Hi all,

first: I know that what I did was probably stupid, but I want to hear if everything is lost, or if there is any hope. It's quite a long read as I already tried lots of things.

I have a SATA MaxLineIII (7B300S0) drive which has some problems with nForce4 chipsets, so I wanted to update the firmware as version BANC1E00 supposedly solves the problem. Maxtor support didn't really want to help and just sent a standard questionary form. I answered them but to make a long story short: They didn't provide me the firmware update.

So I searched the web and found out that for those MaxLineIII/DM10 drives BANC1E00 fixes the problems and is the latest firmware that is suitable for these drives. My drive came with BANC1B70. There is also an intermediate BANC1BY0 firmware. I found all these three firmware files on the web.

As I had the information that the firmware update process doesn't work with an nForce4 SATA controller, I connected the drive to my onboard SiI3114 SATA controller.

Originally the firmware packages came with the Maxtor Code Load Utility v2.032 (called dload.exe) and the firmware files. The update process on the SiI3114 always timed out after the first overlay page write (page 44).

Then I thought that a newer Maxtor Code Load Utility could help (perhaps better support of SiI3114). In a newer Maxtor firmware package (VA111670 for 6V300F0) I found the Maxtor Code Load Utility v2.034.

With v2.034 the problem was the same on SiI3114. (Although v2.034 was quicker, more comfortable and seems more mature.) Then I decided to try if Maxtor has brought nForce4 support to the Code Load Utility in the version v2.034.

Astonishingly v2.034 immediately found the drive through the nForce4 controller. It showed a warning that the firmware wasn't suitable for the drive. I had read in the forum where I found the firmware files that a Maxtor technician told the one that had the files that this error message is normal and that he should confirm and continue. I also confirmed and the update went ok. It didn't crash and said afterwards that everything went well.

But not everything is well now, as there are the following problems:

- Upon boot the drive shows up as "Maxtor SABRE" with 0 GB size and without SMART support. Connected through nForce4 controller MHDD tells me that the drive doesn't support LBA. (Will test MHDD through SiI3114 later.)

- Weird: The Maxtor Code Load Utility v2.034 (when given the BANC1E00 or the BANC1BY0 firmware files) tells me that it cannot find a suitable drive. With the BANC1B70 files it shows a drive called "Maxtor SABRE" but the update procedure hangs at the same point at which the v2.032 hung on the SiI3114 (flashing the first overlay page no.44)

Does anyone have an idea what I might try next? I would already be happy to have the drive back to firmware BANC1B70 and just working. Lesson learned

Is my drive bricked or is there a possibility to force the original firmware onto the drive?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Kind Regards,
weaker

I solved it now, but I don't understand what's going on:

I read about a brand-new firmware VA111900 for another Maxtor drive. I downloaded it and found that it contains the Maxtor Code Load Utility v2.039. With this version and the BANC1B70 (!) firmware files I didn't do a full update but updated boot code and base pages first. Boot code update was successful, while base page was not.

At the next reboot the drive showed up as "Maxtor 7B300S0 BANC1E00" (!) and SMART support and its real size (279 GB). Also an MHDD run showed everything fine (EID, INIT, RST, CX... everything worked).

I booted into Powermax 4.23 which hangs upon initialization. I don't know if it did that in earlier times, but Maxtor took a long time to support nForce4 on Powermax and I guess nF4 support isn't perfect yet.

Then I connected the drive to the SiI3114 controller and rerun Powermax. After having chosen the drive it shows me RMA code "caa00000" and that the drive doesn't pass the basic test. But when I choose to perform the basic test immediately after the message, the drive passes the basic test. It passes the installation test as well and it started the advanced test flawlessly. I canceled it, because it took too long.

I don't know if that is a quirk of Powermax or what else.

The drive runs as before (or better, don't know). Even the partitions and data is still there.

What I don't understand now is:

- Why does rewriting with BANC1B70 boot code lead to recognization as BANC1E00 (what it should have been right after the flash and not "Maxtor SABRE")

- Why does Powermax tell me an RMA code when it tells me right afterwards that the drive passes all tests it performs.

- I am unsure, if the drive only tells me that it uses firmware BANC1E00 or if it actually uses it. I really don't know what's going on, or if the drives are now a BANC1B70/BANC1E00 hybrid.

Until now everything seems fine and the update seems to have worked in the end, but this was more than an average nightmare to me.

And finally I urge Maxtor to make at least the Code Load Utility downloadable from their website because I think I would never have recovered the drive without the newer versions. The included v2.032 was probably the source of all that.

Finally I hope that someone can use my findings to recover mis-flashed Maxtor drives.

Kind regards,
weaker

Further reading in several forums indicated that you cannot go directly from 1B70 to 1E00. You have to do it in two steps: 1B70 -> 1BY0, reboot, 1BY0 -> 1E00.
I did that again, and it worked flawlessly on the nForce4 controller. But remember that I used v2.039 and not the included v2.032

I can now conclude that version 2.039 of the Maxtor Code Load Utility which is included in the VA111900 update can be used with the 7B300S0 disk and works fine together with nForce4. Of course you have to use the old update routines in v2.039 and not the newer DMC stuff that more recent updates include.

Perhaps tomorrow I will test if Powermax still displays an error with the drive that is now flashed correctly in the above order. Although it still doesn't work with the nForce4.

Kind regards,
weaker

Hey thanks for posting the solution!

But what a story... Some years ago I personally killed my own maxtor drive with maxtor firmware update utility (and the tool did not tell me there is something wrong, it just silently updated the drive but it never worked after that procedure). So there are definitely problems with maxtor update tools.

Unfortunately there is no Maxtor anymore, so I do not think they will put anything on their website ... Maxtor has been acquired by Seagate, but Seagate will most likely not produce IDE/SATA drives based on Maxtor hardware.

Yes it was quite a nightmare but all is well that ends well.

But I read that Maxtors firmware is quite good, especially the NCQ strategies that don't penalize single user patterns. So we will perhaps see the Maxtor flasher with Seagate branding again. But I'm prepared now...

Personally I won't buy Maxtor again (perhaps pointless in the light of the Seagate acquisition). WD support never let me down when I needed it and that was not very often.

WD... Recently one of my WD Raptors has died... I had 5 year warranty for it.

I shipped it to WD. And they shipped back a much older refurbished drive with fingerprints and dust from the previous customer... And this replacement drive has 3 months of warranty not 5 years

Umm, this is a bad experience. Some kind of unfair, that reduces the overall warranty time a lot.

Perhaps all hdd manufacturers are created equal, and I just had luck with WD until now.

Did you complain about the drive and the warranty?

OK, I now finally had time to test what Powermax tells me now.
Surprise, surprise, it tells me the exact same thing than before.
It hangs when I have the nForce4 controller enabled and with the drive connected to SiI3114 it tells me first an RMA code when I do the basic test. Doing the basic test right after that for the second time the drive passes the test with flying colors.

I think this is a Powermax issue as the drive is working without a hitch in all conditions. Can anyone confirm such a behaviour?

After more than one year I just want to give a quick update (I know that Maxtor DM10 drives are already getting old but anyway):
Both flashed drives are still running flawlessly with the new firmware. No issues whatsoever.