Update Seagate has promised to issue a fix for the latest Barracuda bricking fault within 24 hours.

This will be firmware to fix the firmware (SD1A) that was issued to fix the firmware (SD15) that caused some 1TB Barracuda 7200.11 drives and others to stop working. The SD1A firmware caused 500GB Barracuda 7200.11s to stop working.

In all cases Seagate assures its customers that none of their data on the drive should be lost as the firmware faults render the drives inaccessible but doesn't cause corrupted data on the drive.

Seagate says that: "This firmware upgrade will be available on the Seagate website within 24 hours"

It adds that: "Seagate is working with customers to expedite a remedy."

The pressure will be on Seagate to get it right this time. Manufacturing problems and bugs are not unknown in the tech industry, but it takes a particular kind of genius to rush out patches that actually compound the problem.

Update:

Seagate has issued a firmware update to address this problem, saying: "Seagate is offering a free firmware upgrade to proactively address those with potentially affected products. This new firmware upgrade corrects compatibility issues that occurred with the firmware download provided on our support website on Jan. 16. We regret any inconvenience that the firmware issues have caused our customers.

To determine whether your product is affected, please visit the Seagate Support web site at http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/news.jsp?DocId=207931. It assures users that data is still on the drive and is working with customers affected with any unrecoverable data 'to expedite a remedy.'