Warning - Some Seagate 7200.11 32MB cache drives ship with most of its cache disabled

As per the instructions, I used the exe file which told me the target floppy would be overwritten, (did not use the CD iso). It wrote the floppy and I then restarted into the bios to make the floppy the first boot device, left the bios and saving the change, then powered down.
I then disconnected the power from my numerous hard disk drives and the CD, (left the 7200.11 connected), then powered back on.
It boots from the floppy then shows you a readme which tells you to to what I had already done, i.e. disconnect all sata and pata leaving only the 7200.11 connected. Press escape to bypass the readme, then it goes to a Dos prompt. Type in FLASH and hit enter.
It loads the image from the floppy, and cycles through devices and of course should only find the 7200.11. It does a nerve tingling count down from fifty something, but suddenly tells you to power down, and not to press ctrl del alt.

When I reconnected all the drives and powered up, I went into the bios, but everything was OK.
It is nerve racking doing any form of reflashing, so it is up to you, just use a floppy to avoid problems warned elswhere on the Net.

Hope this helps,
Brian
 
I'm still running on the SD04 firmware since my model number is being reported correctly, the unknown cache size (not) being reported to Windows/BIOS doesn't bother me since the performance hasn't seemed to affected it at all.
 
Ive also had this problem, and both software testing things have said 0kb buffer, so I just installed the firmware ad14.

Sanda now says its at the AD14 rversion/firmware, but still HDTune and sanda report 0KB buffer???

im confused..
 
Just noticed the post asking if it was OK to update the firmware with data on the drive. I did, it was my C drive at this stage, and it was OK, but I did have the original C drive sitting next to it.

Brian
 
I have updated one of my 2 drives as I have a mirror, the RAID rebuilt itself. everything seems fine but Everest originally reported the cache as 8MB with the SD04 firmware and it now reports it as unknown.

Is there a reliable way of checking the cache is now 32MB? Has anybody else had this issue?
 
My readings are virtually the same testing with Vista,

47.3 min
103.3 max
83.3 ave
12.5 access
165 burst

I suspect the burst is a bit lower as I use all my drives in IDE mode.
Compared to the other drives, including a 500gb 700.10, the performance is well up.
With such a fast drive, its difficult to know how the cache is contributing, but like most people, I would like to be able to confirm it with a utility.
 
There is nothing on the website about 330GB drives - only 500 and up.

I have completed firmware update on both drives and although both cache values are listed as unknown in everest the RAID rebuilt substatially faster once both firwares were upgraded. This seesm to make a substantial difference.
 
upraded mine also (via CD no problem @ all)

Makes no difference with any software seeing the cache because according to Seagate no software can see 32mb cache drives @ the moment.

Good thing about the firmware upgrade it does stop that annoying clicking noise.

Not changed much in performance either think the actual minimum transfer rate was faster before the update than it is now.

2003493285557033538_rs.jpg


The temps seem to be hot on this drive even with a spot cool fan pointing @ 2 drives.
 
Once you type in "flash", it takes about half a minute to read in the code and find the drive, once it starts to write, it counts down from fifty something, so about a minute or so to write the new firmware.
That is using a floppy, just rough figures, using a CD may be quicker.
 
I've got 4x 500gb's all reporting 6mb cache - when they should be 32.

But for some reason, i feel they are really slow - whats the best way to benchmark raid 5 configurations?
 
i flashed mine too a few days ago, still reports 0mb cache but it has changed the firmware to AD14 :S

Apparently though, some benchmarks cant detect caches larger than 16mb - sounds bs to me. lol

screwd by seagate Lol
 
What about mine guys? its a 32mb 500GB seagate drive and model number is: SE3500620AS, so it differs from the ones listed.

Do I need to do anything? Because something is seriously wrong with my system anyway as I get random split second freezes on either desktop, films or gaming. Driving me round the bend.
 
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I still don't understand why software can't detect the larger cache.... We should email one of the software companies and see if they can give us an explanation.

...well mine is still working ok.
 
Going to go and test mine now. Yet to install anything on them so will run a few benches before flashing, flash, then try again. See if I get a difference in speed.
 
Checked out my drives before flashing them. HD Tune reported one to have 8mb cache, and the other to have 0 cache.
Ran the benchmark on both of them, both scored near as damnit the same thing.

seagate1.jpg


Flashed both drives from the iso. Now both drives show as 0 cache.
Performed like so:

newdrive2.jpg


Barely any difference, starting to wonder whether there was nothing wrong with the drives, and that all that flashing the firmware has done is changed how it appears to various software. Each time I ran the benchmarks the transfer rates would varies 1 mb or 2 either way. That second image was the slowest min read, the other benches were quicker but had a few spikes, or a slower max speed etc.

Will be running mine in Raid-0 - should be nippy :D
Ofcourse - all important stuff backed up to other drives.
 
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