Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB

I agree that is a lame response to get. You would think that a hard drive is a hard drive and it would work as a hard drive no matter where you put it...
On the other hand, what needs to happen for Netgear to put these drives back on the compatible list? If the recent firmware updates/versions resolve the issue that caused the hard drives to be pulled from the compatibility list originally, then what is the holdup?

What if you installed the drives into the readynas and then start using it, then down the road there is a new firmware revision that Netgear ends up blessing? In this scenario, can a firmware update be done to the drives without losing the information that is already on the drive?

majayjay wrote:
What if you installed the drives into the readynas and then start using it, then down the road there is a new firmware revision that Netgear ends up blessing? In this scenario, can a firmware update be done to the drives without losing the information that is already on the drive?

Well, no and yes...

Even if we're told differently, I would assume that the data on the drive will be lost, but the array will have all of the data in a degraded mode. So, if I have to update my firmware in the future, I'll pull one drive, update the firmware and reinsert it to the NAS. If the array needs to be resynced, I'll let that happen. Once resync is complete and the array is redundant again, I'll pull the next and so on, and thus shouldn't have any data loss.

In any event, I think a full backup of the NAS is cheap insurance. If a drives fails during the resync, or something else goes wrong, you'll have a time consuming data recovery project on your hands.

bollar wrote:

majayjay wrote: What if you installed the drives into the readynas and then start using it, then down the road there is a new firmware revision that Netgear ends up blessing? In this scenario, can a firmware update be done to the drives without losing the information that is already on the drive? Well, no and yes... Even if we're told differently, I would assume that the data on the drive will be lost, but the array will have all of the data in a degraded mode. So, if I have to update my firmware in the future, I'll pull one drive, update the firmware and reinsert it to the NAS. If the array needs to be resynced, I'll let that happen. Once resync is complete and the array is redundant again, I'll pull the next and so on, and thus shouldn't have any data loss. In any event, I think a full backup of the NAS is cheap insurance. If a drives fails during the resync, or something else goes wrong, you'll have a time consuming data recovery project on your hands.

Exactly. That is what I do anyway. I keep a mirror off-site of all my data. I've had the ReadyNAS fail and lose all my data even with approved drives.

Ironically, I've had a 100% failure rate with my disks in the ReadyNAS. Every one of them has failed at least once. My off-site mirror is running a 6-drive spanned array with no redundancy, and has yet to have a single drive fail in 2 years. Amazing.

oh well.

I'm using the 1.5TB drives now and they are fine. I'll go with them because I want the space and Seagate is the only option for 1.5TB drives right now.

no8080 wrote:

Finally got a reply from Seatgate, after chasing them up several times and ringing them. There official response is Hello Neil, Seagate only supports these drives in a desktop environment. The nas box you have placed the drive in would have to be tested and supported by the company who made the box. The firmware update addresses some cache clearing issues in a linux/Mac OS with this model of drive. I would advise contacting support for your nas box, to establish if this drive can even work with their box. If it can't hopefully they will have suggestions on how to fix the issue you are seeing. If they have not approved this drive with their box, it would be strongly recommended to go with a hard drive they have tested and confirmed will work. Regards, Bryce Thats a f***ing disgrace. I am sending the drives back first thing Monday. Thats the last time I buy Seagate products. Neil

The information that was given to you was slightly different than the information that was given to me when I called this past Tuesday (1/6/09). I was told that the problem with the earlier firmware revisions related to the drive going into a diagnostics/testing mode when transferring large files.

FWIW, things are running smoothly for me so far with a combination of CC1J and CC1H drives. The one thing I did notice is that streaming worked much better when I connected to the ReadyNAS via AFP rather that via CIFS. With CIFS, I had some definite hiccuping when I tried streaming video over a WiFi connection. With AFP, the video streams quite nicely.

I bought 4 of the 1.5 TB drives on Dec 31 before warranty change to upgrade from four 400 GB Seagates drives. 3 came with SD17 the other with CC1J. I haven't flashed the SD17 drives yet and need to get the firmware from Seagate. I figured I have 30 days to return them if they prove to be incompatible and unapproved with the ReadyNAS. I'm finishing testing the last of the 4 drives in Seatools before loading them. Avoids dead drives. Only one drive had a couple of bad sectors. The others were perfect. I'm willing to wait a little longer to decide whether to load them, but we'll need some input from Netgear about their final determination on compatibility or when they might be able to give a determination. Seagate has had pretty consistent compatibility with the ReadyNAS, but this will be a blackeye that will have me looking at other drives for the first time in a long while. :(

mas99 wrote:
Seagate has had pretty consistent compatibility with the ReadyNAS, but this will be a blackeye that will have me looking at other drives for the first time in a long while. :(

Yeah, with their warranty change, I see no reason to prefer Seagate over any brand now. In fact, I might switch entirely to WD, after these drives.... Seagate made a dumb move when they decided to go cheap on their warranty...

bollar wrote:
no8080 wrote: Seagate only supports these drives in a desktop environment. The nas box you have placed the drive in would have to be tested and supported by the company who made the box. That is a ridiculous response. I'd "move" the drives to my "linux desktop computer" and call back.

Already done! I have reopened my Seagate support case after moving the drives to my Linux PC and still getting a poor read response from the drives. I get twice the write speed compared with the read speed of the drives, whether as a singe drive or a raid array of any type.

I will post any results.

Neil

I would also like to mention that one of my new drives came direct from NewEgg with CC1H. This seems to debunk what Seagate had told one person that H and J were the same and J means it was loaded at the factory being the only difference.

Maybe the one from Newegg is a refurb?