Seagate and I are done: 320GB AAK firmware - they won't help me with a HD swap!

[jeeka]

UPDATE: Seagate came through and gave me a BETA AMM Firmware for the 320GB Drive, after about two weeks of leaning in on them....Check further down to get the link to it.

(Changing the POST TITLE to help others find the BETA AAM Firmware)

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I had a Seagate SATAII 320GB drive with an AAD firmware, which is really fast for it's type. I planned on using another, similar drive in a RAID0 or possibly a RAID5 (would have to purchase more drives). I bought an identical drive off Newegg and it came with the dreaded AAK firmware.

At first, I thought, no big deal, but benching it, it was ~20MB SLOWER than my AAD Firmware! That will KILL any dreams of my RAID running at full potential.

I called Seagate and they WILL NOT help me out by swapping to an OLDER AAD drive! The genius on the phone initially thought I wanted to swap to a higher 500GB Drive with the AAM firmware, which fixes these issues, but it's only available for the 500GB model, not the 320GB model (yet)...

All I was asking for was to give me the performance that I paid for, and not a crippled drive. Am I wrong in all this? All I was asking for was a swap to an AAD or similar drive...

So I am stuck with a crippled AAK 320GB Drive that I will have to return to Newegg because it's not as well of a performer as the older drive... It's not broken, it's just not working 100%, which can EASILY be fixed with a firmware update, they already have one for the 500GB model!!! So I'll end up with a restocking fee on top of all this. Not a biggie, just more upset with the cheapie Customer Support Philosophy of Seagate these days.

Anyone have any ideas?
I'm not being a moron am I?
Thoughts? Thanks!
jeeka.

[NickS]

Keep swapping till you get AAD? Or, go to a local PC shop, best buy, etc and look around till you find an AAD.

[ziddey]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully AAM will make its way down to the 320GB's someday. I just got a used 500gb .10 that turned out to be AAK.

Just curious though. I remember a year or so ago, people were complaining about some seagates that were really loud. Were these AAK? 308? My seagate is way way way louder than the two wd 500gb's I have (ks and ys).

At this point in time, why get a .10 over a .11? If raiding a .10 and .11, shouldn't it still perform no worse than having two .10's (assuming the .11 doesn't have any specs lower than the .10?)

[jeeka]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully AAM will make its way down to the 320GB's someday. I just got a used 500gb .10 that turned out to be AAK.

Just curious though. I remember a year or so ago, people were complaining about some seagates that were really loud. Were these AAK? 308? My seagate is way way way louder than the two wd 500gb's I have (ks and ys).

At this point in time, why get a .10 over a .11? If raiding a .10 and .11, shouldn't it still perform no worse than having two .10's (assuming the .11 doesn't have any specs lower than the .10?)

Ya, that makes sense in theory. I would always like to try and have equal drives. Mainly, for me, it's knowing that one drive is holding the other one back.

[RPGWiZaRD]

This is why I stay away from Seagate these days, why would you even have to get such various results between a product only based when and where it's manufactured. This is something I dislike a lot. Should be the same thing if it carries same product model, 2~3 MB/s or so would be ok I guess but 20MB/s slower isn't acceptable.

[Sparky]

How do you determine the firmware you get? I bought a 250GB seagate, their really thin single platter one that is pretty quick. Do any of those have poor firmware?

BTW, can't you flash the firmware on the drive?

[Rilla927]

Give it some static and then call them and tell them the drive died so they replace it. This is BS!

[Nick04263]

I have personally never tried it with a Hard drive (never had too) but isn't it possible to reflash the firmware by some means? Or is it locked, on a ROM chip, etc?

[jeeka]

How do you determine the firmware you get? I bought a 250GB seagate, their really thin single platter one that is pretty quick. Do any of those have poor firmware?

BTW, can't you flash the firmware on the drive?

You can go into the Intel Matrix Storage Console and see the firmware when you click on the drive. These drives also have the shipping firmware on the HD's label.

[jeeka]

Give it some static and then call them and tell them the drive died so they replace it. This is BS!

Ha, true huh, but they already have my calls, online chats and online requests logged, as noted by the genius on the phone who helped me. Knowing them (and in that case they would have the right to do so), they would be suspicious of my drive's "sudden death" and would tell me to go take a hike......

[ziddey]

It'll also say it during post. Or in programs like hdtach/hdtune.

Hopefully aam firmware will hit the lower drives soon or someone will figure out how to forceflash them.

[Sparky]

OK thanks, I'll check my label. Intel matrix storage console won't do me a bit of good since I don't have an intel board

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

i was in the same boat as you, except i bought a pair of 320gb's for raid and they were slow! i did post something about it a while back

anyway i sold them on for ebay actually breaking even for a change, got 2 x WD 320gb's now and world of difference on performance.

i'd recommend you do what i did

[Sparky]

My drive is an AAC firmware drive. Good? Bad?

