New HDD firmware upgrade posted by IBM for T4x

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darkhelmet03 · #1 Post by **darkhelmet03** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 11:04 am

A new firmware upgrade is available for many of the hard drives used in ThinkPads. I guess I'll apply it later tonight. I am wondering if it is reliability related...

Leon · #2 Post by **Leon** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 11:19 am

Link here:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... us&lang=en

Leon · #3 Post by **Leon** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:18 pm

Weird! I installed the latest Firmware for my HTS5480, changed nothing else, and my programs are loading faster!

baraider · #4 Post by **baraider** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:31 pm

you need a floppy to do the upgrade?

s0larian · #5 Post by **s0larian** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:37 pm

Is anyone using this firmware update for a retail 7k60 drive? Does this work?

Leon · #6 Post by **Leon** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:43 pm

yes (to the floppy question)... in any case I think any serious Thinkpad owner should have a USB Floppy.. available for a few dollars from ebay.. more useful than you may think...

baraider · #7 Post by **baraider** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 12:56 pm

Leon wrote:yes (to the floppy question)... in any case I think any serious Thinkpad owner should have a USB Floppy.. available for a few dollars from ebay.. more useful than you may think...

I think i want to buy an usb card reader that can read floppy and SD cards...can the TP boot from these usb floppy?

Any good brand anyone of you guys used and recommend?

xcrunner51 · #8 Post by **xcrunner51** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 1:49 pm

can you do this update from a usb flash drive?

baraider · #9 Post by **baraider** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:11 pm

anyone knows if the ibm usb floppy 05K9276 is usb 2.0 or 1.1?

is this the only ibm usb floppy or there are many other version?

#10 Post by **daeojkim** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:33 pm

I am sure that all floppy drives are USB 1.1 standard that would work on the 2.0 as well. Floppy drives are so slow that you don't need 2.0.

Leon · #11 Post by **Leon** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 3:50 pm

There is NO advantage to buy the IBM one. Ebay, or if you don't, an inexpensive one on the Net.

Also, while it is POSSIBLE to boot from a USB Memory, the work involved to get installs like this to work with them is not worth it. The small investment you make will greatly outweigh the effort. In addition, the day will come when you will need a floppy in an emergency (for yourself, or for someone else).

rssb · #12 Post by **rssb** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:22 pm

you can get it to work with the usb flash, but you need to know the exact firmware file and the parameter table file to use for your disk.

The update can be done via a dos command, run the HFUI*.exe with the right parameters.

There is a file on these disks, fw.pro (text file) , which is gives the correct parameters to be loaded with HFUI*.exe , when it is run via fw.exe in the autoexec.bat

Leon · #13 Post by **Leon** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:37 pm

For example:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 95086&rd=1

Buy it now, no bidding, $23 shipped, buyer rated 98.4%.

#14 Post by **jdhurst** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 4:51 pm

I downloaded the update, but I am looking at it now, and it says no new firmware found. So it may be that anyone else's drive is also up-to-date
... JD Hurst

Leon · #15 Post by **Leon** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 7:24 pm

The drives and versions affected are listed with the link that I posted above.

#16 Post by **jdhurst** » Tue Apr 05, 2005 9:40 pm

Yes - my drive was in that link you showed, and I used your link to get the appropriate files. Thank you. ... JD Hurst

Matt · #17 Post by **Matt** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 2:00 am

Under "Additional Information" halfway down the upgrade utility page is a link that says "Detect the hard disk drive firmware level for the system you are using". It said my drive had the latest firmware (which I'd expect, as it's a warranty replacement only a few months old).

would · #18 Post by **would** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 6:47 am

if you want to update without a floppy drive:
just make a diskette on a machine with floppy and a cd-r drive
start "Nero" and make a bootable disk - using the image of your floppy! worked for me!!

and i also think programs start faster now -

Leon · #19 Post by **Leon** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 8:37 am

You mean Botable CD?

Torque · #20 Post by **Torque** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 8:55 am

Leon wrote:There is NO advantage to buy the IBM one. Ebay, or if you don't, an inexpensive one on the Net.

Also, while it is POSSIBLE to boot from a USB Memory, the work involved to get installs like this to work with them is not worth it. The small investment you make will greatly outweigh the effort. In addition, the day will come when you will need a floppy in an emergency (for yourself, or for someone else).

Now this I don't understand. This harddrive firmware update, does it take up 18 diskettes??

Im willing to do some severe tampering before ill start copying data onto 18 diskettes.

Isn't there a non-diskette version of this update?

#21 Post by **jdhurst** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 8:59 am

It does not take 18 diskettes. Read the text file and download the one file applicable to your hard drive. Then make one diskette and test the drive. ... JD Hurst

darkhelmet03 · #22 Post by **darkhelmet03** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 11:57 am

I also created a bootable cd (don't have a usb floppy) using a floppy, nero, and my desktop, and worked fine.

#23 Post by **RonS** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 3:45 pm

I benchmarked my 7K60, applied the firmware update, and re-ran the benchmark. I got the same results.

I don't see a speed improvement with the upgrade.

Leon · #24 Post by **Leon** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 3:47 pm

Well, the 80 is faster.

#25 Post by **RonS** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:04 pm

Leon wrote:Well, the 80 is faster.

You're joking, right?

Leon · #26 Post by **Leon** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:07 pm

I didn't benchmark, so maybe it's my imagination. But it seems that programs are loading faster. No other changes. Maybe others with the 80 can comment and/or benchmark.

#27 Post by **daeojkim** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:19 pm

Leon wrote:I didn't benchmark, so maybe it's my imagination. But it seems that programs are loading faster. No other changes. Maybe others with the 80 can comment and/or benchmark.

May be your 80GB is spinning at 7200 rpm after the upgrade

#28 Post by **RonS** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 4:21 pm

Or maybe it was just the reboot.

Leon · #29 Post by **Leon** » Wed Apr 06, 2005 5:52 pm

Not the reboot... I do that every day...

Torque · #30 Post by **Torque** » Thu Apr 07, 2005 3:49 am

jdhurst wrote:It does not take 18 diskettes. Read the text file and download the one file applicable to your hard drive. Then make one diskette and test the drive. ... JD Hurst

Pulled the trigger too fast there. Sry.

New HDD firmware upgrade posted by IBM for T4x

New HDD firmware upgrade posted by IBM for T4x

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