Anyone update their firmware on WD RE drives?

[greavette]

Hi All,

On this thread mir mentioned he has a Linux utility to help update firmware on Seagate Drives - https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/choose-the-brand-of-hard-drives-enterprise-class.18006/.

Is there a similar utility on Western Digital Drives that someone has found? If a utility doesn't exist in Linux could someone provide for me some information on how to update Western Digital Disks firmware? I'm using WD RE - WD2000FYYZ drives. I've looked on the Western Digital Website and I'm not finding any such utilities.

Any information this community can provide or point me too would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[fireon]

Is this really necessary? I have WD RED PRO.

 

[greavette]

That's a valid question which I don't have an answer too.

But I was on the phone today with Dell for a server we use with Seagate drives and Dell Support was very adamant that I upgrade the firmware on my Seagate disks for stabilty and fixes. I just assumed all disks had this requirement?

Thank you.

 

[fireon]

Hmm, interessting. I do not think this is necessary. On closed serverstructure... like DELL, HP too, yes, but on normal SATAdisks... i think not. For example: With DELL and HP you can upgrade Firmware online easy via BIOS. You can update via ISO, and execfiles via OS (also linux).

But normal HW... i think it is not so easy.

Why do you would like to upgrade the firmware? Any problems? Then HDDs back to factory.

 

[greavette]

Hello fireon and thank you for your replies and interest in helping me in this thread.

It's not that I necessarily want to upgrade the firmware on my disks. My WD RE drives are brand new. It's more about planning and being proactive on tasks that I'll need to keep on a schedule perhaps in the future that I'm inquiring about this. I'd be very happy not to have to worry about upgrading the firmware on my WD disks.

But as I explained previously, my question arose due to a conversation I had with Dell Tech Support on the firmware of my Seagate Disks. I then did some searching on Proxmox Forums and found this post with a response from mir about his Seagate drives and updating the firmware on them - https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/choose-the-brand-of-hard-drives-enterprise-class.18006/.
This got me to thinking that I shouldn't be neglecting the firmware on any of my hard drives and I should look into how to upgrade the firmware one day on my new WD RE drives.

I currently have no problems with my drives. They have a 5 year warranty. If I do have a problem in 5 years I will have the replaced under warranty from WD. I'm aware of that warranty replacement option and have used it before with any other drive I own. But if there is some preventative maintenance I need to do on my drives as in updating the firmware on them this is not something I was aware of and I thought I would ask this community on what they currently do. If the general consensus is not to worry about updating the firmware on drives...and if WD doesn't even allow for updating of firmware then I'm perfectly happy with that answer.

Thanks!