In-depth technology research: finding new ways to recover data, accessing firmware, writing programs, reading bits off the platter, recovering data from dust.

Forum rules

Please do not post questions about data recovery cases here (use this forum instead). This forum is for topics on finding new ways to recover data. Accessing firmware, writing programs, reading bits off the platter, recovering data from dust...
Post a reply

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

April 18th, 2025, 14:44

Thanks on that SWM!
So far it has reacted after --fwdownload command with missing sense data errors but after restarting it has shown up without safe mode enabled with the same signature as it was in the safe mode before flashing:
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: SAMSUNG SATA SSD
Serial Number: 00000000000000
LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 544584d30
Firmware Version: ROMMEX17
User Capacity: 435,990,528 bytes [435 MB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4c
SATA Version is: Unknown, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sat Mar 22 13:31:45 2025 CDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Read SMART Data failed: scsi error badly formed scsi parametar"

Now I am issuing secure erase command, it has not rejected as before but there is no confirmation either so I am waiting that half hour.
Should I rename it in origin name.bin next time?

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

April 18th, 2025, 15:55

Thanks on that SWM!
Posting again because there is no my earlier post.
I got error sense data, but after restarting it shows up as a devide without safe mode with the sme signature as before:
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: SAMSUNG SATA SSD
Serial Number: 00000000000000
LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 544584d30
Firmware Version: ROMMEX17
User Capacity: 435,990,528 bytes [435 MB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4c
SATA Version is: Unknown, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sat Mar 22 13:31:45 2025 CDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Read SMART Data failed: scsi error badly formed scsi parameters

Also after flashing it has not rejected secure erase command, but ether confirmed.

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

April 18th, 2025, 16:07

Thanks on that SWM!
Posting again because there is no my earlier post.
I got error sense data, but after restarting it shows up as a devide without safe mode with the sme signature as before:
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: SAMSUNG SATA SSD
Serial Number: 00000000000000
LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 544584d30
Firmware Version: ROMMEX17
User Capacity: 435,990,528 bytes [435 MB]
Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is: ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4c
SATA Version is: Unknown, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
Local Time is: Sat Mar 22 13:31:45 2025 CDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Read SMART Data failed: scsi error badly formed scsi parameters

Also after flashing it has not rejected secure erase command, but ether confirmed.

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

April 18th, 2025, 16:26

SG_IO: bad/missing sense data, sb[]: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 04 51 e0 01 21 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
Repeated error after fwdonload command.

Also:

ormat unit:
Fixed format, current; Sense key: Illegal Request
Additional sense: Invalid command operation code
Format unit command: Illegal request, Invalid opcode, type: sense key + asc,ascq
FORMAT UNIT failed

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

April 26th, 2025, 8:40

svetoklik wrote:Could you please just upload EXM04B6Q_10170217.enc > EXM04B6Q_10170217.bin
Attachments
EXM04B6Q_decoded.7z
(1.18 MiB) Downloaded 693 times

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

May 31st, 2026, 14:53

SWM wrote:dando

Dear Mr. SWM,I have a copy.FWH file needs to be converted into lod file. Can you help me? Thank you very much.
Attachments
EAL6.zip
(1.41 MiB) Downloaded 1 time

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

June 1st, 2026, 12:57

Hi guys,

I have a batch of Seagate ST33000650SS 3TB SAS drives running stock factory firmware (0005). I want to cross-flash them to the Dell RS17 firmware specifically to gain control and disable the Background Media Scan (BMS), which is causing issues on my setup.

I tried the common method of stripping the first 208 bytes from the Dell package to isolate the raw microcode, but the drive rejects the flash payload. It's clear that removing the Dell container header breaks the file's internal 32-bit checksum and misaligns the Seagate signature blocks.

Since the hardware family is identical, what is the current tool, Python script, or method used to correctly recalculate the Seagate firmware checksum and adjust the header signature after removing the OEM capsule bytes? I am trying to avoid using a hardware flasher if this can be achieved via SAS pass-through commands.

Any direction on how to fix the modified .lod/.bin checksum would be highly appreciated.

Thanks!

Re: Extract .LOD file (Seagate) from .FWH file (Dell)

June 1st, 2026, 13:42

kafagesty wrote:I have a batch of Seagate ST33000650SS 3TB SAS drives running stock factory firmware (0005). I want to cross-flash them to the Dell RS17 firmware ...

Link?
Post a reply