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

For me, all hard disk depends on your luck.

Updated mine to SD1A. My 500GB becomes noisier like the old HDD reading days.

It was almost completely silent before I update it's firmware. Now this hard disk is louder when it reads or write. You probably didn't notice it cause your casing is further. I put my casing on the table next to the monitor.

It does. My 500GB is noisier. It reads or writes with the noise like the classic hard disks.

Flashed my 2 500GB ST3500320AS to SD1A and still no problems after 1 month. It's noisier than SD15 but not loud enough to be annoying though.

Heh, this thread is still on after so long. My two 500GB (SD15 updated to SD1A)is still going strong after more than one and the half year.

My WD 1TB Green died 2 weeks ago after few months and I've sent it for RMA. I've used almost all the brands except Samsung and I could say any brand of hard disk is all about luck. Just that SD15 batch is bad. Just get over with it.