VelociRaptor firmware bug

[Elixer]

Current part numbers:

WD3000BLFS-01YBU0
WD1500BLFS-01YBU0
WD740BLFS-01YBU0
WD3000HLFS-01G6U0
WD1500HLFS-01G6U0
WD740HLFS-01G6U0

The new firmware version number is 04.04v02.

New part numbers (with this firmware version):
WD3000BLFS-01YBU1
WD1500BLFS-01YBU1
WD740BLFS-01YBU1
WD3000HLFS-01G6U1
WD1500HLFS-01G6U1
WD740HLFS-01G6U1


Dear Valued WD Customer:

As a result of product evaluation consistent with Western Digital's quality
systems and our commitment to provide the highest quality products, an
update is being made to the WD VelociRaptor product family.

Description of Change:

Performance enhancement: Sequential read and write
Compatibility enhancements: Double status FIS, TLER timer and counter synchronization

These changes do not affect the form or fit of the drive but do positively
affect the function of the drive.

Details of Firmware Changes:

Performance improvements to sequential read and write:
Firmware release includes a function to allow the drive to stay in the
sequential mode if there was no other activity. This particularly benefits
certain SATA RAID environments.

Double status FIS:

The drive sent two status FIS (C001h and 5001h) after COMRESET.
Although the drive behavior did not violate the SATA specification it still
created issues for some SATA host bus adapters. This firmware will only
post 5001h when the drive is ready.

TLER:

Corrected an issue where after 49 days of continuous operation the drive
could falsely report an error to the Host. This issue does not result in data
loss and only occurs once every 49 days of continuous operation and only
if a read/write operation is in progress when the counter rolls to zero. The
new firmware resolves this issue but as an alternate workaround, the drive
can be power cycled before 49 days elapses to avoid the potential error.

Field Update Utility/Binary available July 24, 2009.
Manufacturing Implementation Date: August 21, 2009

More discussion here:
http://forums.storagereview.ne...ded&start=#entry257624

 

[VirtualLarry]

At least there's a fix now for it. Seems sloppy of them to screw up like that, but I guess it happens. I run my systems 24/7 for months on end (well, until XP bluescreens from being up too long, usually about a month or two). I don't own any VRs though.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

The machine I am on now is a V300 HLFS 01G6U0 and its been ok - don't know the firmware

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Where the heck is the firmware update, spent a 5 min in the downloads section... i dumb

 

[hclarkjr]

i am running this model - WDC WD1500HLFS-75G6U0 (139 GB) looks like mine is not on that list

 

[jimhsu]

49 days ... is this similar to the infamous Windows 9x millisecond bug?

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: jimhsu
49 days ... is this similar to the infamous Windows 9x millisecond bug?

it has to be, since problem with Windows 95 was that msec counter number will eventually overflow as it is stored as 32-bit value

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q216641/
http://ed.markovich.googlepage...hafter49.7daysofuptime

 

[Kremlar]

I'm having a serious issue with 12 WD3000HLFS drives installed on 2 production servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 64-Bit and Windows Server 2008 64-Bit. Both servers are configured with identical hardware, the significant specs are as follows:

Intel SC5650UP Chassis
Intel S3420GPLC Motherboard
Intel AXX6DRV3GR Hot-Swap Backplanes
Intel SRCSASBB8I RAID Controllers

Each server has 6 drives installed (2 in a RAID1, 4 in a RAID5). All drivers/firmwares are up to date on the controller, motherboard, and backplane.

Both servers have been experiencing seemingly random drives being marked as "failed" - 6 drives total in about 1.5 months. 3 of drives were replaced, the rest were simply rebuilt using the same drives since we started doubting an actual drive failure. 3 drives dropped in about 1 week, then we had a month or so of success, followed by 3 more drops in a span of less than a week.

All drives are reported as running firmware 4V02 per the RAID controller. One sample drive I pulled had a mfg date of 10/7/09.

The drives are listed on Intel's hardware compatibility sheet, so I thought we were safe going with them. Intel has not been of any assistance other than pointing me to this thread. WD has not been of any help at all so far.

Has anyone had any successful resolution to random RAID dropout issues with these drives?