Seagate Barracuda
Encyclopedia
Seagate Barracuda is a hard disk drive series, most of which operate at a spindle speed of 7200 RPM
. They are produced by Seagate Technology
. Although initially they were marketed as high-performance drives with SCSI
interfaces and high capacities for their time, since about 2001, they have become Seagate's main mass-market product as the hard drive industry moved to 7200 RPM for desktop drives.
/IDE interface, specifically ATA/66. They were available in capacities between 6.8GB and 28.2GB, with a 512KB cache buffer.
These disks cannot operate reliably at ATA 100 on RCC/ServerWorks IDE controllers. The drivers of these controllers blacklist the disks and limit their operation to ATA 66.
interface as well as ATA/100. Their capacity ranges from 30GB to 120GB, with 2MB cache buffers.
The SATA models have many problems, including random data loss (such as disappearing partitions). These disks cannot work with some Silicon Image SATA controllers. The drivers of these controllers blacklist the disks and limit the maximum sectors of each transaction below 8KB (15 sectors), which slows performance considerably.
Their buffer size is 2 MB or 8 MB depending on the drive model.
Their buffer size is 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model.
Their cache size can be either 2MB, 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model and interface.
They were available in capacities between 80GB and 750GB, and either an ATA/100 or SATA II 3Gbit/s interface.
Their cache size can be either 2MB, 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model and interface.
The SATA models of this family with firmware 3.AAK [codename GALAXY] or older (e.g. 3.AAE[codename TONKA]) have introduced a firmware (microcode) bug:
Seagate does not officially provide firmware updates for this issue.
However, an unofficial firmware update (3.AAM) exist for ST3320820AS with P/N 9BJ13G-308, ST3320620AS with P/N 9BJ14G-308 (with firmware 3.AAK), ST3500830AS with P/N 9BJ136-308 and ST3500630AS with P/N 9BJ146-308. For these drives, update the firmware to 3.AAM to fix the bug.
Their cache size can be either 2MB, 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model.
This family has introduced many severe firmware
(microcode) bugs:
Disks affected by the last bug will not be detected by the computer BIOS after a reboot. Numerous users have complained of this and are discussing it in a public forum http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128092 when discussions in the Seagate forums http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=3283 were subjected to heavy moderation and subsequently closed. The symptom of the problem is that the computer BIOS will no longer detect the hard disk after a reboot, and upon connecting to the hard disk with a serial TTL board, this error code will be seen as "LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051". Faulty firmware triggers this "failure," and the hard disk "disappearances" seem to be happening in the months of November and December, 2008 and 2009, and are still going on as reported in the forums.
Seagate FreeAgent external drives have also utilized 7200.11 hard disks with SDxx firmware and people have reported failures of these drives as well. The access LED remains permanently on even after a USB disconnect and the drive is no longer detected. Seagate, however, says that they are unaffected by the firmware problems, so only the opening of the drive enclosure reveals the truth. The drives have also become known for their unusually high failure rates, including sudden mechanical failures, the rapid development of large numbers of bad sectors, the motherboard detecting the drive as a different model, and the drive regularly "freezing" when being read from or written to.
Two companies have claimed to be able to resolve this problem using their solution, namely Ace Laboratory PC3000-UDMA (version 4.13) http://acelaboratory.com/news.php and Salvation Data HD Doctor for Seagate (version 3.0) http://www.salvationdata.com/data-recovery-company/news0811.htm.
In order to fix the first bug, Seagate released a firmware update (version AD14) for the affected disk models. In order to fix the second, third and fourth bug, Seagate released firmware updates (version SD1A, SD1B, SD2B,SD81) for the affected disk models.
Owners that have already updated their disks to AD14 have to repeat the process one more time with the latest firmware (version SD1A).
The SD2B firmware update for Brinks silently removes the DCO
ATA feature from the disks while SD1A for Moose adds two ATA features.
