Seagate FreeAgent Pro eSATA problems...solved!
Well sort of, I guess. Previously, in my first blog post in fact, I documented the problems I'd been having getting my Seagate FreeAgent Pro external hard drive to work reliably over its eSATA connection.
Recap
The interface firmware that the drive originally came with sucked so badly that the throughput on the eSATA interface was barely any higher than that on the USB interface (39MB/sec vs 33MB/sec). Since I'd specifically spent the extra money to get the "Pro" version of the drive to use it over eSATA, I was annoyed.
Eventually I found that Seagate had some updated firmware for the drive, although there was (and still is) nothing on their web site to indicate this. After finding the link and downloading and applying the update, the speed of the eSATA interface was indeed much improved to an average of 57MB/sec. However, hot-plugging (turning the drive off and on while the computer is still running) didn't work and, more seriously, whenever I would write large amounts of data to the drive, it would turn itself off, then back on.
Clearly using this drive over an eSATA connection was unworkable.
Seagate's Forum
Since I had searched all over the Web looking to see if others had solved this problem already, I had read many threads on Seagate's own "Community Forums". Unfortunately, most of the threads were people experiencing similar problems and nobody really had much success.
Although Seagate's Community Forums are meant to be a "peer support" area where users just help each other, they are monitored and moderated by Seagate personnel. Some heavy handed ones too. When I posted a link to my blog in response to somebody asking about the firmware update, I was threatened with a "ban" by one of the moderators who dismissed any claims that this product has a problem and characterized the issues people were reporting as "based on wrongheaded assumptions or incorrect configurations".
I still scan their forum every so often and it is depressing to read how many people are having the same problems over and over with these drives and very little or nothing is being done to help them. This is one of the main reasons that I wanted to blog on this topic and it makes me feel better when I see that people are finding these blog entries by searching Google etc for terms like "FreeAgent firmware" or "FreeAgent eSATA".
My "fix"
Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I eventually gave up trying to get my FreeAgent Pro to work both quickly and reliably over eSATA. I actually ripped the drive out of the enclosure and put it into an Icy Dock case that I bought (an MB559US-1S-B, if you're interested). Here is the resulting HD Tach benchmark:
It is clear that the interface is no longer limiting the drive's throughput. Also notable is the fact that the burst speed has increased from 104MB/sec in the original Seagate enclosure to 255MB/sec - another indication that the interface implementation in the Icy Dock case is much superior.
I've tested the drive in the Icy Dock case for a couple of weeks now and haven't had a single issue with it. I can turn the drive off and on (after "unmounting it" using the excellent little HotSwap! utility here) without freezing my computer and it doesn't turn itself off when I copy large files to it.
Further indications that things are working much better are the fact that I don't get dozens and dozens of messages in my Event Log including:
Incidentally, taking the FreeAgent Pro case apart is very hard. Even though I followed step-by-step instructions that somebody else had kindly posted, I still couldn't get the drive out without breaking one of the clips holding the two halves together.
Conclusion
Had I known all of this ahead of time, of course I never would have purchased the FreeAgent Pro. If I was doing it again I would have saved myself about $70 (not to mention hours of time) and purchased an OEM internal hard drive and the Icy Dock case.
I really wanted to like this drive. I liked the styling and the fact that it was practically silent (the Icy Dock case does let a little more of the drive's sound out) and while USB was my only option I was happy with it. But Seagate gives the appearance of pretending that there is no problem with this drive and certainly doesn't seem to want to fix it and that's not cool.
Recap
The interface firmware that the drive originally came with sucked so badly that the throughput on the eSATA interface was barely any higher than that on the USB interface (39MB/sec vs 33MB/sec). Since I'd specifically spent the extra money to get the "Pro" version of the drive to use it over eSATA, I was annoyed.
Eventually I found that Seagate had some updated firmware for the drive, although there was (and still is) nothing on their web site to indicate this. After finding the link and downloading and applying the update, the speed of the eSATA interface was indeed much improved to an average of 57MB/sec. However, hot-plugging (turning the drive off and on while the computer is still running) didn't work and, more seriously, whenever I would write large amounts of data to the drive, it would turn itself off, then back on.
Clearly using this drive over an eSATA connection was unworkable.
Seagate's Forum
Since I had searched all over the Web looking to see if others had solved this problem already, I had read many threads on Seagate's own "Community Forums". Unfortunately, most of the threads were people experiencing similar problems and nobody really had much success.
Although Seagate's Community Forums are meant to be a "peer support" area where users just help each other, they are monitored and moderated by Seagate personnel. Some heavy handed ones too. When I posted a link to my blog in response to somebody asking about the firmware update, I was threatened with a "ban" by one of the moderators who dismissed any claims that this product has a problem and characterized the issues people were reporting as "based on wrongheaded assumptions or incorrect configurations".
