Question Seagate Barracuda LP ST31500541AS firmware

[Z2mdpRZ]

Hi,

I have an older external hard drive, it was used sporadic for backup storage.

It made some kind of clack noise sometimes, from beginning.

https://pastebin.com/zmRSBjQq

There is an firmware update available, maybe this could fix the issue?

Can I somehow update the firmware inside the USB case?
I have only a notebook.

Regards

 

[fzabkar]

The only SMART attribute that seems problematic is the Command Timeouts. There are actually only 4 timeouts (17,180,131,332 = 0x000400040004), but they exceed 7.5 seconds.

 

[Z2mdpRZ]

Thanks.
JFTR, the firmware upgrade link is here:
https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/H...e-ST32000542AS-SATA-Drive-Firmware-CC35.shtml

@fzabkar
... and these timeouts value indicate, that this HDD is not really trustable anymore (with only power on time 370h) ?

 

[fzabkar]

If the drive eventually replaces the "slow" sectors with spares, then it may stabilise. However, whenever I've seen these errors appear, there are usually other signs that the drive is degrading, eg pending or reallocated sectors. I would keep an eye on SMART and be prepared to replace the drive.