Hard Drive firmware updates

[nottoman]

I've done a lot of different things with computers but have never updated firmware on a hard drive. Obviously there's more to risk than just updating the firmware of a cheap router. Two questions - Is this risky if it's done correctly?
Why is firmware easily found for my Seagate 1TB drive, but looking at download for my WD Blue, it shows no firmware updates available.

Just a note to everyone that bashes a post that uses the term SATA I and SATA II, saying there is no such thing and it's an erroneous term -- Western Digital uses it all over their site. See here: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?modelno=wd5000aaks&x=12&y=11

 

[fzabkar]

I would think that hard drive manufacturers would release firmware updates to the field only when there is a bug or performance issue.

As for risk, I would use a bootable CD version of the updater in preference to a Windows version.

 

[nottoman]

Wow, that was easy. Download, install, restart.

 

[nottoman]

I don't know if there are any noticeable benefits - it was more of a precautionary measure as there is a lot of chatter about the drive model failing, and the firmware being a solution in some cases.