Does anyone know how to unlock tech mode on these drives? The ROM is not a standard Seagate ROM so PC3000 cannot patch it, F3romExplorer just crashes when I try to open it there.

It would be easier to say something if you added this ROM for verification...

_________________
Data recovery Poland (RAID, HDD, SSD) - https://hex-serwis.pl

The only time I've seen F3romExplorer crash is when the ROM is corrupt.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Sorry I forgot to post the ROM
I have 2 reads in this zip file, one with pc3k and one directly with an eeprom programmer

Offset 0 - 0x3FFFF is corrupt. I have replaced it with 0x40000 - 0x7FFFF.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Thank you! Now when I try to do the tech mode unlock patch pc3k doesn't have any issues with it.
But after patching I get
"Flash boot code Digital Signature Verification failure!
Flash boot code checksum failure!"

I've tried patch type 2 as well with the same result. I'm just trying to unlock so I can edit SMP.

I expect that PC3000 will have the same problem with a ROM from a working donor.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Unfortunately I don't have any donors for this drive on hand. The drive works and I can get a sector to read immediately after power on with the fixed ROM you posted. I just cant seem to unlock tech mode. PC3000 log says the patch went ok but the terminal just outputs that boot code signature error.

Edit: I think the issue may be my PC3000 version, I only have 6.9.16 and this is a B5 Cimarron drive.

The digital signature is in the BOOTFW segment. PC3K modifies this segment to install its tech mode handshake patch. I expect that this extra code invalidates the digital signature.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

Makes sense. Thanks for the help! So frustrating being locked out of an easy fix