Posted on 01/21/2009 7:16:49 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
The firmware update released by Seagate yesterday is apparently bricking 500GB hard drives. There are hundreds of people complaining in the Seagate forums that, after “successfully” updating their drives, they no longer work. If you own a Seagate drive, you might want to hold off on any firmware updates until this whole thing is ironed out. We’ll keep you posted.
fyi
You can always pop off the cover and read the bits with a large magnifying glass.
Habitually applying firmware updates WILL bite you eventually, especially those that are hot off the grill.
I hate it when that happens.
Obama’s fault...
Where are the resident iSnobs to pop up and say (as if it were actually a factor) “should have bought an Apple, these things never happen to Apple computers” ?
He can have my WD Raptor X when he pries it
“From My Cold Dead Hands!”
Yeah, I betcha it did.
************************EXCERPT************************
Seagate’s sales have been down for months as demand shrinks for computers that use its drives.
Replacement of Watkins, 56, a 12-year company veteran who became CEO in 2004, reportedly came as a surprise to others in the industry. The new CEO is board chairman Stephen Luczo, 51, who had relinquished the CEO post to Watkins.
The company also accepted the resignation of Chief Operating Officer David Wickersham, Watkins’ second in command. Wickersham was replaced by Chief Technology Officer Robert Whitmore.
The company would not comment on the reasons behind the change. In a statement, Luczo said the company is making “measurable progress toward regaining our long-standing product leadership position across all markets.”
Watkins was not immediately fired. Seagate said it would determine this week whether he will stay with the company in some capacity. Neither he nor Luczo were available for further comment.
Seagate also announced a major salary reduction program, effective in February. The CEO’s pay, last reported at $1,000,002 a year, will be cut by 25 percent, as will those of executive vice presidents and executive officers. Senior vice presidents will take a 20 percent cut, vice presidents a 15 percent cut, and other management, sales, supervisors and professionals will see a 10 percent salary reduction.
Time for a government bailout of Seagate.
Very true. At first I just skimmed the title and thought their fix to the 1.5 TB drive problem bricked them. At least then those people had a definite reason to apply the firmware. Trying to have the latest will bite you in the butt.
Even then I wouldn't do it though. I always give some time and then cruise the forums for any problems before I do any firmware or major software update. I let them risk the pain at the cost to me of maybe a few days of lesser functionality or security, or maybe a month in the case of a full OS X upgrade. I believe that is a good trade-off.
I'd take it even further. Habitually applying ANY updates WILL bite you eventually, especially those that are hot off the grill.
Iffen it ain't broke don't fix it.
Has worked for me for many years.
Thank you so much for posting this. I have a 500 gig Seagate, and though I don’t update it, I still one of these days might have done it without knowing :D. And considering it has like my life on their for the moment (in between computers sort of) it could have been messy.
In my 20 years of computer support work, I've replaced only a few (fewer than ten) bad WD hard drives. Ever. I've replaced countless Maxtor, Seagate and IBM (now Hitachi) units.
Problem is, that dataset spans many years, and doesn't account for the changes in the industry.
While Western Digital was good in the old days, there was a period when I had far better reliability from Maxtor (and they were cheap, too!) and Seagate than the "slow, reliable" WDs. And I'd had good luck with Quantum, which led me to start using Maxtor more--but even though I recall when Seagate was good, the acquisition of Maxtor made me suspicious of the latter, because Seagate had fallen so far.
But perhaps WD has made a comeback?
That's interesting. I've never had a problem with any of my Thinkpad (Hitachi) drives. In fact, my T30, I've dropped twice, while it was running! Damn thing didn't skip a beat or drop a bit.
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