heads up for those with Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATA hard drives

[Andy69]

FYI

If anyone has one in sizes 250, 500, 750GB and 1 and 1.5TB, there is a firmware bug on quite a few of them that causes them to fail. I had this happen on a 500GB model. Seagate has a firmware patch for drives still working, and for those that have failed they are restoring and recovering them at no charge. See Seagate website for details.

[DaleM]

Thanks for the heads-up. I had to double-check a second drive I have that I'm configuring for Windows 7; a Seagate Barracuda but it's a 7200.12 so I guess it's ok. When time permits, I'll fire it up and do a firmware check with them to see if it needs updating.

[Andy69]

I have a 7200.12 500GB, and it doesn;t appear that that model has any issues.

I received a call from Seagate yesterday, informing me they have successfully repaired my 7200.11 by reflashing the firmware. They are returning the drive in fully functional condition.

Thumbs up to Seagate for stadning behind their products.

[Bowtie-Bri]

I have a Maxtor (seagate) one touch 4 plus 1T HD.
My wifes laptop has the win vista 64bit os. For some reason the comp doesn't recognize the HD is hooked up and won't work.
Could this have anything to do with what your talking about?

[Andy69]

Seagate also makes Maxtor, and I believe there were some Maxtor drives involved. If you call Seagate customer service and tell them you think you have a drive with the firmware issue, they will ask you for the serial number t o confirm. The HD must be out of the computer though.

One thing I did hear was that OEM drives were not being covered, as Seagate considers that to be the computer vendor's problem. I did not hear that directly from Seagate though so it would still be a good idea to call.