no

So, is the IBM firmware only useful to make retail HDs more compatible with Thinkpad laptop?

No. It is only for IBM/Lenovo brand hard drives, to improve or repair features. This firmware generally will not run on hard drives that are not IBM brand - even if they are the same model. Some people have been able to hack the firmware so it will run on non-IBM drives - however you risk drive damage if it doesn't go right.

I just upgraded my hard drive on a T43P to a 7K100 and have managed to update the firmware to avoid the annoying delay and 2010 error.

There are a lot of posts on this forum about how to do it, and I found many of them did not work for me. I had to make several attempts before I was successful.

You seem to need a modified ISO image to create your bootable CD - I could not upgrade using the IBM/Lenovo ISO CD.

Messar's original link to his ISO image no longer works. That's where I started!

But Blapps excellent post in this forum dated 21st Dec 2006 did the job first time, as he also has posted his ISO image to
http://rapidshare.com/files/8425286/5k7k100.iso.html

This worked first time - so in case it helps others, I'm just recording what worked.

Also, when choosing a disk it took me a long while to locate the 7K100 (which has upgrade firmware). Over here in UK Hitachi market an E7K100 (HTE721010G9AT00) which was often what was being sold, but it's not on the supported list. I eventually found a 7K100 from DABS.

I've upgraded the 7K100 (just received) of my T43p. I've followed the post of Blapp (using the relevant iso). I've tried at least 6 times the operation without success receiving each time different kind of errors:
1) drive not found
2) firmware already updated
3) model not matching

To be able to complete the operation is important to power off the laptop and restart booting from CD.
If you just perform a reboot (from Linux or Windows) the operation will systematically fail.

Is it possible to use a 7k100 HDD (HTS721060G9AT00) in a X41?

I know this HDD will not fit all in the bay but id like to try it.

The conectors are identical. I replaced the original 40Gb 1.8HDD with this 7k100 and booted using a Hirens bootable pendrive.

All the hirens softwares didnt find anything connected to IDE.

Will be this FW upgrade usefull in any way to make my X41 see this 7k100 HDD?

Thanks for the help.
CreativeBR

The current FW.PRO includes Seagate drives:



Empty "version control phrase". Nowhere for including the "O"/"I" prefix recipe? Does anyone have any clues on how to make one of these drives "ThinkPad Friendly"?

Thanks.

I just read possibly all the posts regarding the 2010 error.
I am about to flash my firmware of the 7K100 hitachi drive.
Unfortunately I cannot downoad from rapidshare because my university network has blocked it.
Could anybody please send me this image via email?
Provided it does not exceed 10 mb of course.
Thank you in advance.
My email is:
krzysztof.jagus@gmail.com

Managed to get my hands on the iso image.
Burned the cd, performed the upgrade.
No 2010.
Thanks again to Blapps for creating the modified ISO!

We owe messar thanks for getting us started! I applied the information to flash Seagate and HTGS 100 GB 7200 RPM drives.

Riverwillow wrote:
I looked some more at the text in the FW.PRO file, and found a more generic pattern than given in messar’s original post. Take the Seagate Momentus example:


The first field “ST910021A” appears to be the drive model numbers.
The next fields “3.06”, 3.07” are the current usable versions which the self booting routine which calls the flasher will test the drive with to see if it needs to be updated.
The next field “m72307.bin” is the flash image file to be programmed into the drive.
The next field “Hfsu429.exe” is the flash burning program, provided by the drive vendor.
The following fields are arguments for the flash burning program. Note that these will change with different programs.

As we have seen with the posts for the Hitachi drives, directly entering the flash burning program command from a DOS command prompt bypasses the checking to see if the current FW version is current that is done in the autoexec batch program. Note that some of the flash programming routines check for this themselves, as is the case with Hitachi. The “/f” option tells this program to use a downgraded version. The Seagate routine does accept this option, but it not seem to care if the versions are the same.

Here is a key for those who want to try to flash other drives:
The flash burning programs are provided by the drive vendors, not IBM/Lenovo. You can learn their individual syntax by just typing the command name followed by a “?”, or with no arguments, which generates an error. Both list the “help” message for the command (the good ol’ DOS days)

After playing around with this for some time, I successfully reflashed my Seagate Momentus ST910021A drive. But here is the bad news – For Seagate, flashing does not clear the 2010 error! I suspect that Seagate drives contain a part number, which they change for IBM/Lenovo, that is NOT overwritten with the flash update. For the HTGS drives, flashing does change this.

So bottom line – I don’t think it is possible to remove the 2010 error message with this drive. Flashing older FW (below ver 3.06) up to 3.07 will add the missing SATA commands to prevent the errors which the error message is really trying to protect you from, but you still get the error message. At least the drive will be reliable. (of course if it is already versions 3.06 or 3.07, the needed SATA commands are already there, so flashing is not needed.)

-------------------------
Now, back to the Hitachi. I have a HTGS 721010GAT00 drive that won’t flash using the instructions given by a few members. This drive is a “Dell” model, and the FW version is MCZDA53A, higher that the “A51A” version that the BIOS is looking for. As we have learned, in the case of HTGS drives, the model number that the BIOS checks for the 2010 error IS reprogrammed with a flash upgrade (or in this case, downgrade).

