Failed Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB Drive ??


JarDo

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This is a coninuation of a thread that I started here:

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=2679.msg22791#msg22791

 

And I should have started in the Hardware forum.

 

See attached for a complete copy of my syslog.  I don't know how to read it, but it doesn't look good >:(

If nothing else, it will alert others that these drives may have firmware issues they might need to keep an eye on.

 

Your syslog seems to indicate drive time-out errors, similar to what others are describing.

 

The question is "will the drive wake up when you power cycle it", or not.

 

About all you can do is shut down and power cycle.  If it comes up OK, let it do a full parity check.  Odds are all will be ok, but it will exercise the drive.  Then, get the updated firmware. 

Be VERY careful with the update.  I've read that they might ask you to do it with all other drives disconnected, so as not to accidentally write to them. 

 

Joe L.

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Well, from all your replies I find comfort knowing that my drive may not be dead but only needs a firmware upgrade.  I've got emails out to Seagate support trying to get them to think I'm worthy of the new firmware so they will send it to me.  I don't think there is any other way to get it as they don't make it a public download.

 

In the mean-time, I have another drive acting as parity.  But I've got to figure this out fast and get my Seagate back in 'cause I'm running out of space!!!  (taking 1.5TB out of the array is a significant loss).

 

I now have 7* 1.5tb drives with later firmware that are all running ok.

 

rhinoman - Did you receive your drives with the latest firmware or did you have to upgrade??

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OK.  Found the new firmware and installed the new firmware.  Right now the disk is completing a 'Long' test in Seatools for DOS.  (Passed the 'Short' test twice already).  Once the testing is finished I'll re-install as the parity drive in my unraid and we'll try again.

 

I first attempted to use the firmware update that Newegg makes available (yes it's posted on their site but you have to search).  This version of the firmware requires you to add the files to a DOS bootable disk.  Problem was the firmware upgrade files are too large to fit in the remaining space of a 1.44MB boot disk.  I got around this by creating a bootable CD.  But, I still couldn't get the firmware upgrade process to complete.  (It'd get stuck trying to open the 8h_SD1A.lod file, which is the firmware binary).

 

Then, I found another version that is a CD ISO that contains the same firmware upgrade.  This worked like a champ.

 

Am I allowed to post links to download files in this forum?   I'd like to make available to others the tools that I found.  I spent a lot of time looking for them and others might find these links useful.

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OK.  Found the new firmware and installed the new firmware.  Right now the disk is completing a 'Long' test in Seatools for DOS.  (Passed the 'Short' test twice already).  Once the testing is finished I'll re-install as the parity drive in my unraid and we'll try again.

Am I allowed to post links to download files in this forum?   I'd like to make available to others the tools that I found.  I spent a lot of time looking for them and others might find these links useful.

I have nothing to do with the site, but in my opinion, it is not out of line.  It might save a lot of people a lot of time.  (The link will probably be invalid after a while anyway, so include the actual file name, so a google search might turn it up at a time in the future)
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If you have a Seagate ST31500341AS with firmware other than SD1A, then these files may be of use to you:

 

  • SeaTools v2.07 for DOS.  The archive contains an executable for creating a bootable floppy with SeaTools.  The archive also contains an ISO for creating the same on a bootable CD.  I used this to check the firmware version of my drive and to also test the drive after upgrading its firmware to SD1A:

 

          http://www.vhahost.net/bitbucket/ST31500341AS/SeaToolsDOS207.zip

 

  • SeaTools v1.1.0.21 for Windows:

 

          http://www.vhahost.net/bitbucket/ST31500341AS/seatoolsforwindowssetup.zip

 

  • This archive contains the files needed to update your Seagate ST31500341AS firmware to SD1A.  These are the same files that can be found on NewEgg's site, and these files are also floating around in many other forums.  I didn't have much success with these files, but I'm confident that they are legit and that they may work for you:

 

          http://www.vhahost.net/bitbucket/ST31500341AS/8h_SD1A.zip

 

