If you are inquiring about a specific OEM product, please select the appropriate link:

Dell

Seagate products are run by firmware.  Having the latest firmware can improve performance and or reliability of your product.  Seagate recommends applying new firmware to enhance the performance and or reliability of your drive.
Like any software, firmware is improved over time and problems are also fixed.  Every drive family has a couple of firmware releases during the life of the product.  Please check in regularly to determine if new firmware is available for your drive.

As new firmware becomes available for other products we will make note of it here.  At this time, we have firmware available for Momentus XT, Barracuda 7200.12, DiamondMax 23, Barracuda LP, Barracuda 7200.11, Barracuda ES.2 (SATA) and DiamondMax 22 drive families.
If newer firmware is available for your drive, it will reflect the improvements we have engineered for the latest manufacturing.  Firmware for legacy products will be the final release from manufacturing.  Please note that Seagate does not offer details about specific firmware.

Until recently, firmware updates for typical desktop and laptop computers were difficult and somewhat risky.  This situation, in part, was based on a lack of friendly firmware download tools and operating system limitations.  This situation has improved and Seagate now offers firmware updates as a routine matter for the general support of your Seagate drive.

If you are troubleshooting a system or OS problem, you should not consider firmware updates until after exploring more typical troubleshooting steps like file system error checking and anti-virus scanning.
Please use the following links and instructions below to determine if firmware is available for your product.  If firmware is available, we recommend that you make a back up before running the actual update and that you read and follow all instructions, cautions and warnings that may be displayed.

Follow these steps to determine if a firmware update is available for your drive:

1. Click here for instructions on how to determine your model and serial number.

2. Click here to use the serial number check utility.

Apple is as much about its looks as its substance, which begs the question: why that drab, grey start-up screen with the darker grey Apple logo superimposed over it? Hardly inspiring stuff when you boot your Mac first thing in the morning.

Thankfully, there’s a free tool out there that can help you transform this dull and uninspiring backdrop into something more colorful and personal. BootXChanger runs on Intel Macs sporting Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later, and is simplicity itself to use.

Once downloaded, double-click the disk image file to open it, drag the BootXChanger folder into Applications and launch the program. You’ll notice the disk image also contains a folder full of sample images, so open this and drag one of the icons onto the BootXChanger window — you’ll see it replaces the current icon, and immediately looks a little brighter. Click “Apply,” enter your password and then reboot to see the new effect.

That’s all well and good, but why not go a little further? You can drag just about any image on to the window, so if you’d prefer a family snap or a more colourful backdrop, try that instead. The only possible problem will occur if you choose an image that’s larger than the desktop — it’ll either be resized or ignored, so save yourself time and manually shrink it in your image editor to fit the screen.

Also beware using images containing transparency, as the transparent pixels will be automatically replaced with the current background color. This will affect the image itself, so work on a copy. And what of that drab background color? No problem — just click the appropriate button to jolly it up, or choose a shade more in keeping with your chosen image.

BootXChanger is a fabulous little hassle-free tool for those wanting to inject a little bit of colour into their start-up sequence — go on, give it a go (you can always restore the default, drab logo with a single click if it doesn’t meet your needs)

The XBMC app has been released for iPad, iPhone 4 and the 2nd-gen Apple TV. The following method will enable you to install XBMC on your jailbroken Apple TV 2G.

XBMC for Apple TV is not just a remote or a client streamer, it is a full XBMC install. No longer will your Apple TV be just chained to iTunes. You will also get gull hardware decode for 720p and 1080p movies.

This method will only work on second generation Apple TV, and requires a jailbreak, which could be easily done using Seas0nPass on iOS 4.2.1 or by using PwnageTool on iOS 4.1.

Step 1: You will need to log in as root. To do this, open Terminal, and enter

ssh root@apple-tv.local

If apple-tv.local doesn’t work for you, enter your Apple TV’s local IP address.

Step 2: If asked for password, enter alpine.

Step 3: Now, enter the following code in Mac OS X’s Terminal. Enter one command at a time.

echo “deb http://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list
apt-get update
apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2

Step 4: Sit back and enjoy as XBMC is being installed on your Apple TV.

Step 5: After XBMC is successfully installed, Apple TV will restart automatically. There you will see XBMC installed.

Here is a video of it in action:

(Thanks to everyone for sending this in | XBMC)

Source: RedmondPie



You can occasionally run out of space on a partition, and one way to gain more space would be to merge the partition with another partition. Merging two partitions together creates a single partition with a larger capacity, which is ideal if you want to save large chunks of data that would not fit into a smaller partition. Created by Symantec, Norton PartitionMagic is an application that allows you to configure and merge two partitions without losing any existing data.

Source: EHow

This guide works 100% for Vista & Windows 7 unlike most of the guides out there. I have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many hours I have come up with this 100% working guide.

I just did this method on one of my friends machine and installed the new Windows 7 BETA. The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7/Vista in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.

The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive.

Requirements:

*USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)

*Windows 7 or Vista installation files.

Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Vista USB drive using which you can install Windows 7/Vista easily.

1. Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your system.

2. Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.

*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit Ctrl+ Shift+ Enter.

Or

*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.

3. You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:

First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.

Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.

4. Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm it.

So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:

SELECT DISK 1

CLEAN

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY

SELECT PARTITION 1

ACTIVE

FORMAT FS=NTFS

(Format process may take few seconds)

ASSIGN

EXIT

Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.

5. Next insert your Windows7/Vista DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter of the DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and USB drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).

6. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type  the following command now:

D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.

CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.

7. Type another command given below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code.

BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:

Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter the above command you will see the below message.

8. Copy your Windows 7/Vista DVD contents to the USB flash drive.

9. Your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7/Vista. Only thing you need to change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t explain it as it’s just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot option in the BIOS.

Note: If you are not able to boot after following this guide means you haven’t set the BIOS priority to USB. If you got any problem in following this guide feel free to ask questions by leaving comment.

Source: Intowindows.com

I have tested this tool with a 4GB flash drive, and both ISOs install just fine!

Use this tool with one of the ISOs from above to install via a USB drive. No more wasting discs! COMPATIBLE WITH NETBOOKS! (This USB tool is provided by Microsoft directly, in fact, you can download it from microsoft.com)

Unconfirmed, Newest Version, direct from Microsoft: