WD1002FBYS firmware upgrade? RAID controller issue.

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urbanriot

Limp Gawd
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Jun 30, 2006
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I am attempting to build a RAID5 array on an Intel hardware controller card. The array either fails during slow initialization, or after initialization when I start dumping data to it in Windows. Other drives on this card work fine in RAID5; however I need WD1002FBYS to work in particular as it's all I have in stock and I need to have this array up by Monday morning. Applied firmware upgrades to the controller card and expander controllers which had no effect.

Currently the drives have 0C05 firmware, and I've seen forums with people stating they've had various RAID issues with the drives with that firmware revision. Further searching produced results listing drives with 0C06 firmware.

Does anyone know how one could obtain a firmware upgrade for this drive and/or if this firmware upgrade correct any issues?
 
Yea, I'd contact their support, if they weren't strangely closed for New Years, which is bizarre since they outsource it to another third world country. Only open Monday - Friday, regular business hours CST... and I need to have this ready for Monday. Arghh!
 
From the looks of it, the latest firmware for the WD1002FBYS is actually 0C09 which was released a few months ago compared to 0C06 which was released around a year ago. Dell makes it available, but unfortunately the firmware is in a format which can only be updated with 'Dell Modular Disk Storage Manager' for their PowerVault 3000 line.

In any case, when you contact Western Digital, you may want to beg and plea for the 0C09 firmware instead of 0C06.
 
Wow, your googling beat mine. I found the 0C06 from Dell's page. I'll directly ask them about that version of firmware. Wish there was a method I could obtain online or some person that had the files they could send me today... :(
 
Cyberbeing said:
In any case, when you contact Western Digital, you may want to beg and plea for the 0C09 firmware instead of 0C06.
Click to expand...

I called Western Digital and met with failure. Response from support:

1) There are no firmware updates available for this drive, at least not from them (what?!)

2) After holding he went to see if there was anything else that could be done, and he said I could send the drives back for replacement. I asked if I would be receiving new drives to replace these new drives or recertified drives, and I was told I would receive recertified drives to replace them.

Enterprise drives... replaced with previously broken and repaired drives... for a server?! No thanks. A little frustrated now, might need a time extension on this problem and sort out another solution or order different drives next week.
 
Well if I looks like Adaptec, HighPoint, and likely Dell (who uses LSI on their PERC cards), lists the 03.00C06 as the minimum compatible firmware for their raid cards.

Push a little harder and claim you are using one of the above raid cards and are having issues. Tell WD that the manufacturer of your RAID card told you that you needed to upgrade your drive to at least the 03.00C06 firmware in order for it to be compatible. I would also suggest escalating the issue to Level 2 support.

It's a pain in the ass to get Western Digital to give you a firmware update which they have not already made publicly available. It like they never want to admit their initial firmware almost always has bugs. Getting the firmware update which fixed the issue with the Velociraptor being unable to run for more than 49 days continuously also proved a major challenge to get from WD support who were acting absolutely clueless and claiming the firmware didn't exist which it most certainly did. Perseverance paid off and eventually people where able to get WD to admit the firmware update existed and send it to them, but it seems that this is just par for the course when dealing with WD, unless you happen to be someone like Dell.

Bad come to worse and you can't get WD to budge, your only other option left would be doing something like an Advance RMA if you feel the problem is serious enough. Also keep in mind it is actually luck of the draw on whether you receive a recert or a new replacement.

For example, over 4 years I had to do 6 RMAs on the two RE2 WD5000YS drives I owned. Half of the replacements I received were new drives, and as you'll notice from my sig, they eventually just sent me new models. A new WD5000ABYS (RE2 Rev. 2) on my second RMA, and a new WD5002ABYS (RE3) on my sixth.

Personally with my crap experience with Western Digital's RAID-Edition drives, the Velociraptor firmware debacle, and them disabling TLER on their recent 'consumer-level' drives, there is no longer a reason for me to even consider buying Western Digital in the future. From now on it will be Hitachi all the way for me, since they get their firmware right the first time, and I've yet to have a Hitachi drive fail on me.
 
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I just checked my drives out of curiosity and I've got five with 0C05 on them that have been working fine with my adaptec 5805 since I got them more than a year ago.

edit: Apparently it's only an issue on Adaptec cards with the 51245 and higher, due to the built in expanders I'm sure. Check http://ask.adaptec.com/scripts/adap..._faqid=15366&p_created=1233072806&p_topview=1
Maybe the jumper settings will help, or a different raid controller if one is available.
 
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Thanks for the replies, gents. novadude, that's a great link, I'm going to cite that in my next call.

