Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[telemeh]

Kind to you of health of the Lord. I am sorry for my bad English. There was a problem with insertion updating on Firmware CC3E: Model: ST3500418AS, Serial: 5VMAMHRG, Firmware: CC38 Model: ST3500418AS, Serial: 5VMARTBK, Firmware: CC38 Parent payment ASUS P5K PRO is used. Mode IDE "Compatible", are connected 1 HDD + 1 CDs-RW. For Firmware updating it is used Barracuda12-ALL-CC3E.iso. The Firmware is not updated, stands out the message: "Model matched, no firmware match! Will not download firmware!" Please help me!

[fzabkar]

The firmware updater is comparing your drive's existing firmware modules against the configuration matrix in this file:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/PH-CC3E.TXT

If it doesn't find a match, then it doesn't go ahead.

If you want to forcibly flash your drive with CC3E firmware (the decision is yours), then wait for the following message ...

"The system will power off after pressing any key..."

... and then type Ctrl-C or Ctrl-Break (the Pause key)..

You should now be at a DOS prompt.

Now type the following command:

FDL486A -m Pharaoh -f PHCC3E2H.LOD -i ST3500418AS -s -x -b -v -a 20

Wait until the update completes and then power cycle your drive.

[telemeh]

Thanks for the information. Whether I will kill a drive a compulsory Firmware? How to learn precisely that to me it is necessary to update an insertion on mine HDD?

[fzabkar]

I have no idea whether the CC3E update is necessary, nor have I seen any information as to what bugs are addressed, or what features are added or removed.

Those questions are best answered by Seagate Tech Support.

[Grim0x]

Welcome to the forums telemeh @Fzkabar: you should be a translator XD.

[bjf2002]

@fzabkar, after looking at your matrix file, I don't actually see why the OPs CC38 doesn't qualify. Do you?

I saw in another thread where someone with ST31000528A and CC35 upgraded, and I don't see how that would and OPs wouldn't.

Anyway, if I have to use the command method, what is the correct command for ST3250318AS (coming from CC38 as well)?

[fzabkar]

I could be wrong, but my understanding of the layout of each line is as follows:

(model #);(original firmware modules);(firmware update file);(updates firmware modules)

The OP's ST3500418AS rev CC38 drive would need to match one of the following lines:

ST350041?AS;PH0G2?.CCD3.AA????.CC3?.D2??;PHCC3E2H.LOD;PH0G2D.CCD3.FV0384.CC3E.D26C
ST350041?AS;PH0G2?.CCD3.BZ????.CC3?.D2??;PHCC3E2H.LOD;PH0G2D.CCD3.FV0384.CC3E.D26C
ST350041?AS;PH0G2?.CCD3.CL????.CC3?.D2??;PHCC3E2H.LOD;PH0G2D.CCD3.FV0384.CC3E.D26C
ST350041?AS;PH0G2?.CCD3.CN????.CC3?.D2??;PHCC3E2H.LOD;PH0G2D.CCD3.FV0384.CC3E.D26C
ST350041?AS;PH0G2D.CCD3.AA????.CC3?.D2??;PHCC3E2H.LOD;PH0G2D.CCD3.FV0384.CC3E.D26C
ST350041?AS;PH0G2D.CCD3.BZ????.CC3?.D2??;PHCC3E2H.LOD;PH0G2D.CCD3.FV0384.CC3E.D26C

Obviously the model number is a match, so the mismatch must be in the drive's individual firmware modules. I don't understand what each module does, but I believe that the "D26C" is a servo module, and the second last module reflects the overall firmware version.

See the reference to "Package Version" in this thread (for a Seagate laptop drive):
http://www.hardw.net/forum/topic11981.htm

In your case, the command line would be one of the following:

FDL486A -m Pharaoh -f PHCC3E2H.LOD -i ST3250318AS -s -x -b -v -a 20
FDL486A -m Pharaoh -f PHCC3E1H.LOD -i ST3250318AS -s -x -b -v -a 20

However, choosing the wrong one could be FATAL. :-(

AIUI, the name of the firmware image file indicates the number of heads, in this case 1H or 2H. The "1" in the model number indicates the number of platters. So, your drive has one platter, but may have either 1 or 2 heads.

