thx for this information and i will stick with WD .__.

There's no firmware, nor will there be one. It's simple, by issuing a firmware to fix the bricked HDD will mean Seagate acknowledges a problem, and this will make them liable in a host of civil lawsuits, including criminal negligence (since now they have a track record of denying the problem). So all you can do is either wait for them to issue a recall (not gonna happen also), or wait for the drive to die, and then RMA, hopefully you will get back another drive that is not the same batch.

i got few at home and office, it work so far so good.

same as me also
just bought 3 weeks ago..and haven't use yet
but is it ok if i make this HDD for my gaming data ??

beware when buy something like storage or memory.. some storage is not in gud quality.. might b shake when it's deliver to the shop.. and about warranty must ask proper.. do not simply about the warranty.. and must understand different warranty and guarantee...ask the promoter b4 make a payment..

im using seagate 500gb hdd for 1 year ++ alreadi.. no such problem to me..
this mean onli the newer model of the 500gb got this problem??
haiz.. last time WD failed on me.. if Seagate fail also... dunno wat brand to use...

wait,seagate external 2.5" can be affected?

Maybe. Because mine which was bought somewhere in April last year broke down last month. Already sent for RMA 3 weeks ago but still doesn't get any news

Never have problems for my Seagate HDDs. It's probably bad luck for you.

For me, all hard disk depends on your luck.

been using Western Digital for quite some time. so far so good.

what i heard is Seagate's HDD quality so so only but it still depends on the model and ur luck.

I have a ST31000340AS with SD15 firmware too, just bought from PC Fair (III) 2008. Still working fine one month down the road, but I'm pretty spooked now.

I've heard there is a firmware patch for this drive, but does it it work? Apparently we need to contact Seagate Tech Support directly to get it. Anyone willing to try it out?

I wonder how widespread this problem actually is in Malaysia. We know it's worldwide from the MSFN forums where members have been tracking it geographically.

Gonna try and give seagate tech support a call tomorrow and see what they say. If they give me the run around, the best way to push seagate in the right direction is to hit them where it hurts, the local media. Hit their local subsidiary as well.

I think the next step would be forwarding it to some local PC mag or even the computer sections of the papers. The more publicity we bring, the clearer the picture will get on how widespread this is in malaysia.

Whole lot of these drives dumped at the PC fair. Alot more should die in the next couple of months. (3 month lifetime average? lol)

Seagate can close shop alredi if they want to runaway from `their` problem... i think they're about to lose a big chunk of the hdd market share..

its getting worse on some it seems.average 3 weeks

Oh and do... do... read the thread on the official Seagate forums that the Seagate mod kindly closed down when it was clear there was a problem :

http://stx.lithium.com/stx/board/message?b....id=45485#M4134

Wonderful corporate policy eh?

WD FTW!!

looks like seagate is really trying to cover something here. really unexpected seagate will do something like this

500gb seagate 3.5" hdd barracuda 7200.11 / ES


<---does this model is same like wat TS said?? imma newb here..

After i read through all the forums and links, so far i only saw products of thailand are infected. AllnGap selling 1 is from China. Hopefully no problem gua~ coz i also owned 1

I'm using ST3500320AS DS15 MADE in Thailand too, having some odd sound lately... any solution yet? upgrade firmware? or send to RMA?