I still scan their forum every so often and it is depressing to read how many people are having the same problems over and over with these drives and very little or nothing is being done to help them. This is one of the main reasons that I wanted to blog on this topic and it makes me feel better when I see that people are finding these blog entries by searching Google etc for terms like "FreeAgent firmware" or "FreeAgent eSATA".
My "fix"
Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I eventually gave up trying to get my FreeAgent Pro to work both quickly and reliably over eSATA. I actually ripped the drive out of the enclosure and put it into an Icy Dock case that I bought (an MB559US-1S-B, if you're interested). Here is the resulting HD Tach benchmark:
It is clear that the interface is no longer limiting the drive's throughput. Also notable is the fact that the burst speed has increased from 104MB/sec in the original Seagate enclosure to 255MB/sec - another indication that the interface implementation in the Icy Dock case is much superior.
I've tested the drive in the Icy Dock case for a couple of weeks now and haven't had a single issue with it. I can turn the drive off and on (after "unmounting it" using the excellent little HotSwap! utility here) without freezing my computer and it doesn't turn itself off when I copy large files to it.
Further indications that things are working much better are the fact that I don't get dozens and dozens of messages in my Event Log including:
- The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk4\D.
- An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk4\D during a paging operation.
- The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur.
Incidentally, taking the FreeAgent Pro case apart is very hard. Even though I followed step-by-step instructions that somebody else had kindly posted, I still couldn't get the drive out without breaking one of the clips holding the two halves together.
Conclusion
Had I known all of this ahead of time, of course I never would have purchased the FreeAgent Pro. If I was doing it again I would have saved myself about $70 (not to mention hours of time) and purchased an OEM internal hard drive and the Icy Dock case.
I really wanted to like this drive. I liked the styling and the fact that it was practically silent (the Icy Dock case does let a little more of the drive's sound out) and while USB was my only option I was happy with it. But Seagate gives the appearance of pretending that there is no problem with this drive and certainly doesn't seem to want to fix it and that's not cool.
posted by noegruts at
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
17 Comments:
It's unfortunate that Seagate have been unwilling to address the problems or simply admit that they exist because there is no doubt in my mind (as a user) that the eSATA functionality on it is effectively unusable.
I never followed your advice in upgrading the firmware on my FreeAgent Pro and have simply lived with the lower performance levels from the other interfaces as I really needed it as a backup unit. I've been running it over Firewire with no errors in the error log for the last couple of months with a daily backup dumping to it reliably however performance is nowhere near the level that the Pro label and eSATA interface should have provided and I'm only using Firewire because I ran out of spare USB ports on my PC, the performance is no different to USB.
The fact that the actual drive from your unit performs to the level that one would expect when it's put in an enclosure that properly supports eSATA is good to know though - if performance becomes an issue then I know what can be done.
Fredfillis here.
Got my Icy Dock today. Yes, the FAP case was a b&tch to get apart but is now in the trash.
My average read is 67 (where I was before) but burst is still around 110 which indicates I'm not running as SATA II.
No more errors on file transfer (touch wood).
I'll give their eSATA bracket a try , my mobo has eSata (ASUS P5WD2 Prem) so I'm on that now.
Fredfillis here.
Well, tried the icy dock with the bracket, tried it with the Sil3132 and with the ICH7. Drive could not be recognized while connected to any of these.
Meanwhile, I've found some anecdotal information that the eSATA port on the ASUS P5WD2 Premium supports 1.5Gb/s only. So, my next step will be to get a controller card to plug into a PCIe slot and give that a try.
Not in a hurry to do that, at least I can write to the drive now with the Icy Dock!
Cheers.
Hi Noegruts,
Thx for your posts, Should have read them before I bought the Seagate ProAgent 500Mb drive. But when you're system is about to crash permanently you just want a backup drive asap! Also have the Asus P5K-E. Wifi/AP version though.
Tried your partial solution with upgrading the firmware which seemed to be going fine, I got the 'Done' message, and rebooting my system the drive wasn't found anymore. Not unser USB or eSata. Now activity whatsoever. Light on the drive is also off. Upgrade of firmware obviously went wrong! This is not good. This probably means I lost my warranty too?
Is the firmware upgrade for the interface or doe it also affect the hard disk? So, could I still try your ultimate solution: ripping the drive out of the case and and buying a new case?
Thx,
Cheers,
Gert
@Gert - yes the firmware update is just for the interface (enclosure), not the drive itself. You can still take the drive out of the enclosure and use it either as an internal drive or put it into a third-party enclosure (which was my ultimate solution).
Good luck!
How do you remove a Seagate drive from the external case? After removing all of the screws all that separated was the interface board.
Hi,
Seagate offered me the replacement of the FAP 500.
They say there is a newer version with a new firmware (40D) not available in the download.
It seems they fixed some issue and the ESata too.
I will get it duringthis week, I hope and let you know.
I bought a DeLock ESata PCI card, cause the ASUS only runs at 1.5GBit
I'll report the news when I got the replacement.
