive text that confirms or denies whether my Seagate FreeAgent external hard disk is effected by this firmware bug?

AND, if it IS effected, I’d sure appreciate a pointer to instructions on how I can fix it … or at least follow along with the efforts to get a fix.

]]> By: ExtraBITS for 26-Jan-09 | Web News Directory http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-488 ExtraBITS for 26-Jan-09 | Web News Directory Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:40:17 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-488 [...] Fix for Buggy Seagate Firmware on Intel-based Macs — Although Seagate has yet to respond to our inquiries about how Mac users can update buggy firmware in a wide selection of buggy Seagate drives, Steve Maller reports that Seagate tech support walked him through building a CD that booted his Mac Pro into FreeDOS, after which he could run the firmware updater. PowerPC-based Macs and drives in external cases are still out in the cold. (Posted 2009-01-26) [...] [...] Fix for Buggy Seagate Firmware on Intel-based Macs — Although Seagate has yet to respond to our inquiries about how Mac users can update buggy firmware in a wide selection of buggy Seagate drives, Steve Maller reports that Seagate tech support walked him through building a CD that booted his Mac Pro into FreeDOS, after which he could run the firmware updater. PowerPC-based Macs and drives in external cases are still out in the cold. (Posted 2009-01-26) [...]

]]> By: steve http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-487 steve Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:09:15 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-487 Well done, Mr. Fearless! :-) Well done, Mr. Fearless! :-)

]]> By: mrfearless47 http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-486 mrfearless47 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 23:03:32 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-486 I had four Seagate 7200.11 1TB drives with the old firmware. Seagate had already replaced two of them under warranty but sent the same old firmware. After reading your piece, I was able to build a CD, boot to it and update the firmware on all four drives. I now feel more secure now that the firmware is upgraded to the later, presumably correct, version. No problem whatsoever booting into FreeDOS under the current (early 2008, Mac Pro). I had four Seagate 7200.11 1TB drives with the old firmware. Seagate had already replaced two of them under warranty but sent the same old firmware. After reading your piece, I was able to build a CD, boot to it and update the firmware on all four drives. I now feel more secure now that the firmware is upgraded to the later, presumably correct, version. No problem whatsoever booting into FreeDOS under the current (early 2008, Mac Pro).

]]> By: CVBruce http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-485 CVBruce Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:49:49 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-485 Steve, The point that I was trying to make about the Mac Mini, is that I don't physically have an internal place to mount the drive so that the firmware can be updated. I don't see going out and buying a Mac Pro, or a Windows box, just so I can update the firmware as a practical solution to the problem. As far as I'm concerned Seagate needs to step up and figure out a solution that will allow the drive to be updated in an external enclosure. Or they can ship me a new drive. CVBruce Steve,

The point that I was trying to make about the Mac Mini, is that I don’t physically have an internal place to mount the drive so that the firmware can be updated. I don’t see going out and buying a Mac Pro, or a Windows box, just so I can update the firmware as a practical solution to the problem.

As far as I’m concerned Seagate needs to step up and figure out a solution that will allow the drive to be updated in an external enclosure. Or they can ship me a new drive.

CVBruce

]]> By: Paul http://stevemaller.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-seagate-hard-drives-are-safe-now/comment-page-1/#comment-484 Paul Tue, 27 Jan 2009 02:15:57 +0000 http://stevemaller.com/blog/?p=370#comment-484 After reading a success story from a reader on Macintouch who successfully updated an affected drive using a MacBook Pro with external eSata enclosure, I did the same today. We have different enclosures and ExpressCard adapter brands (Vantec/Griffin vs. Seritek/Seritek). You can read his account there now and my followup should appear tomorrow: http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/index.html#d26jan2009 After reading a success story from a reader on Macintouch who successfully updated an affected drive using a MacBook Pro with external eSata enclosure, I did the same today. We have different enclosures and ExpressCard adapter brands (Vantec/Griffin vs. Seritek/Seritek).

You can read his account there now and my followup should appear tomorrow:

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/index.html#d26jan2009

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