Man I was duped into buying this HDD because it was cheap, now I know why. It is reported that the 7.11 Barracudas with the AD15 firmware has problems and retailers are getting up to a 30% return rate for these bricks.

Physically, your HDD is fine, so the freezing trick will NOT help. Symptons after an uncertain number of booting up your HDD will not be detected by BIOS (and possibly all your other SATA/PATA devices, even non-Seagate ones), or your BIOS reports it having 0GB capacity. Your data is still intact, however, something in the firmware is telling the BIOS that it is busy.

You can read some bits of it here:
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/search?submi...AS&page_size=10
Or search on on google for the ST3500320AS+BIOS

Simply due to the fact that Seagate doesn't want to acknowledge that this is a problem (because they don't want to fix it, not for free anyway) is enough for me to boycott Seagate products for EVER.


Update:

Since there are many questions asking "which model is affected" etc, I'm copy pastaring the potentially affected models here:

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207951

Drive Family:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11

Models Affected:
ST3500320AS
ST3640330AS
ST3750330AS
ST31000340AS

Firmware Affected
SD15, SD16, SD17, SD18, SD19, AD14

Recommended Firmware Update:
SD1A

So far, the firmware update doesn't work for OEM drives (P/N) ending with 303. And some claim the firmware update DOESN'T fix the bricking issue, just the cache issue. It's up to you to decide whether or not to update. You are responsible for your data.


More updates (Jan 23):
Here's a firmware to patch the SD15 to SD1A

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/self...sp?DocId=207951

Download the appropriate ISO file for your drive model, burn it onto a CD (or a USB key if you know how), reboot and if your drive is still detectable, flash it accordingly.

It is not known if the firmware will stop the bricking issue (BSY/LBA0) or cause other issues, but I have successfully flashed the firmware to SD1A on my remaining ST3500320AS, and it has been running for 10 minutes now.

Firmware does NOT fix BSY state drives, I don't know about the LBA0 drives.

This post has been edited by spanker: Jan 23 2009, 10:48 AM

By the way, it seems like if you leave the 1.5 GB operation Jumper alone (instead of removing it for 3GB operation), it is less likely to happen (doesn't mean it won't). Owners of the 500GB and 1 TB model are more likely to face this problem.

Anyone experiencing this problem?


======================================
thanks for mxploit for the simple guide.

A tip to getting your HDD back with all your data untouched shall your Seagate 7200.11 brick:
1. Log on to Seagate's website.
2. Create a support case.
3. A support representative will contact you to confirm that your HDD is facing firmware issue.
4. Once confirmed, Seagate will arrange for UPS pickup to be delivered to Singapore for firmware upgrade.
5. After 10-20 working days, you'll receive your HDD at your doorstep with upgraded firmware and all your data in store.
No more worries about sending your HDD back to local service centres or sending your HDD for Data Recovery services.
Cheers!

Here's a few additional guide : (credit to andy0212)
1) Register & submit ticket at https://partnerreg.seagate.com/pppm/csoregistration.jsp?source=casemgmt&languageselect=en-US
2) AFTER submit, check again the ticket , and update your case by selecting "Yes - Escalate Case to Seagate Support" from the Escalate Case dropdown. (you will receive an email about this)
3) You'll receive an email from customer support to confirm about you harddisk condition. In my case, they asked me this question :

4) After you reply to them, they will email you the Disclaimer on how the process will be done. You need to reply them with your Full Name, complete shipping address with city, state and postal code and contact numbers with country code. This is for FREE Pick Up and return purpose.
5) Within few hours or maybe days you'll get an email from UPS with a few documents attached. You only need to print the UPS Return Label
6) Call UPS Malaysia toll free no. 1800-1800-88 to request a pick up, give them the tracking number stated on your UPS Return Label. They'll give you a date and time to pick up or you can choose which day that you prefer.
7) Ensure that the hard drive is packed in an ESD bag or any anti-static plastic. Then, securely packed it inside a small packaging box and ensure that the drive it is not moving. To have a sponge in between the hard drive would be superb.
8) Wait UPS for pick up and pray that your harddisk arrived safely..