Regards
I contacted Seagate support since my 750GB FAP drive was not recognized with eSATA and they provided me this firmware update link. I updated the firmware as per the procedure successfully, and now my drive does not power on with USB or eSATA. USB used to work well before!!! :( However, when I switched the interface module to FireWire400, it worked well.
I've contacted Seagate support again, but am not sure if they'll be able to help.
Can anybody help me resolve this problem?
Thank you Noegruts for posting firmware up for FreeAgent Pro eSATA drive. I have encountered same problem with you. After a little google the net, I found out a solution to make this drive work in eSATA (hot-swap friendly). After upgrade the FreeAgent Pro firmware, if you experience random lock up. This might be the AHCI/Raid driver problem.
If you use the motherboard like mine Asus P5W DH or eSATA is provided by JMicron, then go to its website (www.jmicron.com.tw) to download its latest driver. Edit the setup.ini file after your extract the driver zip file. Change "CustomizedSetting2=1" to "CustomizedSetting2=9" and run setup.exe. This instruction was hidden in their previous release note, and not on its server now. I had to find it out from the google's cache.
ftp://driver.jmicron.com.tw/jmb36x/Win2k_xp_Vista/JMB36X_XP2K2003_Driver_Release_Note.txt
R1.17.31WHQL (R1.17.31.00 - 12/10/07')
- Note
- To be able to enable/disable "Safely Remove Hardware" in setup.ini.
(CustomizedSetting2 bit 3 - (1/0) enable/disable the capability to set "Safely Remove Hardware" in setup.ini.
CustomizedSetting2 bit 4 - (0/1) SATA port 0 is/isn't eSATA.
CustomizedSetting2 bit 5 - (0/1) SATA port 1 is/isn't eSATA.)
In order to enable Hot-swap feature, you need to set bit 3 to 1. 2^3 + 1 => 8 + 1 = 9 which is the decimal value for Hot-swap feature and then run setup.exe. After reboot the window will recognize the FreeAgent Pro drive as Hot-swap device.
FreeAgent Pro is nice eSATA driver, but it take too much effect to get it working. Hope this can help the people who has encountered the same problem.
It looks like Seagate may be addressing this. I took my pair of FAP 750's back to Fry's, and got them replaced under the performance warranty, and got one of the original design, and a second with a new design controller. It includes all ports (eSATA, Firewire 6 pin, Firewire 4 pin, and the small USB) on the back side of the stand. The exterior of the box is also different in that it DOES NOT have the plastic handle, and it also sports a 5 year warranty. I thought the FAP victims would be interested in knowing about this. I am still testing the hardware, and will advise if the issue is resolved.
Hi,
I recently followed on your blog and all the other forum threads regarding FAP eSata speed issue. But this was after I had bought my FAP. It seems that everyone's FAP has 2 connection modules, one with eSata + USB2, the other with Firewire 400. That's what I expected too when I bought my FAP but nope, mine has ALL built into one module. There's no need for me to unscrew any part at all to swap in another interface.
That's the first difference. Second, I ran a HD Tach benchmark and...surprise, suprise, I had an average read of 80.9MB/s!!! Burst was 100.9MB/s. All these was done with a Promise eSata 300 TX2 controller though.
Since yours was a JMicron while mine is a Promise chipset, could that be the difference? Again, my FAP seems different from yours too so it's hard to determine. I compared the results with a previous Seagate eSata only drive (those stackable one...) and my results for that older drive was 62MB/s read.
Well, real-life write testing seems a bit different. I copied a 3.3GB ISO file from internal to both the external seagate drives and got 2m 45s for FAP and 2m 03s for the older seagate. Hmmm, till there's testings with the RW version of HD Tach, things are not very conclusive as yet.
I'll post back again, anyone with suggestions, please leave a comment here...
Anyone have a link to the firmware update here you are all talking about? I've tried googling, seagate's web site, etc. all to no avail with as many keyword combos as I can think of...
@Matthew: the firmware is linked to in my first blog post (that I linked to in the first paragraph).
As we remember the 11th hour of the 11th day historically.
Let us not forget the many many hours all the FAP home-users around the globe have wasted in order to get cheap manufacturing defects to work.
Only to have an uninterested corporate finger pointed back at us saying "You should have made a back-up of..."
My faith in ever storing that MUCH data on 1 device has been broken - surely it would be safer to use multiple 250GB units and sleep well at night.
And let us never forget how Seagate, Maxtor and affiliated companies whatever their name (they are all as one) took our money and treated us as if some piece of c%^$ on their shoe.
I will never forget, will you ?
your post solved the issue i was having with the same drive as yourself. it was the esata port on the freeagent that was the problem. i still cant quite believe that the port isnt flush with the casing. actually having to cut back the cable casing is a bit of a joke imho.
i am going to try the firmware update to see if i gain any performance boost. atm its not good. hd tach shows spikes and no curvature.
my fingers are crossed :)
thanks for the blog.
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