Their capacity ranges from 500 GB to 2 TB. They support SATA 3 Gbit/s and their buffer sizes are 16MB and 32MB, depending on the model.
The Barracuda LP series also present firmware
issues that might be alleviated by the latest firmware available on the Seagate web site (CC35) - although there are reports that drives with the CC35 firmware loaded continue to exhibit the same problems as earlier firmware releases. The most commonly referred issue with the Barracuda LP series drives appears to be one variation or another of the infamous click of death
problem; the drive will start to emit a regular clicking noise at some point in its early life (possibly even at first start) and after some time fail altogether, often not much more than a few months later. While the clicking noise is emitted, the hard drive is inaccessible and may prevent the BIOS detection.
Their buffer size is 8 MB or 16 MB. The performance (and probably the design) is similar to the 7200.10
.
Their buffer size is 16 MB for SAS models and 32 MB for SATA models. The performance (and probably the design) is similar to the 7200.11.
Similar to the 7200.11 family, this family has introduced many firmware
(microcode) bugs:
Revolutions per minute
Revolutions per minute is a measure of the frequency of a rotation. It annotates the number of full rotations completed in one minute around a fixed axis...
. They are produced by Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives. Incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology, Seagate is currently incorporated in Dublin, Ireland and has its principal executive offices in Scotts Valley, California, United States.-1970s:On November 1, 1979...
. Although initially they were marketed as high-performance drives with SCSI
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, and electrical and optical interfaces. SCSI is most commonly used for hard disks and tape drives, but it...
interfaces and high capacities for their time, since about 2001, they have become Seagate's main mass-market product as the hard drive industry moved to 7200 RPM for desktop drives.
Barracuda (SCSI Models)
Seagate's original Barracuda hard drive, released in 1996, was the industry's first ever hard disk spinning at 7200RPM. As can be expected from the rotational speed milestone, the drives were very expensive but very fast, and mostly targeted toward servers. The original models, dubbed the Barracuda 2LP series, were available in 2.5GB or 1.2GB unformatted capacities with up to six platters and SCSI-2 interfaces.http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/scsi/c8930d.pdfBarracuda ATA
This is the first Barracuda family using the ATAAT Attachment
Parallel ATA , originally ATA, is an interface standard for the connection of storage devices such as hard disks, solid-state drives, floppy drives, and optical disc drives in computers. The standard is maintained by X3/INCITS committee...
/IDE interface, specifically ATA/66. They were available in capacities between 6.8GB and 28.2GB, with a 512KB cache buffer.
Barracuda ATA II
These were available in capacities between 10GB and 30GB, with 2MB cache buffers and the ATA/66 interface.Barracuda ATA III
These were available in capacities between 10GB and 30GB, with 2MB cache buffers and the ATA/100 interface.Barracuda ATA IV
These were available in capacities between 20GB and 80GB, with 2MB cache buffers and the ATA/100 interface. They are widely known for their very quiet operation, even compared to much newer models.These disks cannot operate reliably at ATA 100 on RCC/ServerWorks IDE controllers. The drivers of these controllers blacklist the disks and limit their operation to ATA 66.
Barracuda ATA V/Barracuda ATA V Plus/Barracuda Serial ATA V
This was the first Barracuda family available with the SATASerial ATA
Serial ATA is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives...
interface as well as ATA/100. Their capacity ranges from 30GB to 120GB, with 2MB cache buffers.
The SATA models have many problems, including random data loss (such as disappearing partitions). These disks cannot work with some Silicon Image SATA controllers. The drivers of these controllers blacklist the disks and limit the maximum sectors of each transaction below 8KB (15 sectors), which slows performance considerably.
Barracuda 7200.7/Barracuda 7200.7 Plus
Available in capacities between 40GB and 200GB, these were available in ATA/100 as well as SATA with NCQ support.Their buffer size is 2 MB or 8 MB depending on the drive model.