When I try to flash using the command line, I get the error that the drive is not supported. I have tried editing the version phrase and even copying the flash image file name as suggested in the method that works for the OEM drives. My guess is the problem is in the checksum table. Does anyone know how this is used in the Hitachi command? Is it a test before or after the flash programming? I tried to look at the table, but it has non ASCII characters, so I can not edit it easily. There is really no readable ASCII of any interest in the file.

Any ideas how the Hitachi supplied flash program checks for drive compatibility?

Hi all,

is there a particular hardware/firmware revision/version of retail 7k100 that I can flash to IBM official firmware?

Thanks and sorry for my poor English

HTS721010G9AT00, Firmware MCZOA51A can be flashed using Blapp's post in this thread.

My experiences and a solution with a Hitachi Travelstar 80GN IC25N080ATMR:

The OPs guide didn't work for me:
1st try: Booting from the CD:
I had real troubles to get to a working DOS promt with the CD mounted.
By trial and error I found Ctrl-Break when the FW.exe
was about to start brought me there.
With the prompt working I didnt get as far to see the hfui11.exe
Mask: error message checksum mismatch. No further error info on screen.
During a whole night I tried variations of
hfui11.exe [O|I]ADEA MO4IADEA.BIN /F MRGADEA.TBL
... to no avail.

2nd try:
Then I reverted to use the BOOT floppy image:
Booting from Floppy I got into the hfui11.exe gui and got
resonable feedback from the flash program.
Using the OPs guide I saw that there was, same as before,
a checksum mismatch, expecting a checksum of 00000000H!

In this forum and in a link to NB-Forum
I learned that the checksum table had sections a 5 lines
for Apple, IBM, OEM, ...
So I duplicated the existing IBM checksums (5-10)into the
following 5 lines and - HEUREKA - it worked as described in the OPs guide.

hfui11.exe OADEA -pm MO4IADEA.BIN /F MRGADEA.tbl
... downloaded the hdd firmware and complained with an errror.

Reinvoking
hfui11.exe IADEA -pm MO4IADEA.BIN /F MRGADEA.tbl
... said the new firmware was already installed.
Problem solved.

BTW:
I called Hitachi Global Storage to inquire if the OEM HDDs would
only have a PROM or FROM?
The bold answer was that OEM Hitachi Travelstars could not
be upgraded in firmware.
He was proven wrong!

HTH

Is there any way to find out the firmware before purchase? I'm looking to buy the HTS721010G9AT00 from Newegg, any way to be reasonably sure it will work?

I bought the same drive from Newegg and it worked. I don't see how you'd check firmware before purchase.

OK, guess I'll go ahead and get it and hope mine works as well.

Dear All,

I have just bought a new 160GB Hitachi HDD (HTS541616j9AT00) but unfortunately ran into infamous error 2010 and as I checked IBM HDD firmware update my new HDD have not been supported yet. I am wondering if somebody knows a firmware update for this model (HTS541616j9AT00) or whether it is possible that I change firmware update released by IBM to work for my model.

I contacted IBM support by email but have not received any respond yet!


Thanks in advance
--
ApAch

If I updated to the current version firmware or IBM release a new one in the future, the flashed HDD (non-OEM) will still work properly?

I don't think so, unless you repeated the procedure outlined in this thread and others like it.

Can you please send me 5K7K100_Revised.rar, please?

I am not able to download it

Thanks

Ok, here is how I have created my own floppy (only for Linux Users):

download FDOEM.144.gz (via wget or...)

extract it to obtain FDOEM.144 (a bare boot disk, with just kernel and command.com)

mount it (mount -o loop /where_you_want_1)

download Hard drive firmware update utility (Bootable CD ISO) (via wget or...)

mount it (mount -o loop /where_you_want_2)

now copy from /where_you_want_2 to /where_you_want_1:

- new firmware file for your hd (.bdr) and its checksum file (.tbl)
- specified flash program for your hd (.exe)
- FW.* (.exe, .pro)...i suppose they are not necessary

umount /where_you_want1&2

create a floppy or use memdisk by syslinux and follow the messar howto

OK, sorry for my poor english...but, happy flashing

We have an E7K100 ~ HTE721010G9AT00 ~ MCZOA51A need .tbl of the equation below for my T43...


my model is HTE721010G9AT00 - Need M?????.tbl...
"We have the E7K100 Hitachi bblake above warns of from the UK:

HTE721010G9AT00 [Hard drive] (100.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n MPC051Y0G73A8C, rev MCZOA51A, SMART Status: Healthy

command line FOR E7K100 100GB 7200rpm HITACHI :

A>hfui15.exe OA51A MCZOA51A.BDR /F M??????.TBL

We have searched high and low for the rest of the flash equation above... If anyone has successfully done this please help

We have an E7K100 ~ HTE721010G9AT00 ~ MCZOA51A need .tbl of the equation below for my T43...


