Necrosis

Neshi you also might want to "scroll down" in Everest.

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Neshi

ah darn... I thought I scrolled down enough. apparently not.
that's a stupid mistake to make. It is displaying 32mb buffer..
*slaps himself on the back of the head*

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If one does not attach himself to people and desire, never shall his heart be broken. But then, does he ever truly live?

The only guarantee in life is failure, to achieve success you have to take risks.

Necrosis

Ha, ha don't worry I did the same thing, have the 750GB.

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RealHJ2

I have a question regarding the "Sandra" reporting and overall speed on the Segate 1TB ST31000340AS SAS drives.


Brief background: I have a Gigabyte P35-DS3R based pretty good system (8GB Crucial top-grade RAM, Q6600 CPU, Intel ICH8R/ICH9R SATA RAID controller on-board, etc.). The only problem with it: Windows Vista (I should have never listed to the person at work who convinced me to get it w/ chicken Windows vs. Win XP).


I recently put in a pair of 1TB ST31000340AS'es, firmware SD15. So, presumably, it should not be affected by this specific problem.


However, two issues that would lead me to believe that perhaps it is affected:


1.a) Super slow write speeds to the Seagate 1TB drive. At most, I can get some 4 MB/s consistent writes to it (this is to a single drive, putting data on it before building RAID-1 off it). This is many, many times slower than I get now on the WDC WD-5000ABYS-01TNA0 500GB drives I have in another RAID-1 (the Seagate 1TBs are to replace the second 500GB RAID-1 with a 1TB RAID-1). To Copy some 450GB of data I first needed to do it in small chunks (anything over 16,000 files copied at once and chicken windows (Windows Vista) will just choke and some 15-20 minutes into the file copy just freeze, all goes white, system unresponsive - as it can't handle more than 16,000 (approx.) file copy at once - if any more attempted, need to hard reboot once chicken windows chokes), and overall it took about a day and a half to copy the 450GB over. I measured approx 6 hours to copy each 100GB of data.


b) Building RAID-1 from one 1TB drive to the other it has taken some 20 hours and so far it's only 58% done in the "mirroring" process. So, it would seem that it takes some 36 hours - 1 and a half days! - just to mirror some 450GB of data from one Seagate 1TB drive to the other. This is not copying file by file, but a low level mirror by the Intel ICH8R/ICH9R RAID controller. The same task on my 500GB WD drives RAID-1 would only take approx an hour and a half, I know.


2. Sandra reports the Seagate 1TB drive cache differently every time I look at it. It ranges from 16KB to 10.xxMB. (Though in general it seems not accurate on that reporting anyhow for all the drives. Is there any better, more reliable and consistent reporting tool recommended?)


3. Another item: the Seagate 1TB drive seems to chronically overheat. More than once during the 450GB data copy the drive just "disappeared" and the system would not see it. Then the only solution is to shut system down and some 10-15 min later reboot and it'll see (rebooting right away it won't be seen by the bios). It seems that these Seagate 1TB drives are very low-end consumer grade and are not meant for continous I/O operations - as anything over an hour consistent reads or writes and the drive is at a risk of overheading and (I presume) auto shutting down due to overheat. (Note: at home I have AC set to 22C consistently, it is not hot here. And, the Seagate 1TB drives in a chassis are set with the 5.25" adapter brackets, so there is lots of airflow above and below - they are not squished tight together in the 3.5" drive space, but instead have ample cooling and good fans, etc. in the system.)


Any recommendations re: the SD15 firmware? Is it also known to have the cache problem? Should I update to AD14? Would that fix the super-slow reads and writes of these drives? (Note: I set jumper to "Generation 2" - SATA 300 - so it's not that it's set to SATA 150 slower default.) And/or any other suggestions regarding the slow reads/writes by these drives and the chronic overheating when using the drive for 1+ hour continous reads/writes (as is needed to move the 450GB data to it and then build the RAID-1 mirror off the drives)?

Judas

That sounds like something critically wrong with the drive itself.... i can't see vista having anything to do with the problem at all...

have you run Seagate Tools to check the drive itself....

even the horrible PIO MODE 2 hd's i had on hand produced a little better results then that.

check your sata cable as well.. or the connection... something is surely wrong.

