Firmware upgrade instructions for Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB drives

Well, my Drobo is finally up and running and working really well after having to flash the firmware on all four Seagate drives due to some problems with the version that came on the drives initially.  Apparently, the Seagate ST31500341AS drives with part numbers 9JU138-300 and 9JU138-336 with firmware SD15, SD16, SD17, SD18 or SD19 have problems.  If you have this hard drive you can look on the label to see what the part number and shipping firmware versions are.

To upgrade the firmware, grab the SD1A firmware version from Newegg:

Download Firmware – 8h_SD1A.zip

1 – Unzip the files into a DOS Bootable directory or media. I used a USB key created with the instructions found at http://www.bay-wolf.com/usbmemstick.htm.  If you’re going to go that route, make sure your BIOS both supports and is configured to boot off a USB device.  Otherwise you can use a DOS boot disk or CD-ROM.

2 – Attach a Single ST31500341AS 1.5TB unit to a compatible system used previously for Seagate HDD interface firmware loads. My system has a RAID array on it.  I left the RAID plugged in and unplugged my Blu-ray player and plugged the drive in to that cable, which worked with no problems.

3 – Boot the system into DOS and connect to the directory with the firmware files. Then execute the batch file 8HSD1A.BAT. It took less than a minute to flash the firmware.  Since I had four drives to do, I turned off the computer, unplugged the drive and plugged a new one in, started it back up and repeated the process.

Everything seems to be working fine now and I’m really happy with the Drobo.

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3 responses to “Firmware upgrade instructions for Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB drives”

  1. rev_aaron Avatar
    rev_aaron

    how is the drobo working? I had SD17 on my 2×1.5TB so I pulled one of the drives until I could get the FW from seagate. I have 2 more coming monday. any thoughts?

    Reply
  2. George Roberts Avatar
    George Roberts

    The Drobo seems to be working well so far. The firmware upgrade I did (as above) seems to have fixed any issues there might have been with the Seagate drives. Follow my instructions above and you should be good.

    Reply
  3. John Avatar
    John

    I created the USB drive per above and successfully booted of it on this Dell Latitude laptop. I plan to use a IDE/SATA to USB gadget to connet the 1.5 TB drive (also from a Drobo) onto the laptop to upgrade the firmware. Should the DOS booted USB drive be able to see the 1.5TB drive? I noticed I was not able to see the regular hard drive on the laptop when booted on the USB DOS device.

    Reply

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