  • This archive contains an alternate method for updating your Seagate ST31500341AS firmware to SD1A.  In this archive is an executable for creating a bootable floppy and an ISO for creating a bootable CD.  Both contian a utility to update your firmware and upon boot they get right to business.  I didn't test the bootable floppy option in this archive, but I did sucessfully update the firmware on my Seagate drive using the ISO in this archive.  From the looks of things when it runs it would appear to me that these are the files that Seagate would have you download if you were working with their support dept. to upgrade your firmware:

 

          http://www.vhahost.net/bitbucket/ST31500341AS/SeagateFlash15tb.zip

 

IMPORTANT:

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

If you don't trust the links above then please do not use them. 

These files worked for me, but I am unable to represent that they will work for you.

Firmware upgrade files for upgrading your Seagate ST31500341AS to Firmware SD1A ONLY!!

Use for 9JU138 -300 and -336 part numbers only (firmware SD15 - SD19).

DO NOT use on any other part number or firmware.

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148337

 

Click on the product tour tab. Scroll down to see firmware update instructions and a link to download the firmware:

 

Firmware Download Instructions

Drives with with part number: 9JU138-300, 366 and with firmware revision SD17 and SD15 or SD18. Can be upgraded to the FW fix SD1A.

 

ST31500341AS 1.5 TB

SD1A Firmware load Instructions:

 

Download Firmware - 8h_SD1A.zip http://promotions.newegg.com/files/8h_SD1A.zip

 

1 - Unzip the files into a DOS Bootable directory or media. (DO NOT use a CMD Window or command prompt in Windows).

 

2 - Attach a Single ST31500341AS 1.5TB unit to a compatible system used previously for Seagate HDD interface firmware loads.

 

3 - Boot the system into DOS and connect to the directory with the firmware files. Then execute the batch file 8HSD1A.BAT

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Hey Guys,

 

Currently have one of these drives as Parity and another one as Data. When I first got them, I RMA'd one that was clicking and the replacement is quiet. They both have firmware SD17

 

So how do I know if I should be upgrading the firmware? I have not noticed any issues when streaming content, copying to the tower or Parity checking (knock on wood)

 

 

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If you look on the label on the drive its self, it will state the firmware installed at the factory.  If you see something like SD15, SD17, or SD19 then you might want to think about updating the firmware to SD1A.  Since you are certain that you have firmware SD17 (what I had) then, if I were you, I'd be upgrading the firmware on my drive.  I recommend burning the ISO in this archive to a CD:

 

http://www.vhahost.net/bitbucket/ST31500341AS/SeagateFlash15tb.zip

 

The firmware is WAY easier to install using the bootable ISO than mucking with the files made available on Newegg's site.

 

I have one of these drives and it served me well as my parity drive for about 2 months before it became unresponsive.

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...Since you are certain that you have firmware SD17 (what I had) then, if I were you, I'd be upgrading the firmware on my drive.  I recommend burning the ISO in this archive to a CD:...

 

Since the drives are in the Tower as Parity and Data (with 800Gb of data), and the Tower has no CD/DVD drive (I do have a spare kicking around), how would you go about updating the firmware without pulling the drives?

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I would proceed with caution.  This is not a trivial operation.  Since Seagate says disconnect all other drives than the one being upgraded, I would take that seriously, that there is a risk to any other drive found.  Plus, a firmware upgrade of a hard drive may make the current data inaccessible, and possibly reset the SMART information.  It sounds like most are doing this firmware replacement while offline, with no data to protect.  Until you hear from users who have used this process and tested their data, and compared before and after SMART reports, I would consider any drive upgraded to be a brand new drive, perhaps even needing a SMART long test.  It would be especially good to hear from a user with a SMART report indicating a bad sector remapped, and whether that sector is still remapped after the upgrade.  It should be obvious if the Power On hours have been reset, and if so, I would run a SMART long test on the drive, before putting it online.  Hmmm, is the serial number preserved?

