Try, try again: Seagate issues a second fix for 7200.11 hard drives

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.