Send your HDD to seagate if you have precious/important data..
Send to RMA if you doesn't care about your data and get a new hdd

This post has been edited by fariz: Jan 4 2010, 05:08 PM

send to RMA shld fix the prob then
its juz manucfacturer faulty

is this so true?
they should do a massive recall afterall

aiyo, i just bought this model yesterday.. 500g. hope nothing went wrong.. but so far its ok..

totally agree.my 500GB Seagate sata oem went dead just after 3 weeks using it.unable to detect in bios and the hdd led stays on.i've exchged it for a new same 1 2day and lets see how long this will last again.totally disappointed with seagate.my 5 year old maxtor 80gb is still running although its noisy,ironic eh

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...post&p=22950650

This post has been edited by ZeneticX: Jan 14 2009, 02:15 AM

RMA is not an acceptable option for those who value data more than hardware. I've got years of data in there since "migration". And I don't intend to RMA before i recover the data. I'm going to buy a competitor HDD, and then sell off the RMA-ed HDD to you guys.


BTW: Sauce for those who think their safe:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3...7200-11-failing

40% failure rate!!! And I have 2 of this crap.

This post has been edited by spanker: Jan 14 2009, 02:36 AM

where's the jumper thing?

and IMO hdd failure is the most worse/headache among any hardwares in ur pc bcoz its the main memory storage for all ur data files etc.mobo or proc prob at least u can send for RMA while ur precious data are still intact.i;ve spend almost 5 hours installing windows and all the necessary updates driver etc just now bcoz of the stupid failure

this is from "The Inquirer".

sad though seeing seagate going down this way . I was one of their supporter mainly because their RMA rate is lower than WD. i wonder why after so long (1 month) they still fail to get a solution

now i guess its time to move to WD

btw, TS thanks alot for sharing this

maybe thats why they shorten the warranty period.

they probably shot themselves in the head by lowering the warranty period

btw how much is WD Caviar black now?might wanna get it in case my current 1 went dead again

damn.. i should buy a new WD hdd and backup all my data before my 500gb seagate died on me....tick tock tick tock.. huhu

according to them this happen to most 1T only. so i guess your 500Gb should be safe. at least for now

This post has been edited by ham_revilo: Jan 14 2009, 03:41 AM

No way dude. my 500 GB bricked on me. Now the other 500 GB is just a ticking timebomb to me.

No wonder i felt fishy when i saw my hdd was made in thailand.. coz before this, all my seagate hdds were a product of china..

If there is an ever a Warning, then its the so-called "Freezer Trick".. Do NOT use that, especially with FDB motors plus the danger of stiction due to moisture condensation on the platters.

On the other hand, after gobbling up Maxtor.. I hope Seagate is not inheriting one of Maxtor's infamous hard drive issues (clue: firmware corruption)

This post has been edited by lex: Jan 14 2009, 06:13 AM

update:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3...7200-11-failing

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing

SEAGATE'S FLAGSHIP desktop Barracuda 7200.11 drives, in particular the 1TB (ST31000340AS) units, are failing at an alarming rate and prompting outrage from their faithful customers.

A new self-bricking feature apparently resides in faulty firmware microcode which will rear its ugly head sometime at boot detection. Essentially the drive will be working as normal for a while, then - out of the blue - it'll brick itself to death. The next time you reboot your computer the drive will simply lock itself up as a failsafe and won't be detected by the BIOS. In other words, there's power, spin-up, but no detection to enable booting.

Naturally the Seagate forums (as well as many other customer-driven forums, like etailers and hardware sites) are flooded with testimonies of customers' experiences with Seagate support. These are helpful enough to ship you a new drive, as per the warranty, but invariably the drives end up bricking as well.



希捷酷鱼7200.11硬盘面临缺陷问题
http://edu.cnbeta.com/articles/74761.htm

希捷最新一代的Barracuda 7200.11硬盘被曝出有缺陷,容易引发故障,据希捷公司论坛上和新蛋等B2C网站上的用户报告,这款磁盘,尤其是1TB版本包含一个缺陷,容易不正确地触发硬盘内部的保护机制,导致使用期间出现问题.这一问题主要集中在泰国出产的硬盘固件上.一些数据恢复公司的报告也应证了这一说法,7200.11硬盘的失败率明显高于其它产品.


