To determine whether your product is affected, Seagate said users should visit its .

Support is also available through Seagate's call center by telephone: 1-800-SEAGATE (1 800 732-4283).

Seagate did not offer a link to the firmware upgrade, saying only that "customers can expedite assistance by sending an . The e-mail should include the disk drive model number, serial number and current firmware revision.

"We will respond, promptly, to your e-mail request with appropriate instructions. There is no data loss associated with this issue, and the data still resides on the drive. But if you are unable to access your data due to this issue, Seagate will provide free data recovery services," the company said. "Seagate will work with you to expedite a remedy to minimize any disruption to you or your business."

Seagate released , Barracuda, it's largest drive ever, in July. Seagate attributes the drive's extraordinary density to perpendicular magnetic recording technology, which stands bits upright instead of laying them flat on the surface of a platter, thereby taking up less space per bit.