firmware update | DataRecoveryUnion.com

As we know, firmware damage is the main reason which causes the hard disk data lose. When we encounter this problem, we should rebuild the firmware first. By this time, we need some professional tools, such as PC3000. (About the PC3000 tool). With the professional tools, we also need to find the matching firmware, so I made this searching tool as below:

You just need to input your firmware model number, for example: input ‘HitachiHTS541616J9AT00’, then you can find the firmware which you are looking for. Although this searching tool is not perfect, its accuracy rating is good.

These firmware data which are used for the searching tool are from http://files.hddguru.com and http://www.firmwarebase.com.

Firmware Search Engineer Code(Copy this code to your website):

<form action=”http://www.google.com/cse” id=”cse-search-box”>
<div>
<input type=”hidden” name=”cx” value=”016304681005895250528:a7qpcruki2s” />
<input type=”hidden” name=”ie” value=”UTF-8″ />
<input type=”text” name=”q” size=”31″ />
<input type=”submit” name=”sa” value=”Search” />
</div>
</form>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.google.com/cse/brand?form=cse-search-box&lang=en”></script>

If you know any other hard drive firmware download websites, please do not hesitate to share them with me. With your helping, I can make this search tool better. Thanks!

Hard Disk Repair

Seagate Firmware Update Utility Step by Step

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago3 years ago07 mins

This is a help post for seagate windows firmware update utility which may be downloaded from seagate firmware update pages.

Your drive is eligible for a firmware update?

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.

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.

Note: 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.

Firmware update step by step

1) Choose from the list of languages. The screens in Windows will be translated to your selection. When the application restarts in DOS, the language will be in English.

(Click to expand.)

2) Welcome screen.
Be sure inspect the title, which gives a description of what products and firmware versions are supported by this package. This screen contains an important warning to remind you to back up your system.

(Click to expand.)

3) End User License Agreement

(Click to expand.)

4) Very important instructions and warnings. Again, they are:

DO NOT run this firmware update on RAID systems.
DO NOT turn the power off during the firmware update procedure.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN:

Make sure you have backed up all of your important files and critical data to some other storage media.
Save any work in progress.
Close all other open applications.
Disconnect all external storage devices.

Windows will shut down and your system will reboot. You will see a new boot message “Starting Seagate Loader…” and “Starting Seagate Firmware Update Utility…”
Do not interrupt this procedure.

(Click to expand.)

5) About screen

(Click to expand.)

6) Windows will shut down and the system will reboot.

(Click to expand.)

7) These are the first screens you will see after the reboot.
DO NOT INTERRUPT this procedure!

(Click to expand.)

8) The SeaEnum utility will scan your system for hard disk drives and display the Model Number, Serial Number and current Firmware Revision for each drive.

(Click to expand.)

Try the Seagate Drive Detect utility if you want to see this information while in Windows.

9) The Firmware Update Utility runs from DOS to load the new firmware on your disk drive. This utility will upgrade the firmware on your Seagate disk drive if the drive model and the current firmware are compatible with this update.

This process may take a few minutes. Afterwards, the utility will exit and reboot. If the software is unable to automatically reboot system, you may restart the system yourself.

(Click to expand.)

Besides the “Sending data” firmware download message, other common messages are:

Firmware Already Updated! Will not download firmware. – The current version on the disk drive matches the version supplied in this update.
Model Matched, No Firmware Matched! Will not download firmware. – Even though the model is a match, the current version on the disk is not compatible with the version supplied in this update.
No Model Matched! Will not download firmware.
Wrong Model, or Not a Seagate drive.

If the software determines that the update should not be run, the utility will exit and reboot back to Windows.

10) Windows starting to load.

(Click to expand.)

Finished!

Related Link: Firmware Download Base

Hard Disk Repair

How To Upgrade Firmware On Seagate Serial ATA Hard Drive?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago3 years ago06 mins

FreeDOS Update Procedure

This is a walkthrough on how to upgrade the firmware on a Seagate Serial ATA hard drive.