虽然据报道说,希捷承认问题存在,并发布了固件更新,但并没有对客户提供额外的补偿和保修服务,许多用户也根本不知道需要更新自己的固件,因此业内认为希捷无视用户评论的行为令人失望.

This post has been edited by yangxi: Jan 14 2009, 08:10 AM

dude the HDD encasement is sealed, don't think moisture can squeeze their way in, but... you never know.

Most HDDs are not completely sealed and have a "breather hole".

The moisture comes from the cold temperatures within a "sealed" casing.. just like when you wrap something in plastic bag, seal it and put in the freezer.. when you take it out, you will notice moisture condensation on the surface of the plastic bag. Moisture can cause the head to stick to the platter, thus when spinning the head crashes and scrapes the platter.

Furthermore FDB (fluid dynamic bearing motors) require an optimal temperature to operate. Freezing it may cause the motor to seize or stutter on spin-up.

This is why I do NOT recommend the so-called "Freezer Trick"!

This post has been edited by lex: Jan 14 2009, 08:36 AM

Hmm, i bought this from the Allngap

OEM Seagate 1TB SATA 32mb 3.5" HDD - ST31000340AS

After reading all ur comments... should i get another hdd as a precaution???

It's up to you, but a global 30% RMA rate is no joke. That means 1 out of 3 will very likely brick, and the remaining 2/3 have a potential of going wrong, but hasn't.

damn...thanks for the review...just about to buy seagate hdd

Well, i've 2 x 250GB and 1 x 500GB in my PC. All seagates, no problem. 1 250GB is an old model, no problem for that.

The newer 250GB is maybe 8 months or so, it has some problems after 2 or 3 months, but later discover it's the SATA cable giving problem and after changing the SATA cable, it works fine.

The last 500GB is the model in the thread title, i think about 2 months or so. So far no problem....but i'll start making schedule backup of my data to the other HDD tonight...

-Hmm, seems like a massive & widespread problem; refer here:

1. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128092

2. http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128514

-BTW, the 1TB Seagate HDDs AllnGap is selling (ST31000340xx) here are affected by this or not?


Regards.

This post has been edited by Musafir_86: Jan 14 2009, 10:04 AM

Bought mine at PC Fair. Bricked itself a couple of days ago. 500GB model. man.... and it ran well for 2 weeks. didn't perform migration till i had run it for a week to see if it was okay and then it died a week after i moved all my data. Seriously, what the hell man... for me the data on the disk is more important than the drive too... time to get an Raid 1 on an NAS for backup. cripes.. still hoping beyond hope that a miracle will happen but probably bring it back in next week. bloody hell... no more seagates for me.

i just got the ST31000340NS from allngp..... with 2 months warranty only samore. mine is sd15 fw....

shit... scary... cant put valuable data there then... how now?

the xxxxxAS models are affected if they carry the SD15 firmware, which I think is supposed to be OEM package. But some people in MSFN forum said they bought a retail pack and the drive is still the OEM version

S**t...this matter should've been discussed earlier...i bought 500gb barracuda hd last week and it hasn't been partitioned yet but when i read this thread..

This post has been edited by caballero206: Jan 14 2009, 11:08 AM

From 2003 I blacklist Maxtor, 2005 I blacklist Western Digital, 2007 I blacklist Seagate, 2008 I blacklist Hitachi. Now I really dunno what to choose liao. Maybe time to try Samsung.

How to check the firmware of the hdd model?

-Err, I just RMA'ed my ST31000340AS which bought from him in mid-December 2008.
Symptom(s): failed to do full-format (quick format OK), when trying to re-partition(s), Disk Management couldn't detect the disk anymore (but could be detected in Device Manager).

-I asked for a refund, but he mistakenly sent another replacement.
Now wondering whether want to use or return back (still sealed in the static back)...


Regards.

This post has been edited by Musafir_86: Jan 14 2009, 11:12 AM

-BTW, here's the official thread for the ST31000340AS on the Seagate Community Forums: Official st31000340as 1TB barracuda epic fail thread..


