Firmware issues - Seagate ST2000DM001 -9YN164

[vingallo]

I have a heap of Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB disks. Want to update firmware, as there is a known Raid bug and speed is not as expected.

Details:
->Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB, type: 9YN164, 7200Rpm, Sata III 6gB/S, 64gb Cache
-> Have two of them installed, cleanly formatted/empty, and installed in a system that has a separate system drive and extra storage drive. I Will use this system to upgrade firmware.

Status:
-I have inputted the serial and downloaded the appropriate firmware from seagate's site CC4H "Barracuda-ALL-GRCC4H.exe, drive currently has version CC4B.

Error:
-When I get to the end of the prompt I get the following error: "This utility must be installed on BIOS disk 0. Please install this utility on drive Y:"

Failed Remediation:
-I move the exe file to drive Y and get the same error, I move the contents of the ISO to Y in root and get the same error.

Question:
I have no been able to successfully update these drives no matter what I try please help me move forward, any advice is much appreciated.

Thanks.

[vingallo]

UPDATE:

I have opened the Barracude-ALL-GRCC4h.iso file and noticed there is aGR-CC4H.ima file in there. On further inspection of that .ima folder it contains a LOD.zip file.

I unzipped and found:
-flash-m.bat
-GR-CC4H.CFS
-GR-CC4H2H.LOD
-GR-CC4H4H.LOD
-GR-CC4H6H.LOD

Opened Seatools to run firmware update and selected "GR-CC4H6H.LOD" on one drive and "GR-CC4H2H.LOD" on another.

It ran the firmware updates and reported success in both cases. However now I am unable to locate my disks in Windows, they are not being found.

How do I detect the drives so I may initialize them ?
In the case that those were the wrong firmware, how may I reflash them so I can use the disks?

Please let me know. Thx.

[vingallo]

imported:
GR-CC4H2H.LOD
GR-CC4H4H.LOD
GR-CC4H6H.LOD
into seatools and updated firmware for 3 drives, that were previously working, one with each firmware...all bricked now after update.

The drives are uninitialized, 0 bytes size, seen by windows as unrecognized device and not seen by any other software.

Anybody know a fix or way to force correct firmware onto these disks to get them working ?

PLS HELP:)

[vingallo]

Anyone ?

[fzabkar]

Those 3 LOD files are for drives with 2 heads, 4 heads and 6 heads, respectively. It appears that you have applied the wrong payloads to your drives.

The firmware update tool uses the data in the CFS file to match the correct LOD file to the target drive.

This is what the CFS file looks like when it is decoded:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230729154504/http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/GR-CC4H.TXT

What are the first 3 characters of the serial number?

BTW, that particular model is very unreliable. In fact, the 3TB version was the subject of a lawsuit.

[vingallo]

I tried one per LOD file type, they all cant be detected by OS, windows says unrecognized.
The serials for the first two are S24, and Z1E.
I would love to bring them back to life.
Is there anyway to fix them or overwrite directly the proper firmware through a programmer chip/comm port or something else?
@fzabkar Please let me know, I have reviewed some of your older posts, some on this particular drive, you have a lot of expertise with them.

Those 3 LOD files are for drives with 2 heads, 4 heads and 6 heads, respectively. It appears that you have applied the wrong payloads to your drives.

The firmware update tool uses the data in the CFS file to match the correct LOD file to the target drive.

This is what the CFS file looks like when it is decoded:

https://web.archive.org/web/20230729154504/http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/GR-CC4H.TXT

What are the first 3 characters of the serial number?

BTW, that particular model is very unreliable. In fact, the 3TB version was the subject of a lawsuit.

[fzabkar]

Z1E has 4 heads.

I'm not sure, but I think S24 has 5 heads.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230730054253/http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/seagate_sernum.txt

You could try using hdparm to apply the correct LOD file, but I suspect that the drive may reject the command.

[vingallo]

Thanks for the help.
Do you mind expanding on what exactly I can do to bring them back to working state.
Put them into a linux system, and with hdparm am I able to flash the LOF files with a sata connection or is something else needed.
I am open to any solution to get them to work again, with or without the prior data, please let me know how to do this for sure.
Thank you.

Z1E has 4 heads.

I'm not sure, but I think S24 has 5 heads.

https://web.archive.org/web/20230730054253/http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/seagate_sernum.txt

You could try using hdparm to apply the correct LOD file, but I suspect that the drive may reject the command.

[fzabkar]

I don't know of any DIY methods that can work around a locked terminal.

Try this:

https://mn3m.info/posts/hdd-firmware-upgrade/

[Masterclass]

This is an unlocked kind of Grenada. Only Grenada BP2 was locked

[northwind]

1E -- 4 heads
24 -- 5 heads starting from 0.

[vingallo]

That is very helpful, just two followup questions:
1) Firmware is only for 2,4,6 heads so what .LOD firmware to we flash onto 5 headed disks ?
2) I have quite a few of these drives, how can I definitively check the number of heads ?

1E -- 4 heads
24 -- 5 heads starting from 0.

[vingallo]

Does the mean I can simply boot into a linux machine and use hdparm as in the linked article ?
If so that is good news!

This is an unlocked kind of Grenada. Only Grenada BP2 was locked

[fzabkar]

1) Firmware is only for 2,4,6 heads so what .LOD firmware to we flash onto 5 headed disks ?

# 3 DISK CONFIGURATIONS, 2TB CAN BE 5 OR 6 HEAD CONFIGURATIONS

ST2000DM001-9YN164;GR75?D.CCD4.AW01AD.CC46.D08B;GRCC4H6H.LOD

[vingallo]

1) Firmware is only for 2,4,6 heads so what .LOD firmware to we flash onto 5 headed disks ?

# 3 DISK CONFIGURATIONS, 2TB CAN BE 5 OR 6 HEAD CONFIGURATIONS

ST2000DM001-9YN164;GR75?D.CCD4.AW01AD.CC46.D08B;GRCC4H6H.LOD

Hi fzabkar, getting back into this repair. Have installed debain on a box and connected the affected drives to it.
I am looking in disks and not seeing the disks which have been flashed perhaps with incorrect bios.
You suggested HDPRAM, not sure where to start if I simply cannot see the disks.
Would you mind to please kindly point me in the right direction so I can get started?

[vingallo]

fzabkar, ?

[fzabkar]

Sorry, I can't help you.

[michael chiklis]

Can you dump your ROMs ?
Do you have any rom programmer that works at 1,8V ?

Unfortunately, i couldn't help you if you can't pass me the roms, and i have no idea if it can be done via software.
Actually there would be Sediv who can dump the rom, i think demo version can dump it if you have a UART/TTL adapter to connect the disk via serial.
The problem though is that you couldn't write the repaired rom with sediv demo, so you would need an SPI chip programmer, like Revelprog.

I don't know of any free software that allows you to write the rom directly via serial port.

[pepe]

is it really worth using 10+ years old drives in a raid array?? and 9YN? they are known to be prone to fail with severe surface disintegration...
are there no decent drives in Canada?