Barracuda 7200.8
Available in capacities between 200GB and 400GB, with either an ATA/100 or SATA interface with NCQ. These were sold alongside the 7200.7 series, providing higher capacities than the 7200.7 could provide.Their buffer size is 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model.
Barracuda 7200.9
Available in capacities between 40GB and 500GB, with ATA/100 or, for the first time, a SATA II 3Gbit/s interface.Their cache size can be either 2MB, 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model and interface.
Barracuda 7200.10
This was the first Seagate product family to implement perpendicular recording for higher capacities.They were available in capacities between 80GB and 750GB, and either an ATA/100 or SATA II 3Gbit/s interface.
Their cache size can be either 2MB, 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model and interface.
The SATA models of this family with firmware 3.AAK [codename GALAXY] or older (e.g. 3.AAE[codename TONKA]) have introduced a firmware (microcode) bug:
- There is a performance anomaly using hdparm with an NCQ queue depth of 31 in AHCIAdvanced Host Controller InterfaceThe Advanced Host Controller Interface is a technical standard defined by Intel that specifies the operation of Serial ATA host bus adapters in a non-implementation-specific manner....
mode. Speed test measures only 55~64 MB/s (expected: >70~75MB/s).
Seagate does not officially provide firmware updates for this issue.
However, an unofficial firmware update (3.AAM) exist for ST3320820AS with P/N 9BJ13G-308, ST3320620AS with P/N 9BJ14G-308 (with firmware 3.AAK), ST3500830AS with P/N 9BJ136-308 and ST3500630AS with P/N 9BJ146-308. For these drives, update the firmware to 3.AAM to fix the bug.
Barracuda 7200.11
Their capacity ranges from 160GB to 1.5TB. They support SATA 3Gbit/s only. Codenames are Moose (earlier revision) and Brinks (later revision).Their cache size can be either 2MB, 8MB or 16MB depending on the drive model.
This family has introduced many severe firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
(microcode) bugs:
- Disks may not show and utilize all the cache.http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=203791
- FLUSH_CACHE commands may timeout when NCQ is used.http://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Known_issues#Seagate_harddrives_which_time_out_FLUSH_CACHE_when_NCQ_is_being_used
- There is a performance anomaly using hdparm with NCQ queue depth 31 in AHCI mode. Speed test measures only 45~50 MB/s (expected: >100~110 MB/s).
- Disks may be inaccessible at power on.http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207957
Disks affected by the last bug will not be detected by the computer BIOS after a reboot. Numerous users have complained of this and are discussing it in a public forum http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128092 when discussions in the Seagate forums http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&thread.id=3283 were subjected to heavy moderation and subsequently closed. The symptom of the problem is that the computer BIOS will no longer detect the hard disk after a reboot, and upon connecting to the hard disk with a serial TTL board, this error code will be seen as "LED:000000CC FAddr:0024A051". Faulty firmware triggers this "failure," and the hard disk "disappearances" seem to be happening in the months of November and December, 2008 and 2009, and are still going on as reported in the forums.
Seagate FreeAgent external drives have also utilized 7200.11 hard disks with SDxx firmware and people have reported failures of these drives as well. The access LED remains permanently on even after a USB disconnect and the drive is no longer detected. Seagate, however, says that they are unaffected by the firmware problems, so only the opening of the drive enclosure reveals the truth. The drives have also become known for their unusually high failure rates, including sudden mechanical failures, the rapid development of large numbers of bad sectors, the motherboard detecting the drive as a different model, and the drive regularly "freezing" when being read from or written to.
Two companies have claimed to be able to resolve this problem using their solution, namely Ace Laboratory PC3000-UDMA (version 4.13) http://acelaboratory.com/news.php and Salvation Data HD Doctor for Seagate (version 3.0) http://www.salvationdata.com/data-recovery-company/news0811.htm.
In order to fix the first bug, Seagate released a firmware update (version AD14) for the affected disk models. In order to fix the second, third and fourth bug, Seagate released firmware updates (version SD1A, SD1B, SD2B,SD81) for the affected disk models.
