New firmware update for Seagate Harddrive

[carguy83]

I just bought a new seagate baraccuda harddrive SATA 320 and I was reading on a post that if I update to the 3.AAK firmware it will be a big performance boost. Has anyone done this update before? Do I lose any data during the update? And were can I download the update?

 

[error8]

Originally posted by: carguy83
I just bought a new seagate baraccuda harddrive SATA 320 and I was reading on a post that if I update to the 3.AAK firmware it will be a big performance boost. Has anyone done this update before? Do I lose any data during the update? And were can I download the update?

Firmware updates are very risky. I guess that if somethings goes wrong your hard drive will become unusable and warranty doesn't cover firmware updates.

Why is the 3.AAk version bad?

 

[carguy83]

I read this in a reviews on newegg on this seagate drive after I bought it.

Pros: I have 3 of these drives which came with 3.AAK firmware. There is a problem with it, your max read throughput will be capped somewhere around 65MB /sec. Google Seagate 320 3.AAK or check the article at . If you have a part number of XXXXX-308 with 3.AAK firmware (stamped on label, can also be checked with HDTune) do yourselves a favor and update it to 3.AAM. Seagate just released this and it's a piece of cake to update. You will not lose any data. After flashing to 3.AAM you will see read speeds around 80MB/Sec, slightly less seek times and a higher overall throughput.