Fishy drives

Hard drive maker Seagate has revealed that a number of its drives are becoming inaccessible when the system containing them is started up.

The offending drives were all manufactured in December 2008 and come from the following product families:

Barracuda 7200.11
DiamondMax 22
Barracuda ES.2 SATA

Seagate says that even though the data may become inaccessible, it has not been lost and can presumably be retrieved using data recovery services, which Seagate will pay for.

Here's Seagate's official statement in full:

Seagate has isolated a potential firmware issue in certain products, including some Barracuda 7200.11 hard drives and related drive families based on this product platform, manufactured through December 2008.  In some circumstances, the data on the hard drives may become inaccessible to the user when the host system is powered on*.  

As part of our commitment to customer satisfaction, we are offering a free firmware upgrade to those with affected products.  To determine whether your product is affected, please visit the Seagate Support web site at http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931.

Support is also available through Seagate's call center: 1-800-SEAGATE (1 800 732-4283)

Customers can expedite assistance by sending an email to Seagate (discsupport@seagate.com). Please include the following disk drive information: model number, serial number and current firmware revision.  We will respond, promptly, to your email request with appropriate instructions.  There is no data loss associated with this issue, and the data still resides on the drive. 

But if you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services.  Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business.

For a list of international telephone numbers to Seagate Support and alternative methods of contact, please access http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/about/contact_us/

*There is no safety issue with these products. 

The knowledge base bulletin includes a list of all the model numbers that may be affected and some instructions on how to find the model number without taking your PC to bits. If you click on one of the hyperlinked model numbers, the first thing you see is, in red letters:

!!WARNING!!
The software and information in this article could be data destructive and/or render your hard drive inoperable if not followed carefully. It is always recommended to keep a backup of critical data.

If that doesn't put your mind at ease, nothing will.

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