 

Unless other users say otherwise, that it is not necessary, this means a parity rebuild, and a data drive rebuild.  Just a suggestion, but it may be safer to purchase a third drive, and upgrade and test it independently, before using it to swap with one of the in-use drives.  Then upgrade and test the swapped drive, and swap it for the last one, so it can be upgraded and tested and added back as a new drive.

 

I don't know why Seagate is making this warning, and making this process so onerous.  Surely a Seagate tool understands SMART, and can query for the exact drive or drives needing firmware upgrades.  And you would think it could offload the current SMART stats and tables, and re-apply them afterward (and perhaps it is, but we need to confirm that).

 

As to how to proceed, temporarily installing that spare CD drive is probably your easiest course.  But it really depends on whether the drive's contents are safely preserved across the firmware replacement.  I personally would use a different machine for the upgrades and testing.

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I don't have my drives yet so I don't know if I need to do the firmware upgrade or not. But if I am getting all of this correct their is no reason that I could't use my regular Vista machine. Unplug the hard drive, plug in one of the new drives, run the boot CD to upgrade the firmware, does this sound correct. Can I also run the smart tests the same way, with out doing any formatting or having operating system?

 

I am hoping they have the new firware, but I won't be that lucky, they are coming Thursday

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Thanks Rob,

 

As it stands right now, I wasn't planning on upgrading the firmware unless I ran into problems. If and when I noticed anything weird, then I would probably plug the DVD drive in the Tower, set the bios to boot off DVD, disconnect the unRaid USB and unplug the Data disk. Run the firmware upgrade on the Parity drive and hope for the best.

 

Maybe remove the Parity drive from my array before shutting down?

 

Like I said, I have no plans of doing any of this UNLESS I start having problems (knock on wood)

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Thanks Rob,

 

As it stands right now, I wasn't planning on upgrading the firmware unless I ran into problems. If and when I noticed anything weird, then I would probably plug the DVD drive in the Tower, set the bios to boot off DVD, disconnect the unRaid USB and unplug the Data disk. Run the firmware upgrade on the Parity drive and hope for the best.

 

Maybe remove the Parity drive from my array before shutting down?

 

Like I said, I have no plans of doing any of this UNLESS I start having problems (knock on wood)

Your approach sounds like it would work when you apply the firmware patch to the drive.  Disconnect all the other drives and you will be safe.

 

To this day I have memories of how I was using "Maxblast" to partition a new maxtor drive on an older PC where I had just added it as a third drive.  It partitioned the wrong drive.  It partitioned and formatted a similar "maxtor" that was drive "D:"  To this day I don't trust disk manufacturers "setup disks" when there are any other disks in the same PC.  Disconnect all the other drives and you will be safe.

 

Although I would normally agree with your approach, I'd do the firmware upgrade anyway, and I'd seriously consider doing it if you have more than one of those drives in your array as there have been multiple reports on the web of two drives dying concurrently in a RAID5 array and people losing data on all the drives in the array as their raid controller card tried to deal with the failures. (Most other RAID systems do not allow you to mix drive sizes, so if they have one in their array, odds are all are the 1.5TB drives, increasing chances of concurrent failure)

 

If you only have the one drive, and decide not to update its firmware, keep an eye on it. It will not be apparent it has failed until you look at the management interface and see the "red" indicator.

 

Joe L.

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I don't have my drives yet so I don't know if I need to do the firmware upgrade or not. But if I am getting all of this correct their is no reason that I could't use my regular Vista machine. Unplug the hard drive, plug in one of the new drives, run the boot CD to upgrade the firmware, does this sound correct. Can I also run the smart tests the same way, with out doing any formatting or having operating system?

 

Good way to upgrade the firmware.

 

The boot CD has a tiny operating system on it.  You can't do anything (well, almost) without an operating system loaded.  To run the SMART tools, I would set that machine to boot from the USB drive, and insert your unRAID flash, and try booting the Vista machine.  Then from the Linux console, you can run the SMART tools on the drive.  Some Linux knowledge will be needed though.  There's lots of help available here.

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