Seagate isolates 'potential' Barracuda flaw

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Osiris

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After reports that its 1TB Barracuda drives are failing at an unusually high rate, Seagate says it has isolated a "potential firmware issue" that would seem to be the cause of this worldwide plague.
The company will provide a free firmware upgrade for those affected by the problem, and if you've lost data thanks to this firmware issue, it will provide free data recover services as well.
In a statement, Seagate says the firmware problem affects "some" Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives and "related drive families based on this product platform." And it explains that "In some circumstances, the data on the hard drives may become inaccessible to the user when the host system is powered on."
You can determine whether your product is affected by visiting the Seagate support site here.
Support is available through Seagate's call center, which can be reached by dialing: 1-800-SEAGATE (1-800-732-4283).
Seagate also says that customers can expedite assistance by sending an email (discsupport@seagate.com). The company asks that you include your drive's model number, serial number, and current firmware revision.
The company does not believe that the firmware problem will cause data loss. But data has been lost, it promises to help find it. "There is no data loss associated with this issue, and the data still resides on the drive," Seagate's statement reads. "But if you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services. Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business."
You'll find a list of international telephone numbers for Seagate Support and alternative methods of contact here.
Seagate emphasised that there is no safety issue with these products.

Seagate isolates 'potential' Barracuda flaw ? The Register
 
Talk about doing there part if you ask me, free data recovery if you HAVE been affected by that flaw... *starts checking his 1tb seagate drives....*
 
Very nice, Seagate.

I applaud any company who stands up and does the right thing like this.

Edit - I just realized my 500gb drives are Seagate. Haaaa. Hopefully this issue doesn't dwindle down to the 500gb section! But, ahh... it's nice having backups. :)
 
Seagate Firmware Update and Data Recovery Offer

In case you missed it, Seagate hard drive owners have been reporting a “random freezing” issue since early December (here). The problem was addressed last week with a firmware update and an offer of free data recovery by Seagate. If you haven't started the replacement process yet, you can find all the information you need in this knowledge base article on the company website.


Welcome, Seagate hard drive owners. A number of Seagate hard drives from the following families may become inaccessible when the host system is powered on: Barracuda 7200.11, DiamondMax 22, Barracuda ES.2 SATA. Once a drive has become affected the data becomes inaccessible to users but the data is not deleted. Seagate has isolated this issue to a firmware bug affecting drives from these families manufactured in December 2008.
 
Is this JUST for the 1.0TB drives? I have the 1.5TB 7200.11 Barracuda and it runs fine, but I've heard a lot of people complaining of drive failures from them and I already know they've been trying to fix a lot of firmware errors.
 
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