smartmontools-support

Re: [smartmontools-support] raw values ? help required?

[Franc Z. <fz...@in...>]

There is a Dell firmware upgrade that appears to solve the frequent 
parking issue.

Here is the upgrade matrix which I extracted from the update package:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/dell_fw_cfg.txt

The format appears to be ...

(model #) (existing F/W modules) (F/W update image) (updated F/W modules)

There is a long thread at Seagate's forums that explains how to 
forcibly flash a retail drive with Dell's F/W distribution.

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Internal-ATA-and-Serial-ATA/ST9500420ASG-Momentus-7200-4-clicking-noise/m-p/47457#M18798

If you want to try it, and you need help, let me know, or join the thread.

Regards,
Franc


At 02:47 AM 17/04/10, you wrote:

>I have a system with two 2.5" Seagate Momentus 500GB drives, and the
>BIOS appears to default to hdparm -B 128.
>Since I have these drives in a raid configuration, and this setting
>(and indeed any setting < 254) results in these drives being very slow
>(it appears every time raid sends a request to the other drive, the
>previous drive 'unloads/parks/stops' or does something equivalently
>stupid), for me the solution is to run "hdparm -B 254" as early as
>possible during boot (as early as possible, because the drives are
>_ridiculously_ slow otherwise and thus the boot takes ...ages...).
>
>- Maciej

Re: [smartmontools-support] raw values ? help required?

[Tim S. <ti...@se...>]

Franc Zabkar wrote:
> There is a Dell firmware upgrade that appears to solve the frequent 
> parking issue.
>
> Here is the upgrade matrix which I extracted from the update package:
> http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/dell_fw_cfg.txt
>
> The format appears to be ...
>
> (model #) (existing F/W modules) (F/W update image) (updated F/W modules)
>
> There is a long thread at Seagate's forums that explains how to 
> forcibly flash a retail drive with Dell's F/W distribution.
>
> http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Internal-ATA-and-Serial-ATA/ST9500420ASG-Momentus-7200-4-clicking-noise/m-p/47457#M18798
>
> If you want to try it, and you need help, let me know, or join the thread.
>   

FYI, in the past couple of weeks, I've successfully used hdparm 9.27 to 
carry out a firmware upgrade on a few Seagate drives (two different 
Enterprise 3.5" models) under Linux.

https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Talk:Known_issues

.. however you have to be pretty sure that Linux isn't going to access 
the drive, or it will issue a bus reset during the firmware update 
process. e.g. if you need to carry out the update on a boot drive, then 
you could prepare the files, then reboot into single user mode, with all 
filesystems remounted read-only.

Tim.

-- 
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Registered Office: 2 Powell Gardens, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1TQ
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Re: [smartmontools-support] raw values ? help required?

[Franc Z. <fz...@in...>]

Thanks very much for that information. I had just recently been asked 
if this was possible. I expected that the Dell header needed to be 
stripped, but wasn't sure whether the firmware was compatible.

Be aware that certain upgrades will render your drive inoperable. For 
example, Seagate warns that updating a CCxx 7200.11 drive with SDxx 
firmware, or vice versa, will turn it into a paperweight. I have seen 
the results of such an attempt at HDD Guru.

Furthermore, as seen in the following update matrix, sometimes the 
firmware revisions are not intuitive.

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/dell_fw_cfg.txt

For example, 0003SDM1 firmware is updated with 0004SDM1.lod, and 
002SDM1 with 0005SDM1.lod.

-Franc


At 08:34 PM 17/04/10, you wrote:

>FYI, in the past couple of weeks, I've successfully used hdparm 9.27 
>to carry out a firmware upgrade on a few Seagate drives (two 
>different Enterprise 3.5" models) under Linux.
>
>https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Talk:Known_issues
>
>.. however you have to be pretty sure that Linux isn't going to 
>access the drive, or it will issue a bus reset during the firmware 
>update process. e.g. if you need to carry out the update on a boot 
>drive, then you could prepare the files, then reboot into single 
>user mode, with all filesystems remounted read-only.
>
>Tim.