Regards.

This post has been edited by Musafir_86: Jan 14 2009, 11:56 AM

from what I see online all the ones affected are the AS models. No reports of NS models failing yet.
but the firmware for the AS and NS are similiar so I think they both should have the same risk factor.

any idea why we are not seeing reports of NS models failing?

i just bought seagate 1tb last month. but now still ok.
worried after reading this

Seriously i also dead 1 ST3500320AS. It dead just right after i reboot my pc.I also @.@. Then i heard from the seller from shop.It also claimed that RMA rate is very lot for this.Well i just sent it to RMA.Hope will get another patch.

only ST3500320AS have this prob gua, the rest i think dun hv prob. my seagate 160gb still fine le.

Looks like i'm lucky, was wanting to take 2 of these off a friend.

I think Seagate know that with the economic crisis and all that it's shipments are dropping like mayflies above a lake. I think it can't afford the hit to it's OEM and large volume business so it's keeping mum and hoping that both investors and OEM customers don't catch wind of the problem while they quickly give RMAs out to shut people's mouths up. This is the same issue with the bad cap plague where most manufacturers were climbing up after the post asian economic crisis and couldn't afford to give out market ground to other brands.

Well, i hope some brave soul takes it up with the relevant authorities. As i recall, many cases have been won against computer hardware manufacturers from Abit, Asus and others due to such problems.

Luckily I stayed away from Seagate as WD is cheap .

will a firmware flash solve this?

darn, i am hearing my 500GB Seagate ticks as well i should get a Western Digital as back up

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?

supposedly there's a firmware update for sd15, but you'll have to call seagate to get it. Other than that, you'll have to back up your data A.S.A.P hopefully on a non Seagate 7200.11 HDD.

Hmm, I think i shall start keeping important stuff outta my 500gb. Now mostly "stash" inside the 500gb.

i use seagate 7200.10(already use 1 year still ok)

is it gonna have same problem with 7200.11


or just seagate 7200.11 got problem

ppl say .11 xD

soon will see many Seagate HDD for lelong..

if there's even ppl who dare to buy .unless they are really noob in this stuffs and seldom visit online tech forums.

seagate -----> hellgate

using seagate 500gb bought from jian_yi bulk

pray hard ...

ahhh! and i picked this over WD X(

This post has been edited by 00007kel: Jan 14 2009, 10:13 PM

i got the same drive as TS, it gives me 'tick' sound once in a while.
F**K seagate, it's in my blacklist now.

Aiya, my RM1k WD VRaptor 300GB also died on me recently.
But happy got Seagate 1TB 7200.11 works as a spare.

Just wonder, is the seagate es or sv35 series got affected?
like this >http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/servers/sv35_series/

kinda tempted to get SV35 as my OS drive.

Lolz all seagate users panic alredi including me... must look for another 1tb hdd just in case my seagate fail

hey, no need to panic. It's only a 30% failure rate, so if you know 1 other guy who has a broken 7200.11, then chances are yours will be safe. That's why Seagate's not bothered with correcting the problem, because people who experienced it will just RMA or bring it to some data recovery and pay the arm and leg instead of suing them as they rightfully should.

Though technically, all 7200.11 drives with the DS15 firmware will definitely have a much shorter lifespan than any other drives, especially if you power cycle often.

Mind if i ask whats power cycle?

Cold reboot, power off then power on. Some people experienced it while the system is running where the OS spits out some error, and the drive doesn't come back on again after rebooting.

500gb seagate 3.5" hdd barracuda 7200.11 / ES


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

Does this affected to the new 1.5TB or not?
I was almost buy the 1.5TB lately...

oh crap now i'm worried. having one 500gb 7200.11 as well...

AllnGap is selling Seagate product of Thailand. And it's have SD15 frimware.. I already check...
Waaaa.... i also, buying from AllnGap last month.. And the warranty for OEM is only 3months. Should i ask for refund or just wait my hard disk to die??? This is crazy,all my important data in there... No money to buy new HDD anymore...

tat is not possible since he stated its 3 month warranty
n u bought frm him bocz of the price
juz get rdy to backup

This post has been edited by Irishcoffee: Jan 15 2009, 12:19 AM

I think quattro150 from the msfn forum is thinking of purchasing a the HD Doctor for Seagate fix by salvationHD.com. Apparently the have the kit that fixes this particular problem, but costs USD 600. If anyone knows him, please tell him I'm ready to chip in the pool for recovery.


http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128092&st=80


FYI: I did not buy the HDD from AllnGap, and I'm sure he's not out to get you guys ok?

