RSSTry, try again: Seagate issues a second fix for 7200.11 hard drives
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published January 22, 2009, 1:41 PM
Seagate Technologies spokesperson Michael L. Hall gave Betanews an update this afternoon on the company's situation with its Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives, which have been failing in record numbers. Hall acknowledged that some units manufactured up until last month do have an issue where data is rendered inaccessible after power-up, and went on to acknowledge that the company's initial fix for the problem only made matters worse.
"While we believe that the vast majority of customers will not experience any disruption related to this issue, as part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, Seagate is offering a free firmware upgrade to proactively address those with potentially affected products," Hall stated. "This new firmware upgrade corrects compatibility issues that occurred with the firmware download provided on our support Web site on Jan. 16. We regret any inconvenience that the firmware issues have caused our customers."
To determine whether your Barracuda drive is one of those requiring the new firmware upgrade, head to this company KnowledgeBase page. Hall reiterated the company's belief that inaccessible data has not been lost, and that a fix may fully restore that data.
Seagate recorded a loss this morning of nearly half a billion dollars, in the wake of a corporate shakeup that claimed the CEO's job, forcing his replacement by the company's chairman.
So, while a few are issuing absolute, and absolutely idiotic, pronouncements of their intent to never use a Seagate drive again (and I suspect their computers are still incomplete barebones units if they only employ components that have never had a problem), does anyone know if the Seagate fix works?
Score: 0
|Hard drives are too important. No way am I ever going to trust Seagate. For spinning magnetic media it's Western Digital all the way.
Score: 0
|http://www.google.com/se...=Google+Search&aq=f
Caviar has an even longer history of Failure than *any* seagate model.
The Point? None of them are perfect. Seagate has been the leader for years. This is one drive. Avoid it like the plague. The rest of their line-up should be as reliable as everything else they've done.
Over-reacting is never good business-sense.
Score: 0
|My drive is working fine but because it is one of the affected models, I called in and talked to tech support who took all the details. I was given a case number and told that in 24-48 hours I would be emailed instructions and a link for a flash to update the firmware. That was over a week ago and still no email. On top of that, their 1-800 phone system has become "temporarily" non-functional this week regardless of which option you select. And as if that was not enough, an earlier update on the website caused more bricked drives. Obviously I do not want to do anything that will cause my drive to kill itself so I am waiting and waiting.
I got tired of waiting today so I found a regular long distance number into Seagate in California [my local Seagate number does not return calls!]. The very helpful lady transferred me to someone in call escalations. I go voicemail. Here I sit still waiting. And waiting.
Not a good way to handle the situation Seagate! Communicate with your customers when you say you will. Don't leave us in the dark. That will just anger people and make them more likely to join the class action law suits that I sadly think will follow this episode.
Do right by your customers Seagate and quickly -- it will be far cheaper than having to deal with ravenous lawyers!
Score: 1
|