my model is HTE721010G9AT00 - Need M?????.tbl...
"We have the E7K100 Hitachi bblake above warns of from the UK:

HTE721010G9AT00 [Hard drive] (100.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n MPC051Y0G73A8C, rev MCZOA51A, SMART Status: Healthy

command line FOR E7K100 100GB 7200rpm HITACHI :

A>hfui15.exe OA51A MCZOA51A.BDR /F M??????.TBL

We have searched high and low for the rest of the flash equation above... If anyone has successfully done this please help

Your HD - HTE721010G9AT00 - isn' t supported...sorry

Below is the drive:

TOSHIBA MK1032GAX [Hard drive] (100.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n Z6HBT4NMT, rev AB211A, SMART Status: Healthy

Found the firmware update should be ABxx4E as of 10/2/2007 IBM.com MIGR-64744 found here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-64744

Tried the ibm.com FWHD49.exe iso, and were told there was no firmware update needed???


need .tbl of the equation below for the T43 - Error 2010 fix...

A>hfui15.exe AB211A MCZAB211A.BDR /F ???AB214E.TBL

In short... How do we locate the checksum for the above hard drive???

By the last response to this question, we realized we did not mention that we had already tried the iso file to update the firmware and were left with only being able to press [Esc] to quit, and [Ctrl+c] for command prompt... But do not know the checksum value for this drive to complete the manual upgrade.

I don' t know the exact upgrade procedure for your drive but these:

; MK1032GAX 100.0GB
"TOSHIBA MK1032GAX","AB222E","AB223E","AB223E.CD2","HFUT10.EXE"
"TOSHIBA MK1032GAX","AB221E","AB223E","AB223E.CD2","HFUT10.EXE"

are the strings that contain your drive name in FW.PRO

Sorry for my poor English

Hi, I am newbie here.

I am a R52 (1860-32A) user for 2.5 years now. I just upgraded my hdd capacity from 40gb to 80gb. After reading posts on how to flash the hdd firmware, by downloading IBM FWHD49 firmware Hdd.

Sad to say it does not work. Still encountering the 2010 error post.

My new hdd:

Hitachi HTS541680J9AT00 (80GB) - "SB2OA70H"

Can any help on how/create the command in dos prompt for my hdd above?

Very much appreciated. Thanks

Not sure I'm qualified to ad my $0.02, but this worked for me:

1 ) On my A30p I installed Apricorn EZ Gig II drive image software which was included with an external 2.5 drive that I bought at Frye's Electronics.
2 ) I put another (not the external drive) new drive into an Ultrabay 2nd HDD Adapter and slid that into my Ultrabay (so I guess this won't work if you don't have an Ultrabay, or a removeable Optical Drive, in your machine ).
3 ) Copy/Clone the main (old) HDD to the (new) HDD in the Ultrabay using the Apricorn uility.
4 ) Shut down computer.
5 ) Remove Ultrabay 2nd HDD adapter.
6 ) Remove main HDD and caddy (if applicable) from computer.
7 ) Remove main (old) HDD from caddy.
8 ) Remove new HDD from Ultrabay adapter and install into main drive caddy.
9 ) Install new HDD and caddy into main HDD slot.
10) Enjoy newfound drivespace

Once again, this worked for me, I don't know how it will work for you. If you have an Ultrabay or a removeable Optical Drive, it's probably a good bet.
Should you want to try this with a "used" new drive, you may want to format it first. You might have to put that drive into the main HDD slot to do so, but try it in the Ultrabay first. Be careful to format only the replacement drive and not the drive you're transferring data From . But, hey, you already knew that .
If your main drive has a caddy, you might want to aquire an extra caddy to avoid multiple R+R (those little screws sometimes grow legs or wings right before they activate their shield of invisibility ).
Also, I think their are 1 or 2 reasons why this works:
a) The Apricorn EZ Gig II is a great utility that copies everything, bit for bit, even the factory partition. (THIS MAY BE THE BIG KEY TO YOUR SUCCESS, I'm not sure)
b) The Ultrabay, or a removeable Optical Drive, is "more integrated?" to the system than USB or other i/o for THIS particular purpose. (Once again, I'm not sure)

Source for Ultrabay Adapters:
SATA (ONLY works in Slim Ultrabay regardless of what seller says)
http://stores.ebay.com/accessories-less
http://cgi.ebay.com/SATA-2nd-HDD-caddy- ... m153.l1262
PATA
http://stores.ebay.com/accessories-less

Check this out too:
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Ultrabay_ ... rabay_2000
Look around in there, you should be able to find what you need.

Apricorn EZ Gig II:
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail. ... eg&id=1180

Good Luck With Your Project, and Have A Great Day!

PS. I Desperately need a set of factory recovery CDs for an A31p 2653-R5U with XP Pro SP2 and Office Pro. I'd be willing to trade my EZ Gig II for the Recovery CDs. Any takers? Thanks!

nice post,
but what does it tell us about flashing of IBM HDD firmware onto a HDD?

Has anyone tried this on the 7k200 series since Lenovo put out a firmware for that model?