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RealHJ2

It's not the SATA connection for sure, as it's using the same ports (4,5) and the same SATA cables as my earlier 500GB WD drives had, which had about 20 times faster reads & writes as these drives do. It's highly unlikely that just by unplugging the SATA cables from the earlier two drives and plugging into these the two drives, both SATA cables would have went bad.

I just run the Seagate SeaTools. Short drive self test always fails, SMART test unavailable, etc... so no real conclusive results.
But, again, it doesn't see the drives: it only sees the RAID arrays, so that is perhaps why as the Intel RAID controller is blocking SeaTools from seeing the drives themselves directly.. I'll try the DOS version of the tools intead perhaps now.

Judas

If the short test EVER fails.. the drive is bad..

And yes you'd like having to "unraid" the drives to do it... but i don't think it should fail any tests...

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Gradius2

Sorry to say that, but you're dead wrong.

I have four 750GB SD15 here, and two of them already died exactly as related in:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives failing - The Inquirer

They all are less than 5 months old, and just died out of blue.

So is confirmed SD15 also have issues, be careful !

Gradius

Gradius2

SD15 have issues too (see my previous post), I recommend to you update your firmware as soon as possible !

More infos:
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/...essage.id=4513

Gradius

Gradius2

This is what flash.bat does:
sf445 -m MOOSE -f AD14ALL.lod -s -x -b -v

Btw, don't try to use AD14 on SD15, or you'll kill your drive.

Gradius

bratboy

Does anyone know is this firmware supposed to help with the st31000340as 1TB drives dieing right and left as discussed in this thread:

Official st31000340as 1TB barracuda epic fail thread. - Internal (ATA and Serial ATA) drives - Seagate Community Forums

Tipstaff

Excuse me, but this is a separate issue all together. While this is alarming, to be sure, it has nothing to do with the original post about performance problems related to incorrectly detected cache sizes on the first 7200.11 drives that came out 1 year ago with the SD14 firmware. That was a firmware issue that was corrected in a later revision of the firmware, the AD14 firmware, and the fix was included in the newer batches of drives, including the ones with the SD15 firmware.

The issue with the drives dying that your are referring to, while probably a firmware issue, is again a different issue altogether (it also looks like it's not isolated to just drives with the SD15 firmware either).

Edit: BTW, the drives with the SD15 firmware are NOT the same drives as the ones with the SD14/AD14 firmware, and you should never, ever, use the AD14 firmware on them. The drives that came with the SD14 firmware came out before the SD15 drives, and the AD14 firmware is not made for those or later released drives. If you do so you will pooch your drive, or at the very least make them highly unstable, but for sure you will void your warranty.

Nope. Separate issues, however I haven't heard anyone complaining about the original drives with the SD14 or updated AD14 firmware crashing yet. AND they are separate drives. The drives with the SD15 firmware were sold with that firmware. The AD14 firmware was not made for those drives, only the initially released drives that had the SD14 firmware, and that is why you should not use the AD14 firmware on them.

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bratboy

Oh well, was hopeing this would take care of the issues ppl seem to be experiencing with the drives failing.

I decided to just not use mine since it seems so untrustworthy, cant afford to lose all my data halfway thru a semester and just ordered 2 WD10EADS 1T drives. Sure hope WD doesn't let me down

Netshark

Think I got one of this drives, but with Firmware version SD15, am I safe?

Thanks in advance and great thread tipstaff

Tipstaff

Thanks, and welcome to the forum.

I have to say that this new issue with the Seagate drives has been turning this thread up a lot lately, but I must stress that the issue discussed in this thread is a totally different issue from the ones that are being reported about right now.

Here's how it goes:

The initial releases of the 7200.11 Seagate drives came with an SD14 firmware. That firmware had an issue in which the bios/computer would not correctly detect the amount of cache installed on them. So, instead of seeing 32mb of cache it would see less, sometimes 8 or 16mb. The firmware I posted about fixed that, and only that issue. All of the drives that had that firmware were either updated by Seagate, updated by the distributors, or updated by resellers such as myself before being sold, bringing the drives up to AD14 firmware.

In regards to the current failures, and the initial drives, I have yet to see one drive with either the original SD14 or updated AD14 firmware have this failure issue.

The second release of the 7200.11 Seagate drives, and subsequent releases, come with an SD15 firmware (some with SD35 as one user reported). So far these are the ones that are being reported about.

