Firmware update for Seagate 7200.11 : performance increase, possible acoustic improve

[ciper]

Seagate 7200.11 drives have a bug in the factory provided firmware that disables part of the drive cache. A firmware update has been created that will solve the issue. Drives with firmware version SD04 or SD14 in sizes of 500Gb, 750Gb, and 1Tb are affected.

There has been much talk of this on the computer performance forums. Since this drive is popular for Tivo upgrades I thought I should post it here. Theoretically increasing the drive cache could reduce disk activity which should decrease noise.

You can check your firmware version with Seatools (http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=seatools-win-eula&vgnextoid=d0d51d4dad651110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD)

Read the official announcement here
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/other_downloads/cuda-fw

Then download the firmware
http://support.seagate.com/ad14disty/AD14-AllMoose.zip
The firmware zip file contains a bootable ISO and a floppy disk creator. I successfully upgraded my firmware using the bootable dos disk

[Joybob]

This apply to all the 7200.11 drives?

[ciper]

Supposedly all of them with firmware version sd04 and sd14. From what I can tell by reading other forums dedicated to PC hardware the majority of units in the wild ARE effected.

[Joybob]

Apparently mine is not affected.

Although I suspect the 16 extra megs might not do so much for DVR performance.

[ciper]

I wouldn't rule it out. The drive will read ahead to the next sector before it has been requested and store it in cache. Most database operations should work against a small portion of the DB which may fit completely inside the cache.