After all these years of learning best practice methods, we all find ourselves yet again at the barrel end of a hard disk manufacturers shotgun.

Seagate 1TB Barracuda drives are failing at an alarming rate, with users complaining of a plague of such failures spreading across the globe.

What exactly is the issue?
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 (ST31000340AS with firmware level SD15) drives made in Thailand are failing at boot time with a firmware error that is said to lock the drive up and render it inoperable.

Links to discussions:-
A comprehesive thread about this firmware failure problem is being debated on a Seagate forum. Frustrated users have complained that postings and threads have been removed by moderators.

The advice seems to be do not upgrade your drive unless it has failed, then comes the condradiction, how confusing is it to list the drive model and firmware revision that has been effected and these match your drives, what to do?.

In our workshop at our workplace we test drives and clearly have seen failures dating back to November 2008, but any faulty drives are rejected and replaced with new. In general we have customers whose drives have not failed although they fall into the category of required firmware upgrade issued by Seagate.
Rule of thumb?, do not fix it until it is broke!.

Seagate firmware details including upgrade can be found at:-
Firmware Update for ST3500320AS, ST3500620AS, ST3500820AS, ST3640330AS, ST3640530AS, ST3750330AS, ST3750630AS, ST31000340AS

Firmware Recommendations for Barracuda 7200.11, ES.2 SATA, and DiamondMax 22 Drives

Firmware Update for ST31500341AS, ST31000333AS, ST3640323AS, ST3640623AS, ST3320613AS, ST3320813AS, ST3160813AS
Firmware Update for ST3250310NS, ST3500320NS, ST3750330NS, ST31000340NS

Seagate issues a few cautionary notes:-
!!WARNING!!
If the firmware upgrade installation instructions are not followed properly the firmware upgrade could be data destructive and/or render your hard drive inoperable. As Seagate does not warrant the data on your drive, In addition to regular back-ups, if possible, your data should be backed up before upgrading the drive firmware. Additional information on backing-up the contents of your drive can be found at www.seagate.com. Though this firmware upgrade to your product is a change to the product the terms and conditions of your Seagate warranty for the product will remain effective to its normal expiration. For other warranties on your product please consult the warranty documentation provided by your supplier.