Seagate ST9500420AS Firmware Update

I posted this in Asus Gaming Forum. But then occured to me this drive is shipped by just about every OEM, so here it is for others who are affected. And I know many are, from Dell, Apple, Asus, HP users etc.

What is this?
- This is a firmware update for those who may need it. It's from Dell, not Seagate or Asus, so do it at your own risk.

Drive Model:
- The ST9500420AS is the Seagate 7200 500GB drive that came with my G73jh-A2.

Problems I had:
- I had a problem where my HDD would constantly click beep and when it did so would cause a slight intermitten pause to my system. This wasn't constant but every once in a while. This is a flaw in the firmware with the HDD's power saving. This happens when the HDD parks it's head for power saving.
- My HDDs were also pretty loud. The noise from my G73jh-A2 for a while I thought was my fan, but then I noticed the fan like noise was from the front, it's the HDDs.
- I also noticed the 2nd HDD showed errors on HDTune Pro 4, but the HDD had no errors, worked fine and passed all tests with other utilities.
- I noticed the transfer speed of large files from one partition to another or one HDD to the next was around 20 MB/S and sometimes as low as 15 MB/S

Normal Fix, Solution:
- Normally you just edit the Windows Power Saving options. You go to Power Saving, click on advanced settings and then find the Hard Drive setting and set it to Never. Not zero. You just keep scrolling down or hit the down button until it says Never.
- This forces your HDD to never go to sleep or park it's head. This means it's more responsive, no click beep noise etc.

Do you have a firmware where the above settings does nothing?
- I did. I found out that there is an updated firmware from Dell dated December, 2009. Seagate has made the ST9500420AS for quite a while, it's an old model. And the firmware they ship it retail with is old. Asus does not have an OEM model on this, it's just the retail model I believe.
- Mine shipped with 2SDM1, this update is 5SDM1

Download firmware:
Dell Download Site: Drivers and Downloads
If you don't want to deal with that, here is Zippyshare: Zippyshare.com - R250679.exe
- The firmware is straight from Dell but I still scanned with MalwareBytes and MSE 2.0 just to reassure any of you.
- MD5: B171842A707A721161D6EC5AA0B96370
- SHA-1: 2D5847A0229AEEA3366634CCF457D608EE9A2AF1

Instructions:

Custom Instructions for R250679.EXE:

* PLEASE PRINT THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS *

For Bootable CD option

(PLEASE MAKE SURE A/C POWER IS BEING USED WHILE UPDATING YOUR HARD DRIVE)

1. Click on the (R250679.EXE) file and select "RUN" then "RUN" again.
2. Press "Continue" then "OK" to extract the files to the provided location.
3. If you have CD imaging software that supports the .ISO image format the file "C:\DELL\Drivers\R250679\Seagate Utility.ISO" is an image for a bootable CD that will automatically run the application.
4. Boot to the CD.
5. The Seagate utility will start automatically.
6. Because this updates a Dell OEM firmware, it will not recognize your retail firmware, will not update and go straight to DOS prompt.
7. Force install the Firmware with the following line
8. FDLH -m HOLLIDAY -f 0005SSDM1.LOD -i ST9500420AS -b -v

This will scan for all HDDs that are ST9500420AS and update them. So with one command line, both my HDDs were updated.

Don't have ISO Image Burner or just don't Nero, Roxio or any other junky bloated crap that sometimes just fail with DVD and DL DVDs?
- Imgburn! It's the fastest DVD/CD burning software I've come across. Completely free. Absolutely light weight, nothing there that you don't need. A very simple and easy to use GUI with a lot of information. And so far, not one failed DVD burn.
The Official ImgBurn Website

Results of the Firmware Update?
- FINALLY NO MORE CLICK BEEP NOISE, QUIETER AND MORE RESPONSIVE!
- My transfer speed was around 20MB/S from one HDD2 to HDD1 and now it's at around 64-120 MB/S.

As here can see I have the latest new Firmware 0005SDM1