(Firmware Update for STM3500320AS, STM3750330AS, STM31000340AS)

Note: For best results during system startup, it is recommended to disconnect peripherals such as USB storage devices, printers, scanners, etc.

If your keyboard does not respond within FreeDOS, use a wired rather than a wireless keyboard.

Boot up to the CD. Most systems will automatically boot to the CD if it is bootable. If it does not, please consult your system documentation on how to modify the system boot sequence.
After the system boots to the CD you will be presented with a README file.
Press ESC or F10 to proceed to the next step.
To select the appropriate drive, press the corresponding key. In this example the letter “C” will start the download for the ST31000340AS. Please note that there are different versions of the firmware for each model of drives.
Once the firmware update is complete, you will be prompted to turn your computer off by pressing any key.
Note:A soft reset (Control-Alt-Delete) is not sufficient.
Turn on your computer and remove the firmware CD to allow your system to boot normally into your operating system. Your drive has been updated.

General information: Scanning for devices

You can use the “Scan ATA device” by pressing the “S” key at the “Selection:” prompt to view Seagate drives which are detected.

The scan procedure will display only Seagate drives, and will display the current firmware revision loaded on the drive.

Firmware Update for Macintosh

Can I update the firmware on my hard drive if it is installed in a Mac?

Yes, however it must be an Intel-based Mac (i.e. MacPro and iMac – with Intel inside). There are other models of Macs that have Intel processors such as the MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks as well as the Mac Mini, but these drives have notebook (2.5 inch) drives which are not affected.

I have a PowerMac. Can I update the firmware on my hard drive?

Older Macs that are PowerPC-based (PowerMac G3, G4, G5 and iMac G3, G4, and G5) are incompatible with the FreeDOS operating system which is required to perform the update.

How to find your drive’s serial number and model number in Mac OS X

Choose the Apple from the menu.
Choose “About this Mac”
Choose ” More Info…”
Choose the drive type: Serial ATA
Highlight the appropriate drive listed under the bus.
Below you will see the Model and Serial number of the highlighted drive.

Instructions for updating firmware on an Intel based Mac.

Download and burn the Firmware ISO that has been provided to you by Seagate for your drive(s)
Burn the ISO to a CD.
Insert the freshly burned CD back in to your Mac.
Reboot
After the chime, press and hold the Option key on the keyboard.
Once you see the Apple with the spinning gear beneath, release the Option Key.At this point the system will come to a screen with pictures of hard drives and a CD; the CD should be named Seagate.
Click on the CD
Click on the arrow pointing to the right.
At this point FreeDOS will boot. Follow the on screen instructions.

Firmware Download: FirmwareBase.com

Hard Disk Repair

Does Your Hard Drive Need A Firmware Update?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago3 years ago08 mins

Many thousands of hard drives enter the market with any given version of firmware in common.

Thousands of drives have the same firmware version when they are sold.
External, SATA, and ATA drives that are used in PCs and for personal storage pass through extensive testing before they leave the factory. Therefore, they are not designed for firmware updates in the field.

Firmware updates

Performing a firmware update can be risky by itself even in the best of situations. For example, a power outage during a firmware update carries a very good possibility of ruining the drive. External, Serial ATA, and ATA drives are not designed for field firmware updates by end users.

Very often, system or device driver issues cause symptoms that are incorrectly called “firmware problems.”

What is firmware?

Firmware is defined as a computer program that is hard-coded into the hard drive and contains its basic operational storage programming. Another way to think of it is that firmware is a software middleman that allows your hardware to talk to software (i.e., Windows operating systems, etc). For a hard drive, firmware is a program that governs the behavior and factory settings, even the identity, of that drive. Any drive that comes out of the factory and is in use in a computer or server has firmware installed on it from the factory.

What is the relationship between firmware and drivers?

Drivers tell the operating system how to behave. Firmware tells the drive how to behave. Seagate provides no drivers for most products in any modern Windows or MacOS operating system – the drivers must come from Microsoft, Apple, or the motherboard.

Why not just put firmware updates online with public links?

