How to flash firmware for WD3200JS Hard Drive?

[Yamboo29]

How do i flash firmware for a WD3200JS? The Drive seems to only spin up in a dish network dvr 622. Thanks

[rchadwick]

If you have to ask, you won't be able to do it. It requires expensive tools. I don't have any experience with Dish Network DVR's, but I suspect your problem is something else.

[Yamboo29]

If you have to ask, you won't be able to do it. It requires expensive tools. I don't have any experience with Dish Network DVR's, but I suspect your problem is something else.

Dude, wtf makes you think i wont be able to do it? basically i was looking for either firmware utility or the hardware to flash the drive. the fact that you state you dont have ANY Experience with Dish network DVR's means you shouldn't even be responding to the thread. i know what the problem is... The Firmware on the Drive Prevents the Drive from Spinning up in a pc. The Dish Network DVR's send a command to the Drive to Start the Spinup on the drive.

[rchadwick]

Sounds like you've got it covered. Best of luck.

[stts]

Yamboo29, dont let that responce discourage you about this forum. Some of us try to be more helpfull than others. I am glad you asked your question because now I know, DVR makers are programming drives so people cant simply do their own maintenance and upgrades. That is very unfortunate, but I am sure something hackers will be trying to fix. I am also new here, and from what I gather, people are paying $12,000 for drive programmers and software. There is alot of hacking that used to go on with Direct TV with tons of tools and software that resulted from it. But a lot of lawsuits resulted, so I dont know what is left of that hacking community. I know the authorities shut down hacker stores, siezed mailing lists, and sued everybody on the lists. A very widespread attack.

So maybe somebody on a Direct TV forum is working on cheaper drive programming tools. That is where I would look next.

And can I say welcome to the forum.

[BlackST]

Yamboo, first stop this aggressive behaviour because this is not WD's neither the DVR manufacturer's help desk. Your drive is locked to work on this DVR and is not a matter of command sent (yes, it's actually sent but things are different). The same for XBOXes and other gizmos. And they are not cell phose that have a flash rom that can be reprogrammed externally via USB cable or JTAG and software. The firmware is stored partly on MCU partly (most of it) on the platters, so you need a specialised HW+SW tool to actually put the hands on the firmware. And you have to know the structure of the firmware too, so it's not a one-click solution.
You also know why the DVR manufacturer has made things like that.
There's no cheap solution for unlocking THE DRIVE itself, unless you know exactly at what level the drive has been locked.
However, for your information, such locked drives can be unlocked for use on a PC or everywhere else but you'll lose EVERY information stored in it. With proper tool (cost: about $12K !) you can do almost everything you want.
Modern HDDs have internal security that cannot be tampered with, and the purpose is to keep information secured, or - just in case - it will be automatically erased and the security level reset.
Especially on WD drives (that have a well implemented security subsystem) there is no solution apart specialised tools. Sorry.

P.S. it is also possible that the DVR manufacturer has ordered the drives with special FW from WD. In that case, things are a little more complicated.
And anyway, I have seen DVR and video surveillance recorder that LOCKED a new drive (in case of replacement) for use with that equipment only and for security reasons. Yes, the new drive became exactly locked as the previous, irreversible operation (apart using the famous $12K tool and knowledge) .

[stts]

Yamboo29, you are brand new here and you asked a question. That is perfectly proper, as that is why this forum is here. If you are insulted as a result of the questions you ask, it is perfectly understandable that you express your outrage at the insult. After all, it is not reasonable to expect to be insulted when you first post on a forum. Also, report the insulter to the admin. He is the ONLY authority here. It is not reasonable behavior and needs to be addressed apropriately.

[BlackST]

Spildit, the problem is most probably not what you figured out. And then, if the drive reports that is ATA password locked, without knowing the correct PW either master or user or both, lock is persistent. In fact, the drive works fine with the DVR. There are many DVR and VSR that - as choice - lock the drives or accept only some drives as replacement. In DVR probably to avoid the possibility of externally reading the copyrighted contents recorded (seems crazy but it's what everyone thought when the problem came out) , for VSRs probably for more stringent security reasons.
The initial "SPIN UP" probably was intended as "WORKS". I had a lot of "defective" (worn) drives from DVRs and many of them had the drive locked. Security set to HIGH. I wanted to selfscan them for re-certifying, there was no "easy" way except working with the SA. Unless you know the original locking PW, actually without access to SA is impossible to reverse the lock (yet). Some drives accept internal erasing, some others not at all and refuse almost every ATA command.
You should know how this stuff work...