This post has been edited by spanker: Jan 15 2009, 12:22 AM

If AllanGap not pay attention to this matter,it only show that he is irresponsible seller..
At least he can longer the warranty first until Seagate have the solution for this matter because many people already buy the HDD from him last 2 month..
By the way, i already pin point this matter to him...

Already have problem with this HDD
DAMN !!!!
All my data fly away and HDD sent back to RMA
It's THAILAND product
i don't know why my HDD dead
it happen when i installing windows
So now i afraid to keep reformat windows
Not format HDD since got new one from RMA

Still use till now and so far so good
Remove the jumper and hilang entah kemana lol
AND i hope this one not DEAD also

its not his fault its seagate problem

Is the 7200.12 series already selling in Malaysia? Heard that one got no problems. Perhaps should upgrade to that while my drive still works.

i told u b4, seagate 500g has a high failure risk..there were other thread discussing bout 500g seagate. And many forumers have suffered from 500 seagate failure.

---

Added on January 15, 2009, 3:54 ami told u b4, seagate 500g has a high failure risk..there were other thread discussing bout 500g seagate. And many forumers have suffered from 500 seagate failure.


This post has been edited by uzary: Jan 15 2009, 03:54 AM

Source Here

Hi all,

I was directed here by someone who saw the more global forums discussing about this over at :
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128092&st=220

For Malaysians (in KL) who are affected by this stupid self-coma hard disk, I'm suggesting that we share and buy 1 unit of the HD Doctor for Seagate. That is known to be able to fix the hard disk without loss of data. There are people in UK + Canada who has confirmed that and I have also gotten a quotation from SalvationData.

I will be purchasing that very soon (before end of January - might delay to after CNY as the company is in China) but it's really costly. In order to recoup some of my costs, I'm proposing to fix other self-coma-ed hard disk for a small fee.

For those interested, please send me an email poolcarpet at yahoo dot com. Note that I am located in KL, Malaysia.

P/s: Anyone also contemplating to buy the HD Doctor? Just to avoid the situation where 2 or more people end up buying the same HD Doctor just to fix their single hard disk.

Thank you!

---

Added on January 15, 2009, 6:49 amBtw, for those affected, please try and goto:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128514

and post the details of your hard disk to DerSnoezie - he/she is from Holland and is doing the world community a great service by trying to compile the list of all the failed drives and come out with enough numbers to proof that this is no random hardware failure.

This post has been edited by poolcarpet: Jan 15 2009, 06:49 AM

for sure already
my 1tb went dead suddenly...
bring back to warranty n 1to1 exchange
now let's see how long it will last....it made me lost faith with sg
for all sg users,remember to back up ur important files
cheers

Mayb different batch, tis is mine.

Yes,we know it's seagate problem... But,at least he can prolong the warranty 1st until Seagate come to new firmware or something else...This is called win-win situation..Seller got the profit and buyer get their satisfied since many of us here buying from AllnGap.

This post has been edited by one_guy: Jan 15 2009, 07:56 AM

How to check mine since my hdd is alredi inside the 3.5" casing?

-Hmm, just open the casing la...

According to the data, it doesn't matter if it's China or Thailand, any drive with the SD15 firmware can fail, although it's a higher rate of Thailand-made drives for now.

Well if your HDD is still running and you don't want to physically take it out to check the codes (still the easiest way), you can see the model number in the device manager under disk drives.

Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > Disk Drives

Failing which SeaTools for DOS from Seagate can provide the same information.

What you're looking for should be something like ST3xx003x0AS.

However, what you will not get is the firmware version which is all important because it seems to affect mostly version SD15 drives.

I recommend take the time, open up the casing (5 mins downtime max and a screwdriver is all you need) and check the codes.