There are four main reasons:

Field support for firmware updates involves robust and compatible tools, backwards compatibility and data safety. These features are designed into Enterprise class SAS, Fibre Channel and SAS interface disc drives.Desktop and Mobile SATA and PATA drives are not designed for firmware updates in the field in the vast majority of cases. Very often what looks like a newer version of firmware, by the number, may actually be incompatible with previous versions. If incompatible firmware is copied to an earlier version of the same model, data loss or drive ruin will result. Performing a firmware update can be risky by itself even in the best of situations. For example, a power outage during a firmware update carries a very good possibility of ruining the drive. This is why Seagate uses a warranty exchange process, if necessary, to update SATA and PATA drive firmware.
In most cases, when a hard drive is thought to be malfunctioning, it is an operating system (i.e. Windows) issue or a problem with a software program. Firmware is easy to blame when a hard drive does not perform as a user expects, when its installation does not proceed exactly as expected, or a myriad of other situations, or even when a drive diagnostic reports bad sectors. In order to protect the user, Seagate restricts access to firmware updates.
Some drives that still bear the Seagate name on the label but are actually the property of an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) (such as Dell or Hewlett-Packard [HP]) might have unique firmware on them. OEMs purchase large amounts of bare drives from Seagate and put their own firmware on them, at which point the drive is sold as part of a larger piece of equipment, such as a server or a personal or notebook computer. Often the OEMs load specialized firmware in order to be able to build in performance enhancements that are specific to their product.However, sometimes these servers or computers are disassembled and the hard drives end up being sold separately from a third-party technology reseller or even on eBay, and because these drives have “Seagate” on the label and sometimes even the same model number (the “ST” number) as standard drives sold in a retail store, it can be easy to confuse the two. The specialized firmware on some of these drives sometimes works outside of their original equipment and sometimes does not. In very many cases, performing a firmware update with “standard” firmware would violate Seagate’s legal agreements with the OEM, thus voiding both the OEM and Seagate warranty, and carries a good possibility of ruining the OEM drive.
Very seldom does a firmware update increase the drive’s performance. Most firmware updates are made available in order to solve a problem with timing, in order to synchronize with the timing of the system’s communication lines.

In summary, it is always best to seek other avenues of troubleshooting the hard drive and the surrounding system before resorting to questions of firmware. If you suspect a drive may be defective, test it using Seatools.

Hard Disk Repair

Intel RAID Controller: unable to complete the firmware update

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago11 years ago03 mins

I am unable to complete the firmware update; I get a message that the
firmware is intact or the system hangs during when entering StorCon

As the BIOS on server boards and RAID controllers are updated, it is possible that some
combinations of RAID controller BIOS and server board BIOS do not work together so that
updating RAID controller firmware through the normal update process is not possible. A
firmware recovery process is described here with an override that makes it possible to force the firmware update.

To force a firmware update, complete the following steps:

a. Move the recovery jumper on the RAID card to Recovery position.

b. Download the firmware recovery utility and update code from the website, or make a
firmware recovery diskette from the CD and boot to it.

c. Choose option 2, recover firmware.

d. The system creates a RAM drive and begins copying files to it. Press <Ctrl> <C> when
you see the prompt, “press CNTL C to interrupt the recovery process”. You will be
brought to a C: prompt.

e. Type “FRU -O” to force overwriting the firmware. (Note: “O” is the letter O for Overwrite,
not the number zero)

f. Indicate agreement at the following two prompts.

g. Green text will display at the top of the screen indicating that the recovery has started.
This will be followed shortly by text that provides the version (flashing) that is being
forced. The first few digits of this text are the firmware version number followed by
digits that refer to the build number.

h. When complete, replace the jumper into the normal position and reboot.
Troubleshooting Guide

Hard Disk Repair

Intel RAID Controller: How do I update the firmware?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago11 years ago04 mins

Firmware can be updated through StorCon. StorCon can be activated a number of ways, including through XROM during POST by pressing <Ctrl> <G> when prompted. Complete instructions for each update method are included in the hardware guide for the RAID controller.

