Apple Releases iMac Core 2 Duo/Mac Pro Hard Drive Update

[daneoni]

About Hard Drive Update 1.0
The Hard Drive Update 1.0 includes bug fixes and important updates for the following systems:
iMac Core 2 Duo (Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later)
Mac Pro (Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later)

To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/Hard Drive Update 1.0.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/harddriveupdate10.html

EDIT: Seems to be targeted towards specific drives

EDIT 2: The installer seems to check for one of the following:

Seagate ST3500641AS (500 GB) with firmware revision 3.BTD

Seagate ST3750640AS (750 GB) with firmware revision 3.BTF

 

[pknz]

Not in Software Update, however the the graphics card firmware update wasn't either.

 

[Mindflux]

About Hard Drive Update 1.0
The Hard Drive Update 1.0 includes bug fixes and important updates for the following systems:
iMac Core 2 Duo (Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later)
Mac Pro (Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later)

To complete the firmware update process, please follow the instructions in the updater application (/Applications/Utilities/Hard Drive Update 1.0.app). The updater will launch automatically when the Installer closes.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/harddriveupdate10.html

EDIT: Seems to be targeted towards specific drives

Says my C2D does not need the update. Interesting.

 

[nakile]

Maybe this is somehow weakly related to those Seagate HDD problems?

 

[Deerhunter04]

I saw this comment on ArsTechnica.

After digging through the package, it updates firmware on Apple-supplied Seagate 500 and 750 gig drives.

 

[amakh007]

Not in Software Update, however the the graphics card firmware update wasn't either.

Wait...did they upgrade the Graphics driver??

 

[Woochifer]

Installed it on my iMac. Bootup seems quieter than before, but otherwise no noticeable changes. Xbench scores for the drive did not change after installing the drive firmware update.

I have no idea what bugs this update addresses, but the file system on my iMac has been rendered unreadable a couple of times. First time, I used Tech Tool and Disk Utility to repair the file system. Most recently, I had to rebuild the entire drive volume using Time Machine not long after upgrading to Leopard.