Hitachi Firmware on Seagate Drive

[jamesjfa]

I have an LSI 9261-8i PCI RAID card and connected to this I have 4 Seagate ST4000NM0023 HDD's with Hitachi 7FA3 Firmware. These were from a storage array we had.

Within the webios on the LSI card you can see the drives but they say unsupported. You can also see them within the LSI utility in Windows and that too reports unsupported.

Is there a way to flash the firmware with storcli or another utility to a supported version so that it will work with the LSI controller? Maybe Seagate's own Firmware?

Thanks

[einstein9]

sometimes you cannot use Mercedes Engine on a KIA
check the card support list.

there is NO SUCH seagate FW on Hitachi

good luck

[jamesjfa]

sometimes you cannot use Mercedes Engine on a KIA
check the card support list.

there is NO SUCH seagate FW on Hitachi

good luck

Thank you Enstein9

I couldn't comment about Seagate firmware on Hitachi (HGST) drives as I've never come across this. However there is Hitachi's (Hitachi Data Systems) firmware (7FA3) on these Seagate SAS drives. They were from a HUS storage array.

As you say though the card support list. I did check this before posting and have checked again and this drive is on the supported list. However maybe this is with a Seagate firmware it is supported.

Thanks
James

[fzabkar]

Perhaps you are approaching the problem from the wrong perspective. Instead of trying to change the firmware on your Seagate drive to make your controller happy, why not find out why the LSI card believes your drive to be unsupported, and then trick it into believing that 7FA3 firmware is OK.

BTW, mixing OEM firmware with retail firmware often results in an inoperable drive. This is because the firmware consists of numerous modules. A firmware update generally targets only a small number of these modules. This means that you must be certain that the new modules are compatible with the existing ones. I have seen several disasters, even in the case of mismatched retail versions (eg applying SDnn firmware to a CCnn drive).

[jamesjfa]

Perhaps you are approaching the problem from the wrong perspective. Instead of trying to change the firmware on your Seagate drive to make your controller happy, why not find out why the LSI card believes your drive to be unsupported, and then trick it into believing that 7FA3 firmware is OK.

BTW, mixing OEM firmware with retail firmware often results in an inoperable drive. This is because the firmware consists of numerous modules. A firmware update generally targets only a small number of these modules. This means that you must be certain that the new modules are compatible with the existing ones. I have seen several disasters, even in the case of mismatched retail versions (eg applying SDnn firmware to a CCnn drive).

Thank you fzabkar

I never thought of trying it that way. Its just when I was reading, others had firmware from other vendors that they also showed as unsupported on their RAID card. I will see what I can find out.

Regarding flashing the firmware, if it can be done, I don't mind trying it with a a drive so see the results.

Cheers,
James

[fzabkar]

I wouldn't do it, but here are Dell and HP firmware examples:

http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER0313794 ... 10_A00.EXE
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1 ... 3_0004.fla

I haven't looked for retail firmware, although 0004 does look like a retail version rather than HP.

[jamesjfa]

I wouldn't do it, but here are Dell and HP firmware examples:

http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER0313794 ... 10_A00.EXE
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1 ... 3_0004.fla

I haven't looked for retail firmware, although 0004 does look like a retail version rather than HP.

I have 0004 and 0006 firmware from Seagate. Looking at how to use SeaFlash at the moment.

[einstein9]

I wouldn't do it, but here are Dell and HP firmware examples:

http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER0313794 ... 10_A00.EXE
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1 ... 3_0004.fla

I haven't looked for retail firmware, although 0004 does look like a retail version rather than HP.

I have 0004 and 0006 firmware from Seagate. Looking at how to use SeaFlash at the moment.

Usually boot from USB n flash it from DOS

BUT
be Extreme carefull here, i did killed my lovely controller once and till now feel so bad about it.

killed it coz used the wrong (very close) FW model on it.

make sure its the proper one (recommend to remove any HDD during the process)
good luck

[andy2619]

jamesjfa did you ever get this resolved? Literally having the same problem with this drive and the Hitachi firmware. Wondering how/if I can flash back to Seagate's stock A001 firmware?

[jamesjfa]

jamesjfa did you ever get this resolved? Literally having the same problem with this drive and the Hitachi firmware. Wondering how/if I can flash back to Seagate's stock A001 firmware?

I did. I followed the information in the link below.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.p ... size.4968/

[someguylulz]

jamesjfa did you ever get this resolved? Literally having the same problem with this drive and the Hitachi firmware. Wondering how/if I can flash back to Seagate's stock A001 firmware?

I did. I followed the information in the link below.
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.p ... size.4968/

i have the exact problem. did you just leave the fw and flash them from 520 to 512b?

[jamesjfa]

Yes that is correct. And yes I am the same person

[someguylulz]

Yes that is correct. And yes I am the same person

ty so much dude. have a great holiday and thank you for contributing to the community!

[someguylulz]

Yes that is correct. And yes I am the same person

ty so much dude. have a great holiday and thank you for contributing to the community!

just wanted to confirm for anyone else having the same problem. indeed just using the sg utility to change the byte sector from 520 to 512 worked.

no firmware updates needed!