Refer to the resource CD that accompanied the product or to the support website listed above.

A short list of steps to update the firmware using the XROM method is included here:
Follow the procedure below to update the firmware via the XROM version of StorCon:

a. Download the firmware image, SRC_RXFW, that contains the latest programs and
drivers from the website.

b. Format a 3.5″ HD disk (1.44MB) and copy the SRC_RXFW file onto the disk.
c. With the adapter installed in the system, boot the computer and press <Ctrl> <G> when
prompted. This initiates the BIOS version of StorCon.

d. Select the applicable RAID controller and press <Enter>.

e. If the Express Setup menu is displayed, press <F4> to display the Advanced Setup
menu. Select the menu option “Configure Controller” and press <Enter>. Insert the
floppy containing the latest firmware file into the floppy disk drive.

f. From the “Configure Controller” submenu, select “Firmware Update” and press <Enter>.

g. StorCon automatically searches for the firmware file from the floppy drive, A:\. After
finding the file, StorCon displays the name, description and version of the firmware.
Press <Enter>.

h. StorCon reads and checks the firmware file, then displays a warning. Press <Y> to
confirm the firmware update.

i. StorCon programs the flash eprom.
Warning: Do not interrupt the update process. If interrupted the firmware image in the
Flash may be damaged. If the firmware is interrupted, follow the firmware recovery process
instructions in the next section.

Troubleshooting Guide
12 Revision 1.0

j. After StorCon indicates that the update is complete, press any key.

k. The focus returns to the Configure Controller submenu. Press <Esc> several times to
close the menus and press <Y> to quit StorCon.

l. StorCon detects the firmware update and requires a system reboot. Press any key to
reboot.

When the update process has completed, reboot the computer for the change to take effect.
During the boot, the system displays the updated firmware version. You can also relaunch
StorCon and select the applicable RAID controller to view its new firmware version at the
bottom of the console (for example, FW:2.34.yy-Rzzz).

You can also use the operating system version of StorCon to update the firmware. Refer to the
Storage Console chapter of the Software Guide for details.

Hard Disk Repair

Hard Drive Firmware Update/Recover by Yourself

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago3 years ago15 mins

We know that up to 60% of hard disk drive failures are caused by firmware corruption. Just a little damage is enough to render a hard drive totally unusable. In such cases hard drive becomes inaccessible and sometimes can completely disappear from the system.

“For example, a hard drive can lose its parameters such as device model number and capacity. When it happens, there is no access to partitions and files. In most cases the problem is caused by firmware damage.”

What is firmware?
Firmware is software which is embedded in a piece of hardware. You can think of firmware simply as “software for hardware”.

Where the firmware stores?
Modern disks normally have their firmware codes located on data platters and also the PCB board.

Why firmware is so important?
Without the firmware, no communication will be possible between the PC system and the hard disk. If the firmware area is corrupted, the drive will appear to have failed even all the electrical and mechanical components are still fully functional.

The symptoms of firmware corruption:
1. Drive powers up, but is not recognized /defected by the computer
2. Drive powers up, but is recognized wrongly, sometimes with nonsensical characters, manufacture alias (Such as N40p for Maxtor 6Y and etc ;);
3. Drive freezes during booting up;
4. Drive detect in wrong Capacity, such as 80 GB detected as 1Mb;
5. S.M.A.R.T error;
6. Drive is locked by human error; such as Hitachi hard drive by a drop; it is a self protection method of HDD design;
7. Drive clicking ;( it can be caused by firmware too, the heads try to read the SA on platters and can not positing)

How to update/recover hard drive firmware by yourself?

In fact, in many drives the firmware can be updated under software control, very much the same way that a flash BIOS works. Unlike the system BIOS, this is only very rarely done, when a particular sort of problem exists with the firmware logic that can be fixed without requiring a physical hardware change. You can check the drive manufacturer’s web site for more details. For Example: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 Command Queuing

If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on the expensive data recovery tools, such as PC3000 or HD Doctor Suite, how do you recover hard drive firmware corruption? Here are some free firmware recover tools , hope them can help you:

A-FF Repair Station

Diagnoses the Firmware Area and hard drive mechanics and displays a short summary of hard drive’s health;
Reads the Firmware Area;
Extracts and analyzes all firmware structures;
Rebuilds damaged parts and writes the firmware back to the drive.

