As expected of a reviewer, i contacted Seagate about the alleged performance issues and asked them the following questions:

• What is the nature of the performance differences between disks featuring AAK and AAE firmware?
• Were disks featuring AAK-firmware meant to be sold on the retail market?
• Is it possible to upgrade AAK-disks to AAE firmware?
• is there any reason for customers to avoid disks with AAK firmware?

As of yet, Seagate has chosen not to respond to my inquiries. Should Seagate choose to reply, i will include their response here.

Returning AAK drives
Some people who wrote to Seagate earlier said that Seagate had offered to take back their AAK disks. An important detail is that the disks exhibited no errors aside from the performance issues. This could be interpreted as Seagate being aware of the performance issues and acknowledging them. Though it might also just be a kind gesture to their customers. Only an answer from Seagate might shed some light on this.

Updating firmware?
Questions as to whether why the AAK-firmware exists are still not answered. A sad detail is that updating an AAK disk to other firmware is impossible, due to physical differences of the two disks. Some people suggested that the AAK disks were made in China instead of Thailand. This is quite interesting, though it has not been confirmed whether this is the cause of the performance differences. Right now we're left in the dark by Seagate. It's time for them to come forward with the whole story and be honest to their customers.

If you're keen on finding out which firmware your disk uses, simply download HDTune, install and run it. Then select your disk and press on the Info tab. You'll see something like this:



Of course you can also look at the disk label itself, the firmware version will be printed on it.