Seagate 1.5TB Firmware Update Fix

Can someone help me out. My computer can't boot from USB, so i'm trying to do this all from the CD rom drive. Is there a good way to do this? maybe something like that usb boot disk guide?

Burn a boot CD?
 
If you google "How To Boot From A USB Flash Drive" you will get a few results.

Please, if anyone has any more input on the firmware upgrade or if they purchased and just received a new 1.5tb drive I would love to hear what you have to say.
 
Can I put upon you guys to find out if my new 1.5TB drive requires the update? The model number isn't listed in the model finder in the OP. Here's the info from the drive.

S/N: 9VS0K8ES
ST31500341AS
P/N: 9JU138-301
Firmware: CC1G
Date Code: 09205 Site Code: TK
 
Yours should be good to go. I don't think I've ever heard of the CC1G firmware. SD15, 16 and 17 were the affected ones.


Also, which firmware is everyone using? The one linked from Newegg on the 1st page of this thread or the other one someone listed. I plan on flashing my drive tomorrow when I get a CD-R from work with the SD17 firmware even though I haven't noticed the freezing problem.
 
I've downloaded the SD1A firmware and intend to flash the drive when I get a chance to cycle it out of my WHS build (it's a backup drive right now). I believe I read that the firmware update applies to shipped firmwares SD15 thru SD19. My drive is SD17 though I have not had any problems. I still intend to flash it soon.
 
Alright, so I got my drives from Newegg today.

All five of the drives are firmware SD19, which I believe is in the clear, yes?
 
Upgrade file for Seagate ST31500341AS SD1A
Use for 9JU138 -300 and -336 part numbers only (firmware SD15 -SD19). DO NOT use on any other part number or firmware.

Syntax Error - If im interpreting this correctly it sounds like you should do the firmware upgrade but a second opinion would be good. You can always just see if you are getting poor performance and do it immediately, if not I would wait till you figure out for sure if you need to upgrade.
 
Upgrade file for Seagate ST31500341AS SD1A
Use for 9JU138 -300 and -336 part numbers only (firmware SD15 -SD19). DO NOT use on any other part number or firmware.

Syntax Error - If im interpreting this correctly it sounds like you should do the firmware upgrade but a second opinion would be good. You can always just see if you are getting poor performance and do it immediately, if not I would wait till you figure out for sure if you need to upgrade.
Apparently Seagate doesn't like to tell how to simply tell whether or not we have to update our drives or not, so I'll give Seagate support a shout tomorrow and I'll report back to what I have to do with SD19 drives.
 
I don't have this drive myself (yet) but wouldn't the firmware update app not flash the drive if it sees the firmware is >= what it tries to update to?

Furthermore, if it detects a different firmware is needed to update the drive, wouldn't it just throw an error and quit without writing anything?

I ran the update tool on a machine without the correct drive type (using the firmware downloaded from Newegg) and it detected that I had the wrong brand of drive (in this case WD) and quit back to the prompt. I'd imagine it would do the same thing if it detected the wrong MODEL of drive, not just the brand.
 
I don't have this drive myself (yet) but wouldn't the firmware update app not flash the drive if it sees the firmware is >= what it tries to update to?

Furthermore, if it detects a different firmware is needed to update the drive, wouldn't it just throw an error and quit without writing anything?

I ran the update tool on a machine without the correct drive type (using the firmware downloaded from Newegg) and it detected that I had the wrong brand of drive (in this case WD) and quit back to the prompt. I'd imagine it would do the same thing if it detected the wrong MODEL of drive, not just the brand.

normal circumstances yes this is usually the case with firmware updates....
However this is first time that they are actually going to let consumers flash firmware on HDD's AFAIK
 
I ordered one of these drives the other day and an external case, and I only own a laptop now. I've never booted off of a usb stick to dos, easy enough if my laptop supports, but my question is will the external hd connected via usb to the laptop show up when booting from the stick?
 
Just got my drive delivered after I got home from work. Installed firmware is SD17 going by the label.
 
Just got my drive delivered after I got home from work. Installed firmware is SD17 going by the label.

Same here. I'll be flashing soon.

Now the question is... Can I go ahead and install Windows and whatnot on here before flashing or do I have to wait until I flash?
 
Same here. I'll be flashing soon.

Now the question is... Can I go ahead and install Windows and whatnot on here before flashing or do I have to wait until I flash?

Flashing won't affect your data (provided your hard drive isn't bricked), so you can probably install Windows first.

I flashed my drives (though they weren't system drives) and Windows was unaffected.
 
When trying to update the firmware from a bootable DOS CD I am getting this error:
Attempting to read binary file: 8h_SD1A.lod
Error opening file.

I have the SD17 so I would really like to get the firmware updated. Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Just as I was worried about, I only have a laptop, and ordered the hd for an external case. But I booted off a usb disk anyways, ran the bat file and of course it didn't find it via the usb connection. Any ideas on how I can flash my drive?
 
Just as I was worried about, I only have a laptop, and ordered the hd for an external case. But I booted off a usb disk anyways, ran the bat file and of course it didn't find it via the usb connection. Any ideas on how I can flash my drive?

Take it to a friends house and use his/her computer.
 
I flashed my drive with all my other SATA drives still connected. As I expected, the flash utility only flashed the drive it was meant for, and skipped all the others.

A-HOL: About all you can do is take it somewhere where you can run the flash util on their machine. If you dont have a friend who has a computer with SATA, you might be able to take it to a smaller computer store (or a store that does computer service) and have them flash it for you with your provided disk.
 
Any SD19 users -> what firmware have you used? I called Seagate and they responded that their "team leader would be getting back to me today or tomorrow". I asked the CSR about the whole SD1A or CC1G firmware choices, but I guess she didn't know what I was talking about, so I'm wondering what you SD19 users have upgraded to successfully and now have wholly functioning drives.
 
So when I update the firmware I don't need to unplug my other HD?
 
So when I update the firmware I don't need to unplug my other HD?

It probably depends on what your other HD is. Given what somebody else said above, if it's another brand drive, the updater will probably say "OK, I'll ignore that drive." If it's another Seagate drive... It might try updating it.
 
Any SD19 users -> what firmware have you used? I called Seagate and they responded that their "team leader would be getting back to me today or tomorrow". I asked the CSR about the whole SD1A or CC1G firmware choices, but I guess she didn't know what I was talking about, so I'm wondering what you SD19 users have upgraded to successfully and now have wholly functioning drives.

I ordered a drive from newegg on black friday, shipped with the SD19 firmware. I upgraded it to the SD1A firmware that is posted on the newegg site.

FWIW I have about 500GB of DVD Rips moved to it, and have streamed several, no studdering so far. I did not test streaming data from the drive with the SD19 firmware. I also do not have the drive in a RAID array. I am using a popcorn hour to stream data from a Win2k3 box.
 
I upgraded the drives successfully, now all I have to wait for is for the delivery guy to give me my SAS cables and I'll be able to RAID them. :D
 
SD17 drive flashed successfully to SD1A today.

Tried formatting over USB 2.0 earlier due to eSATA not working straight off, but it was quite slow. After forcing a device detect in the Device Manager, I'm now formatting over eSATA at probably four or five times the speed. Crazy stuff, but I sure am happy. Can't wait to have my new drive functioning, under the name of "Mass-Storage". Hehe.
 
How exactly do you flash it? Gotta download some bootdisk crap and go through massive hassle since Vista doesn't have dos? Received a SD19 and SD35, booshit.

From the egg
Download Firmware - 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
 
Its not like its hard to make a bootable DOS disk. Just go to bootdisk.com and follow the instructions for making either the CDROM or USB flash drive based version, load the 3 files you need, and boot from it.

Or you can send the drive to Seagate and they'll do it for you.
 
I can't get these boot disks to work. It will say invalid system disk or the one I got from seagate just freezes after it prints "FreeDOS" on the screen...rrrrr...any ideas? I have a Gigabyte P35-DS4 board with a Samsung 203N DVD/CD drive.
 
Uhh... hmm. Well I used a USB floppy drive to boot my system into DOS...
 
For anyone having a hard time with booting from a USB follow the procedures here under USB FLASH PROCEDURES

The tools and files to create a DOS bootable USB drive are linked in those instructions.
 
I flashed 2 of my 750gb seagates with a CD.. Is this not an option with these drives?
 
I flashed 2 of my 750gb seagates with a CD.. Is this not an option with these drives?

I don't get why people are talking about USB flash drives and floppies either. If you open the firmware zip file, there's an ISO right inside. Burn, boot, done.
 
I don't get why people are talking about USB flash drives and floppies either. If you open the firmware zip file, there's an ISO right inside. Burn, boot, done.

Thats what I remember doing also. I haven't had any issues with mine. Not sure if i want to bother flashing or not.
 
I don't get why people are talking about USB flash drives and floppies either. If you open the firmware zip file, there's an ISO right inside. Burn, boot, done.

because for some of us, the ISO burned to a cd won't boot.
 
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