[rchadwick]

I did a quick Google for that model DVR before posting, but didn't find anything related to any problems reading the drive outside the unit. Perhaps that DVR had a firmware update that caused this problem, but based on the vulgar PM's I got from the OP, I suspect he was just another troll.

[saudvet]

I have been messing with a HDD out of a VIP622 and this is what I have found so far. The drive will not spin up if it is hooked up to anything except the DVR, you have found this so far. However, I have deduced it has nothing to do with sending a command to the drive, it has to do with the power. If you hook the power only to the DVR, and hook the data cable to the PC, the drive will spin up and you can do as you wish with it. I am going to measure the voltage coming from the DVR as I suspect it is a higher voltage then what the PC uses and that causes the spin up. Just a guess so far though. But, it is power connector only that makes the difference. The HDD I am working with is a Seagate, 320G SATA.

Thanks

[BlackST]

And can you read/format it? Your dvr may be different. No command is sent through power connector. Many dvr use the security features and there's no solution except HW unlock or security reset working with drive modules.

[saudvet]

And can you read/format it? Your dvr may be different. No command is sent through power connector. Many dvr use the security features and there's no solution except HW unlock or security reset working with drive modules.

Yes, I can format it, read it, write to it, everything. BUT, it only works with the power plugged into the DVR board, not if I use the computer power. I would really like to use this hdd in an external drive, but I need to figure out this power deal first.

[BlackST]

Either your PC has a defective cabling, or the drive has non standard power connection, tried on another PC by a chance?

[saudvet]

Either your PC has a defective cabling, or the drive has non standard power connection, tried on another PC by a chance?

I have tried it in 2 external drives and in 2 different pc's, only way to spin it up is to connect the power to the dvr board.

Thanks

[rchadwick]

Have you measured the voltages on the power connector? Are there more than 4 wires? Is there anything unusual about the connector, either on the drive, or in the DVR?

[magneto]

And can you read/format it? Your dvr may be different. No command is sent through power connector. Many dvr use the security features and there's no solution except HW unlock or security reset working with drive modules.

I have to agree with Black on this whole thread so far. If you plug just the power in does it spin? I have heard that they set passwords (not master but user). It takes specialized, very expensive equipment or a great deal of knowledge to unlock the drives when passwords are set. It is very likely that the DVR company purchased special "models" from WD. I know that there is a "customer configuration" code on WD's that say who the drive was built for. So it is possible that the manufacturer built the firmware (very generalized usage of the word firmware) code to only spinup the drive after the drive has been unlocked. Which would definitely be abnormal in that sense of its operation. But then again the password is almost always kept on the platters (save for toshiba laptop drives) so you'd have to spinup the drive to gain access to the password to unlock it. Have you tried a board swap with a similar drive? If you swap the PCB and the drive spins on power up then I would suggest a hot swap and a clone. But even a hot swap takes knowledge of ATA commands or Linux or special purchased software.

Either way, I don't feel his response was out of line at all. You asked a question and got a direct answer, which is still the answer you're getting from most of the "locals" on this site, just in a less direct way.

[fordwrench]

I have a drive from dvr and this is what I have found.
I can boot the gparted iso disc and the drive spins up and I can delete the partitions.
I dont believe there is any mystical firmware. I believe the power-up option needs to be changed and in the
previous posts. I am going to attempt that next.

Fordwrench

[Starling]

LOL. There's nothing to do with firmware at all. Check your PSU.

[rtrick]

It is in the drive itself, not your power connector.
I have some of the drives from the newer Vip722 that were in a fire.
The drives are fine but the dvr have smoke damage.

The drives will not spin up without being connected via sata cable to the dvr.
The procedure is basically , connect the power from the pc to the drive, connect the sata cable to the dvr.
Turn on the dvr and wait about 15 seconds, the drive will spin up as soon as the dvr boots.
Then you can swap out the sata cable with the pc and it will work like any other drive until the drive is powered down.

If you try to connect it directly to the pc without starting off the dvr, the drive will appear dead except it will show on the pc bios as a blank space, no name, just blank.

Now the interesting part.
If you have Ubuntu 8.10 installed it too can spin up the drive, with no swap tricks, just install into pc and use like any other drive.
It will show under the logs as :
ata2.00: HPA unlocked: 488395055 -> 488397168, native 488397168
ata2.00: ATA-7: ST3250620AS, 3.AAK, max UDMA/133
ata2.00: 488397168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)


These are 500GB WD drives.

So I'm guessing it is in the power up code.
The contents of the drive are encrypted with linux partitions so don't think you will be copying off recorded content

[rtrick]

Yep it was related to the power up code.
Use Hdat2
Go to the Comand Feature Set , for the drive
Change Power Up in Standby to disabled.

Drive should work like any other drive now.