Owners that have already updated their disks to AD14 have to repeat the process one more time with the latest firmware (version SD1A).
The SD2B firmware update for Brinks silently removes the DCO
Device configuration overlay
Device configuration overlay is a hidden area on many of today’s hard disk drives . Usually when information is stored in either the DCO or host protected area , it is not accessible by the BIOS, OS, or the user. However, certain tools can be used to modify the HPA or DCO...
ATA feature from the disks while SD1A for Moose adds two ATA features.
Barracuda 7200.12
Their capacity ranges from 160GB to 1.0TB, while initially supporting up to SATA II 3Gbit/s, later revisions now have support for the newer SATA III 6Gbit/s standard. Their cache size can be either 8MB, 16MB or 32MB depending on the drive model.Barracuda LP
Meant for mass storage applications favoring low heat output, quiet operation, and better-than-average energy efficiency, these drives rotate at 5900 RPM instead of the standard 7200 RPM.Their capacity ranges from 500 GB to 2 TB. They support SATA 3 Gbit/s and their buffer sizes are 16MB and 32MB, depending on the model.
The Barracuda LP series also present firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
issues that might be alleviated by the latest firmware available on the Seagate web site (CC35) - although there are reports that drives with the CC35 firmware loaded continue to exhibit the same problems as earlier firmware releases. The most commonly referred issue with the Barracuda LP series drives appears to be one variation or another of the infamous click of death
Click of death
Click of death is a term that became common in the late 1990s referring to the clicking sound in disk storage systems that signals the disk drive has failed, often catastrophically.- Origin of the term :...
problem; the drive will start to emit a regular clicking noise at some point in its early life (possibly even at first start) and after some time fail altogether, often not much more than a few months later. While the clicking noise is emitted, the hard drive is inaccessible and may prevent the BIOS detection.
Barracuda Green
This is the latest Barracuda family. It is the first to use Advanced Format 4KB(4096 bytes) sectors and operates at 5900 RPM. They are available in capacities of 1TB, 1.5TB and 2TB, with support for SATA 3 Gbit/s or SATA 6 Gbit/s and 32MB or 64MB buffer sizes, depending on the model.Barracuda XT
This is the first Barracuda family supporting SATA 6 Gbit/s and its buffer size is 64MB. They are meant as a serious high-performance drive for expensive workstations and gaming PCs, essentially the polar opposite of the Barracuda LP/Green series. The disk is available in either 2TB or 3TB capacities. The disk's sustained data transfer rate is 149 MB/s.ES
This is the first member of the ES family. Their capacity ranges from 250 GB to 750 GB. They support SATA 3 Gbit/s.Their buffer size is 8 MB or 16 MB. The performance (and probably the design) is similar to the 7200.10
ES.2
Their capacity ranges from 500 GB to 1 TB. They support SATA 3 Gbit/s or SASSerial Attached SCSI
Serial Attached SCSI is a computer bus used to move data to and from computer storage devices such as hard drives and tape drives. SAS depends on a point-to-point serial protocol that replaces the parallel SCSI bus technology that first appeared in the mid 1980s in data centers and workstations,...
.
Their buffer size is 16 MB for SAS models and 32 MB for SATA models. The performance (and probably the design) is similar to the 7200.11.
Similar to the 7200.11 family, this family has introduced many firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
(microcode) bugs:
- RAIDRAIDRAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
arrays using these disks may fail.http://ask.adaptec.com/scripts/adaptec_tic.cfg/php.exe/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=15324&p_created=1211278235 - Secure Erase command is not handled properly.http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=24058
- There is a performance anomaly using hdparm with NCQ queue depth 31 in AHCI mode. Speed test measures only 50 MB/s (expected: >100MB/s).http://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Known_issues#SATA_hard_drives_which_show_poor_performance_with_sequential_reads_.28e.g._hdparm_-t.29
- Disks may be inaccessible at power on.http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207963