I miss support of the olden days, when you'd get people that cared to help you. The guy I spoke with today, in whatever country he was in, didn't seem to care at all about helping and gave the standard, procedural flow chart responses. Ugh.
 
Heh, he probably doesn't even know the firmware updates exist or anything about the products anyways. He's probably stuck working phone support for several different companies and needs to those damned flip charts to actually be able to respond to anything.

Your best bet will be to try to talk to someone much higher up the chain, who actually is capable of providing the support without the aid of charts :p
 
novadude said:
Any updates on the firmware?
Click to expand...

Called again, same response, could not speak to a manager for an inexplicable reason, there was a large communication breakdown. I was basically told the same thing I was told previously, regarding firmware, but in different words. I was also told I could replace the drives with factory repaired drives, but not new drives (even though these are new).

I became so frustrated that I replaced the drives with Seagates, which are working fine. My company was previously die-hard WD resellers for SATA but this poor support from WD, all around, has caused us to rethink this and we're now evaluating Seagate RMA levels for a possible manufacturer switch.

Thanks for the previous replies, gentlemen.
 
I was searching google and came across this because drives were dropping from the array before it would build. I know it's a little old but thought I would post in it anyway. I'm using WD1002FBYS with firmware 03.00c05. I called adaptec and spoke to level 2 and was given a firmware update! YEAH it's about time they released a firmware to the general public.

Here is the text from the PDF attached along with the firmware ZIP file.

Dear Valued WD Customer:
As a result of product evaluation consistent with Western Digital's quality
systems and our commitment to provide the highest quality products, an
update is being made to the WD RE3 product family.
Description of Change:
Feature Enhancements: Low Power Idle; Low Power Spin Up; Vibration
Tolerance. These changes do not affect the form or fit of the drive but do
positively affect the function of the drive.
Details of Block Point Change:
1) Idle Mode Timer—Support for IntelliPark has been added to the RE3
family of products. Drive will automatically park the heads and go into a
lower power mode after 5 minutes of idle time (no commands sent to the
drive). While in the lower power mode the drive will respond to any
command within a few hundred milliseconds. This feature can only be
enabled via a utility that can be obtained from your WD representative.
2) Spin Up Mode—Support provided for a low power spin up mode.
Drive will take longer to come ready but will consume less power supply
current on spin up. This feature can only be enabled via a utility that can be
obtained from your WD representative.
3) Rotational Vibration—Minor improvements to vibration tolerance
were made to the RE3 family of products.
4) Component Supply—Added additional supplier to meet future
product demand.
WD recommends backing up all of your data before performing any hard
drive update.
The above model #’s will be available from your distributer beginning
April 15, 2009.
If you have any questions, contact your WD Account Representative.

Text File included with firmware.

THE INFORMATION, FIRMWARE AND TOOLS, AND ALL ASSOCIATED UPDATES AND MODIFICATIONS (THE “INFORMATION”), CONTAINED HEREIN IS PROVIDED ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS AND WD ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER WITH RESPECT TO SUCH INFORMATION UNDER ANY CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHER LEGAL OR EQUITABLE THEORY, EVEN IF WD HAS BEEN ADVISED ON THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.+

WD EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES IN CONNECTION WITH THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND INFRINGEMENT OF ANY PATENT, COPYRIGHT OR OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHT.
 
Current Model Numbers -- Current Firmware Revision -- New Model Numbers -- New Firmware Revision
WD1002FBYS-01A6B0 03.00C05 WD1002FBYS-02A6B0 03.00C06
WD7502ABYS-01A6B0 03.00C05 WD7502ABYS-02A6B0 03.00C06
WD5002ABYS-01B1B0 02.03B02 WD5002ABYS-02B1B0 02.03B03
WD3202ABYS-01B7A0 02.03B02 WD3202ABYS-02B7A0 02.03B03
WD2502ABYS-01B7A0 02.03B02 WD2502ABYS-02B7A0 02.03B03
 
So wait, what, was the firmware supposed to be attached to this thread?

Is this something I could potentially flash a consumer drive with to get TLER back? :p

I'm pretty POed with WD and am about to return 2 640 gig drives after finding out TLER was disabled. If there are firmware updates floating around, I want to see them. I'm about willing to attempt a flash on a consumer level drive.

Unless this is illegal etc etc in which case I don't want any part in it. As long as they're openly distributing these, though, I see no reason not to play with them.

Anyone want to walk me through finding and using this stuff? I have a nearly dead 250 gig caviar blue that I might as well try to flash.
 
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