Listmates: Just a general FYI for seagate Barracuda drives 500G-1000G. Check your firmware version to see if your firmware version is: AD14, SD15, SD16, SD17, SD18, SD19, or SD81 by executing the following as root from the command line: # smartctl --info /dev/sd(a b c d...) Where a b c or d is your drive letter. If you are not sure what you have, just check with: # cat /proc/partitions The drives you have will be listed. You can ignore the additional partitions for each drive (sda1, sda2 ...) you are just interested in the sda information. You can then download an iso firmware update from Seagate for your device model as listed with 'smartctl --info': http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951&Hilite= The current firmware version is SD1A and it can make a *100%* improvement in your "Timing buffered disk reads" as reported by hdparm -tT /dev/sd[a b c d]: Before update: /dev/sdd1: Timing cached reads: 3506 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1753.19 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 152 MB in 3.01 seconds = 50.53 MB/sec ^^^^^^^^^^^^ After update: /dev/sdd: Timing cached reads: 3596 MB in 2.00 seconds = 1798.65 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 326 MB in 3.00 seconds = 108.54 MB/sec ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Well worth the update if you have the disk in a RAID array and much easier and quicker that RMAing the drive. NOTE: The firmware update will not work with ALL motherboard chipsets. The drive was originally in my box with an MSI K9N2 SLI Platinum motherboard and the firmware update could not recognize the seagate drives (there were 4 in the box). I moved the drive to another box and the firmware update completed without issue. Immediately there was a 100% improvement in buffered disk read performance. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org