[ziddey]

no prob do an hdtach and you'd know if you had problems

[jeeka]

My drive is an AAC firmware drive. Good? Bad?

AAC supposedly was really good and didn't have these issues of being "capped". I have AAD on my other drive and it wipes the floor with the AAK Drive.

I wonder if the aquisition of Maxtor allowed them to "downsize"/reuse parts to lower costs and start quietly swapping in less effective parts left over from the Maxtor stuff while riding the "quality" reputation of Seagate. If so, I did not buy the drive that was advertised to me.

It's Ok, I just bought another WD3200AAKS drive to pair it with my other WD drive and put THAT setup into a RAID.

Seagate will pay for spitting on my hands after I handed them my money.
jeeka.

[it_burns_when_i_pee]

its wrong they are getting away with it

i paid full whack for the seagate 320gb's, infact i think they a bit more expensive than the western digitals.

seagate advised me that i couldnt update the firmware on the hdd's because the eeprom chip used is different. i'll avoid seagate for this, but who's to say that other manufacturer's wont do something similar?

[jeeka]

UPDATE:
They sent me an e-mail with a link to AAE FIRMWARE!.....I knew they would get it wrong......I HAVE AAK! IT WON'T WORK!

So, I backed up whatever I had on the AAK Drive, knowing it would not work, and tried it, just in case I could be proven wrong (which is often) ...

AND..... rebooting back into Windows, HD Tune and the Intel Matrix Storage Console still had me at AAK.....

So it turns out that Seagate knows less about their drives than we do...
Here is my attachment that I sent to them...sorry so big on screen.

Why can't they just tailor an AAM Firmware from a 500GB model and release it! They are probably workng on it as we speak...ya right...

[REVHEAD]

Ok after reading this thread I dont understand why you guys have not flashed to aam firmware, a simple google search would have solved you heartache.

I had two 500gb 7200.10s with aak firmware, and a while back contacted seagate support who basically told be to buy new disks becasue my drives couldnt be flashed, well I found a link with a firmware update, and guess what she flashed to the new firmware..

I have saved you the trouble http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread...=213448&page=5 a guy in this forum has uploaded the firmware for us ,burn it to a cd ,boot from cd skip thru the readme and then when in A:\ promt mash in firmware.bat I think it was.

Just make shure you read the readme file before jumping in, and please dont blame any one if you hose your disks, but I did my two and it worked a treat..

Good luck .

[jeeka]

Ok after reading this thread I dont understand why you guys have not flashed to aam firmware, a simple google search would have solved you heartache.

I had two 500gb 7200.10s with aak firmware, and a while back contacted seagate support who basically told be to buy new disks becasue my drives couldnt be flashed, well I found a link with a firmware update, and guess what she flashed to the new firmware..

I have saved you the trouble http://forums.vr-zone.com/showthread...=213448&page=5 a guy in this forum has uploaded the firmware for us ,burn it to a cd ,boot from cd skip thru the readme and then when in A:\ promt mash in firmware.bat I think it was.

Just make shure you read the readme file before jumping in, and please dont blame any one if you hose your disks, but I did my two and it worked a treat..

Good luck .

Before you claim to be victorious in a solution, please note that this is for drives ending in 308 ONLY....whether it be 320GB, 500GB, etc.

You have not totally saved us the trouble since this only applies to some people...and even then some of the people in the other forum could not get the AAM Firmware to take on their 320GB Drives ending in 308....

I have done HOURS of searching on the net, so please don't tell me that I need to try harder.... I appreciate the efforts to contribute, and yes, you are partly right, but we are not there quite yet.

I have seen this post as well, hopefully this helps us find a solution!
Thanks again for helping me arrive at a solution, and don't take the above personally.

Fight on!
jeeka.

[jeeka]

UPDATE:

Hey ya'll tried the link from REVHEAD's post, seeing as how I have an AAK with a P/N ending in -308...and it did not work.

Hopefully someone might be able to build off of REVHEAD's link.

REVHEAD, thanks for the link!
-jeeka.

[REVHEAD]

I am sorry to hear this, my drives end in -308 and the flash worked. sorry it it didnt flash.

[jeeka]

Ah, wait a second, I used flash.bat and not firmware.bat.......was I supposed to use firmware.bat????????

[REVHEAD]

ill recheck for you let me load it back up again

[jeeka]

I believe it's just flash.bat...
I saw one your last post (#60) in the other forum and you posted "firware.bat" as opposed to firmware.bat, but in the link, the poster said to use "flash.bat"...

You have the 500GB Drive, no?
I have the 320GB...
arg!
jeeka.