[opensuse] Seagate 500G-1000G Firmware updates available - 100% improved buffered disk reads
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
On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 10:27 PM, David C. Rankin
Just a general FYI for seagate Barracuda drives 500G-1000G. Check your firmware version to see if your firmware version is:
I got bit by this and had to send my drive to i365(which is owned by Seagate). I got an email saying they were able to fix the drive and all my data is there. I was unable to even get my system's BIOS to see the drive. Hopefully, when I get the drive back in a couple of days, everything will be ok. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Larry Stotler wrote:
On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 10:27 PM, David C. Rankin
Just a general FYI for seagate Barracuda drives 500G-1000G. Check your firmware version to see if your firmware version is:
I got bit by this and had to send my drive to i365(which is owned by Seagate). I got an email saying they were able to fix the drive and all my data is there. I was unable to even get my system's BIOS to see the drive. Hopefully, when I get the drive back in a couple of days, everything will be ok.
Larry, I bought a pair of 750G Seagate (white label -- refurbs $57) which I have never had a problem with in the past. The first I sent back to Seagate because the read/write head was doing the "cha --click, cha --click" thing far too often. I went ahead and did the advanced RMA where they ship you a new drive along with the return shipping label. I received the replacement drive in 2-days flat. On the second, I didn't clue in to the buffered disk reads issue until I got the new drive from Seagate and compared the two with hdparm. Noticing the difference in buffered disk reads, I didn't want to have to send that drive in as well, so I just searched for any other possible solution and the firmware update was found. After the dramatic improvement the new firmware provided, I'd be willing to bet there is a 50% chance it would have fixed the first drive as well. This was the first time I have ever had to mess with drive firmware before, but it was no different than any bios update. The software associated with the update is 1.6M, just barely too large to fit on a floppy. Hopefully you will find your in good shape when you get it back with the data in hand. I was lucky, I didn't have anything on the drives when the problems occurred. I usually to a 10 day -> 2 week burn in on drives before I put them into use, so in this case, I had put them in my son's box in a raid1 configuration with software raid just to make sure I would have no problems. Glad I did. Now after 2 weeks, one drive rma to Seagate and a firmware update on the other, I am ready to put the drives in service. I sure do miss the old days when you bought a drive and could be very confident that you could just put it into a box and have it work! My first 120M hard drive still works fine (yes that is a "M" not a "G") And... it used to hold all my software with 110M free;-) -- 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
On Sun, Apr 19, 2009 at 1:28 AM, David C. Rankin
On the second, I didn't clue in to the buffered disk reads issue until I got the new drive from Seagate and compared the two with hdparm. Noticing the difference in buffered disk reads, I didn't want to have to send that drive in as well, so I just searched for any other possible solution and the firmware update was found. After the dramatic improvement the new firmware provided, I'd be willing to bet there is a 50% chance it would have fixed the first drive as well.
They actually had released a patch back in like October, but the patch was screwed up, and it was bricking drives. So, I never got around to checking to see if it was fixed after the first couple of weeks, since I never saw any progress. I'm suprised that it never hit slashdot when the good firmware was released. Fortunately for me, even though I didn't have a backup of that drive, a friend of mine has copies of most of what was on it, so I should be good one way or the other. It wasn't anything critical. And, I lost some critical stuff a couple of weeks ago when I lost my 80GB Seagate drive. It got a bad sector and I ran Spinrite on it, and it recovered it. Instead of making a backup, I just booted the drive. The next time I tried to boot, the Data was corrupted(and the drive was an OEM drive I got used and out of warrenty). My fault for not having a backup. My 2nd 500 and my 1.5T drive fortunately don't fall under the serial numbers of the problem. Only that particular drive. I never noticed the DMA hangs really, but it was only used for storage, or video re-encoding( which did hang sometimes, but I never pinned it to a particular drive since I had 2 500's and it would happen on either, and the fact that my Celeron E1200 is running a 100% overclock). -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (2)
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David C. Rankin -
Larry Stotler