If you guys are worried about your drive, and it has an SD15 firmware on it, as well as it was made in Thailand, seeing as how these are the 2 commonalities popping up for those failed drives, contact Seagate, cuz this thread is of no use to you guys.

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Netshark

Thanks for the explanation

Well, I feel totally dissapointed by Seagate, none of their drives failed on me.

BTW, I have two 1TB disks made in China.

bratboy

Just an FYI, the Sd15 issue has also turned up with "some" of the China drives as well. It doesn't seem as prevelent tho. Anyway here is a link to a thread that ppl were posting thier model info where they had the problem

Seagate 7200.11 fail & fine dataset - MSFN Forums

bobnaze

hi dear tipstaff;
I need Update Firmware for Maxtor sata 500gb Model Number: ST3500320AS with Firmware code: MX15 can you help me about this issue, I try to connect with seagat's technical office but the registeration form in that site hasn't work & one Question:
Can i run the Firmware update file in my PC or need the additional hardware to upgrade my Hdd?

thanks so much

ps.
my yahoo id: bobnaze@yahoo.com

Tipstaff

You're having the same issue as reported by Gradius2, correct? If so, sorry, I can't help you on this. You should to contact Seagate about it as the drive you have (the Seagate/Maxtor DiamondMax STM3500320AS 500GB drive) is on the list of drives that are suspected of failing.

I can say that you won't need any special hardware to upgrade the firmware. Normally you will get the firmware on a CD, or burnable ISO image. The idea is to disconnect every hard drive except the one you want to update along with 1 CD rom drive. You'd boot up off the CD, and flash the firmware on the hard drive. There are to things to note: 1) in some cases the data on the drive won't be accessible afterwards, in which case you will need to reformat, and 2) if the drive is dead you will not be able to flash the drive, and then yes, you would need special hardware.

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Tipstaff

Just to inform people on this drive failure with the Seagate/Maxtor drives: Do not grab the firmware being offered by people out there, and be very careful of flashing the suspected drives even if you got the firmware from Seagate. The updated firmwares that have been released (SD1A for Seagate, and MX1A for Maxtor) have been known to either work, or not. And by not I mean that you can turn a working drive into a useless POS. Both firmwares have been pulled by Seagate from their respective pages.

HERE is the main page for all the affected drives, both Barracuda 7200.11 and ES.2 (Seagate), and DiamonMax 22 (Maxtor). At the bottom you will notice a list of all the drives, and all you need to do is click on the one you have. Note that on the page for the drive itself that the firmware has been removed for validation purposes on all but the ES.2 pages (no updates for this drive as the SD06 is the current firmware). This is Seagates way of saying that firmware has been reported to be F'd up, so we've pulled it until we can fix it. When an updated firmware comes out that Seagate page is where you should check.

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Netshark

Seagate just launched a "new" firmware: SD1A (the new SD1A)

Seagate Knowledge Base

[hobo]eclipse

this does not cover all of the defective drives

my drive the ST3640323AS is not included on that list but info can be found here on a different knowledgebase page

Seagate Knowledge Base


we really need a new thread at DH on this situation, as the OP topic of discussion differs from this problem. i may do that in a bit

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BlueMak

Mine used to be on the list but now it doesn't appear anywhere...
and I have yet to receive a reply to the email after 5 days.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Tipstaff

I agree.

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bobnaze

tank you Tipstaff, for your helpful article.
i think my drive is dead because the upgrade Frimware program hasnot found any device.

Tipstaff

Do yourself a favor: before calling Seagate to get the drive replaced go back to the person you bought the drive from to see if they will replace it, or if they will handle the RMA for you. One of the suppliers I deal with will do the RMAs for me (they send a pile of drives back to Seagate every week), and thus costs me nothing. If they do this will save you a bunch of money. Otherwise you will have to handle things directly with Seagate.

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bobnaze

You have kindness to me for my problem, i'm waiting to find solution for this issue. i live in Tehran therefore i must contact with seagate's dealer in my town (Vista Rayaneh co.) but i need to my data & must wait until to find cheap solution.
please apologize me for my mistakes in English writing.

BlueMak

The Matrox ones are up. Anyone tried them yet? I am very worried that something will go wrong during or after the upgrade and ruin the hard drive and the data on it.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.