AISI, you would need to query your drive via its serial terminal interface. If it has a D2xx servo module, you would use the PHCC3E2H.LOD image. Otherwise, if the servo module is a C2xx, then use PHCC3E1H.LOD.

[bjf2002]

That's great information. I'm hoping that it'll let me upgrade, and I'll report on that tomorrow. It's a little puzzling that the KB article doesn't simply listed supported firmware that you need to have.

In the example you gave, the "original firmware modules" section is what I don't get. For example, I was thinking that this:

CCD3.AA????.CC3?.D2??

...would mean anything beginning with CC3 would be OK, but obviously not, since he has CC38. I wonder why they bother mentioning CC3? if CCD3 is needed?

Shouldn't a HD info tool be able to tell me the number of heads?  Failing that, where is the serial terminal interface?  I don't have the drive in front of me at the moment, but I'm guessing it's a pin block of some sort, but I'm not seeing it in the manual. Thanks.

[fzabkar]

Let me try to address each of your questions separately. I don't have all, if any, of the answers, but here are my observations.

Firstly, I'm not certain that I have properly understood the head and platter numbering schemes.

For example, in the following matrices, all the models in each family have the same capacity per platter:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/BR-SD1B.TXT
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/Brinks_3D6H_SD3B.txt
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/6HSD4B.TXT
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/MS-SD1A.TXT

However, the following matrix has one peculiarity:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/HE-CC35.TXT

Most of the models appear to have capacities of 500GB per platter, but the ST31500541AS is the odd one out. It has the same number of platters as the ST32000542AS, and uses the same 8-head upgrade file, HECC358H.LOD.

ISTM that Seagate would have only needed three platters and 6 heads to achieve a capacity of 1.5TB.

The PH-CC3E matrix is even more peculiar.

The 1TB and 750GB models both have 2 platters, and both are upgraded with the 4H LOD file. That would suggest that the capacity is 500GB per platter, or 250GB per surface, in which case one would expect the 750GB model to have 3 heads, not 4.

The 500GB has a single platter, as does the 320GB. Both are upgraded with the 2H LOD file.

The 160GB and 250GB models both have single platters, but some use the 2H upgrade, while others require the 1H. A 2-Head 160GB model would have a capacity of only 160GB per platter. This is less than earlier generations. Furthermore, a ST316031?AS model with a single head would have twice the data density as the same model with two heads. Therefore one would expect that it would benchmark with double the data rate.

Perhaps that's one test you could do to determine the capacity per platter of your model, and possibly the number of heads.

Try HD Tune's read benchmark:
http://www.hdtune.com/
http://www.hdtune.com/testresults.html

[fzabkar]

Once again, I'm only speculating, but I believe that the overall firmware version (eg CC38) identifies the package rather than individual components. I suspect that the various components may include a servo module, read channel module, SMART module, ATA commend module, etc. Therefore CCD3 may reflect one of the above, and D2?? may identify the servo module. I suspect that all the OP's modules need to match the matrix, not just one.

I don't believe that any HD info tool that relies on standard ATA commands (see the following document) will be able to report the number of heads.

Working Draft AT Attachment 8 - ATA/ATAPI Command Set (ATA8-ACS):
http://www.t13.org/Documents/UploadedDocuments/docs2008/D1699r6a-ATA8-ACS.pdf

The ATA standard allows for "Vendor Specific" commands (see pages 416 and 417). No doubt Seagate's flash updater tool is able to interrogate Seagate's drives using one of more of these commands. Unfortunately these commands are not publicly documented.

You can access the drive's RS232 diagnostic port via the Tx/Rx/Ground pins in the jumper block. See the following thread for more information:

http://forums.seagate.com/t5/ATA-and-Serial-ATA-drives/Updated-firmware-on-a-bricked-hard-disk-but-n...

Note that the terminal commands are Case Sensitive.

I haven't used it myself, but you may be able to use SeDiv to interrogate your drive.

SeDiv - HDD Seagate Terminal for Windows can be obtained here:
http://sediv2008.narod.ru/Easy1014.rar (software)
http://sediv2008.narod.ru/HelpEn.rar (documentation)