All the operation is absolutely safe to the data (partitions and files) and takes no more than 20 minutes.

Maxtor Firmware Repair 2.0
Aiming at solution for typical firmware malfunction of Maxtor 541DX (2B020H1 2B010H1), which may manifest itself as follows:

HDD is not identified or identified by its factory alias “Maxtor Athena”;
HDD starts the motor and then hangs.

Seagate Firmware Repair 5.0
Aiming at one-key solution towards typical firmware malfunction of Seagate Barracuda VII drives, which may manifest itself as follows:

HDD is not identified or identified incorrectly;
HDD starts the motor and then hangs.

Please share your ideas here!

Hard Disk Repair

Basic Information of Hard Disk Drive (Part III)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM15 years ago11 years ago06 mins

Firmware ‘overlay’ code are specific code functions. Why not just put all firmware code into one section? Well, since the RAM in the drive is a limited resource, they’ve put some code into ‘overlay files’, so that this specific code can be swapped into RAM when that specific function is needed. When the function is not needed, it can be swapped out of ram and some other function can be swapped into it again.

The firmware update files from Maxtor (I think the same goes for the other vendors) are not scrambled/encrypted/packed in anyway. In fact, you can find the exact same code in these files also in the ‘*.RPM’ files that PC3K produces for example.

Maxtor distributes their firmware file in a so called “.DMC” file. This DMC file is a package of 4 files, a ‘.Bxx’ file, a ‘.cxx’ file, a ‘.bbr’ file and a ‘.cbr’ file. Like I mentioned, this DMC container is not packed or scrambled in anyway. You can just cut the files out of it. The first 0x150 bytes of this file is the header. This header contains the four filenames, the offsets at which bytes in the package these files can be found, the length of the files and a checksum (not 100% sure about the checksum though). The ‘.bxx’ file is the biggest file and contains the overlay modules. You can find all code overlay modules by looking for ‘MO’ in the file. Right after this 2 byte string, you’ll find the hexadecimal overlay module ID. The ‘.bbr’ file contains the main firmware code. The last 2 files are very small, not sure what they contain, probably some checksums for the firmware and overlay modules.

Like said, the firmware code and overlay modules can also be found in the ‘*.RPM’ files of course, since this represents the firmware code on disk. So, you can look through these RPM files and scan for the ‘MO’ string to find any specific overlay module.

So, in short, if a vendor has released a firmware upload tool (most vendors have), BUT haven’t released a firmware file for your specific drive type, you could create your firmware, if you have the dumped modules (for example, obtained from this site). You could rip the main code and overlay modules and paste them into an existing DMC package. However, since I don’t know the checksum calculation and the meaning of these .cxx and .cbr files (probably checksums), you’d have to do more research, but in theory, it would be possible to create your own firmware files and flash them with such standard Vendor program to disk, so you wouldn’t need to buy an expensive tool like PC3000 (at least not if your sole goal was to upload a new firmware).

Of course, you could also create your own flasher program, instead of using the one supplied by the vendor. However, since vendors use specific versions of the ‘download microcode’ ATA command, you’d have to do research into this.

Furthermore, you could create a program that does EVERYTHING that a tool like PC3000 does. However, like pointed out, you’ll need very detailed information on the vendor specific ATA commands and the structure of the SA for that specific drive type and since this info is not made public by anyone, this means a LOT of work. “But hey, the PC3000 tool features a special hardware PCI card!” Yes, but as you’ll understand by now, you can think of that card as nothing more than a copy protection. They could have perfectly created the tool without it, but I guess they would have sold quite some copies less So you really can’t blame them for it, in fact, I think it’s quite a smart move to stop piracy.