> SSD Firmware Wo > Laptop Longevi > Dead as a Dro > Sony Gaming Phone

Not so solid crew

I just read your “So Solid Crew” feature in the May 2022 issue, and I thought I should respond with a buyer beware comment in terms of the Seagate Firecuda 530. As good as the drive is, the Seagate does have one serious chink in its armor, which is that Seagate has no utility for updating the firmware.

To do a firmware update, you must find and download the relevant .bin file from Seagate, then you had best know your way around PowerShell and be able to follow convoluted command line string instructions from Seagate. That issue alone makes the other vendors’ options look much more appealing.

I did find some online posts indicating that people had successfully used the Seagate’s Seatools firmware update to update their SSD firmware, but Seagate does not list that as a supported method.

I wish I’d known this before I splashed out for the Firecuda 530 a year and a half ago, as I would have picked a different drive that has a 21st-century method of firmware updating.

Despite being a pretty good drive overall, the Firecuda 530 only gets a score of six from me, due to its lousy software, and the fact that it’s still expensive compared to the competition.

–B.J. Koho

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GUY COCKER, RESPONDS: Thanks so much for letting us know about your experience with this particular drive. It’s evidence that no matter how thorough we are with our reviews, there’s always more to find out about a product, some of which only becomes apparent when you’ve owned it for a while. I’m sorry we didn’t mention this in our review, and I’m glad we have a chance to address it here.