Has anyone updated an X40 HDD f/w with external USB CD?

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DavidNZ · #1 Post by **DavidNZ** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:50 pm

As per:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62282

Has anyone managed to update the firmware of an X40 HDD using an external USB CD? I note, for example, that in the notes it says:

"The hard drive firmware update utility bootable CD does not support USB optical disc drives, PCMCIA/CardBUS optical disc drives, optical disc drives in a docking station bay, or any other drives other than the optical disc drive in the ThinkPad UltraBay."

I guess this means that if you don't have an UltraBay, you can't upgrade an X40's HDD firmware.

mhca · #2 Post by **mhca** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 10:42 am

I messed around with it for a while and ended up giving up. Somehow the utility detects wether or not you are using an ultrabay and blocks the update if an USB CD-drive is detected.

I wouldn't mind if there is a solution to this as I don't really know anybody with an ultrabay.

DavidNZ · #3 Post by **DavidNZ** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:47 pm

Cheers, mhca -

Have to say, I'm rather disappointed in IBM/Lenovo that there's a FW update, but it is, effectively, unattainable unless you've splurged on the ultray/dock setup.

Now, it may be for technical reasons, which I would understand, but if not my disappointment stands...

yozas · #4 Post by **yozas** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 7:02 am

hey!

i did an update to my x40, using external usb cdrom, but i had
to make my own startup cdrom, copy some files from the .iso
that is downloadable from ibm's site, then some path fixing,
etc was needed.
and I used msdos instead of ibm dos that was in .iso.

the main thing is to update hdd firmware from a ram disk,
thats what original ibm .iso does

there are some other details if you wish to know them, tell here

seneca · #5 Post by **seneca** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 11:40 am

So, what does the new firmware do? What's new?

mhca · #6 Post by **mhca** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 11:57 pm

yozas wrote:hey!

i did an update to my x40, using external usb cdrom, but i had
to make my own startup cdrom, copy some files from the .iso
that is downloadable from ibm's site, then some path fixing,
etc was needed.
and I used msdos instead of ibm dos that was in .iso.

the main thing is to update hdd firmware from a ram disk,
thats what original ibm .iso does

there are some other details if you wish to know them, tell here

I would very much like to know. I tried some time ago to make my own bootable CD but that wasn't of any use. I read yesterday about using an USB key but what has to be done isn't quite clear to me. If you can maybe explain a bit more detailed? Or do you maybe have an edited iso-file which can be used for patching?

yozas · #7 Post by **yozas** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 8:43 am

I used usb flash and usb cdrom when did this.
Flash drive must be formatted with MSDOS recognizable file system,
e.g. FAT32.

download .iso from here:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62282

extract (using winrar, or any iso utility) everything from
that .iso image to the root of usb flash, and leave the flash inserted.

Download my configured bootable .iso image with needed
autoexec.bat script inside:
http://jeruzale.mine.nu/misc/cd_fixed.iso
and burn it to cd.

Make sure you don't have any FAT32 partitions on the hard disk,
because drive letters in MSDOS will change and the shell script
will fail (you can ofcourse edit the script then).
Now, insert that CD in your external USB CDROM drive, and reboot,
select to boot from CD. When computer boots up, the USB flash
will be C:, and D: will be assigned to RAM drive.
autoexec.bat file will copy firmware files to ram drive (for safety,
if anything happens with USB flash during update), and then it will execute firmware update from RAM drive.

It is possible to get everything (boot information and firmware
files) just on USB flash, but I made it this way.

mhca · #8 Post by **mhca** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:02 am

Tried it... but it didn't work.

It copies all the files to the RAMdrive and it asks me to press a key to continue the patching.
It says
Searching for IDE device.
Device found 1.
Unable to open input file, "FW.PRO"

Press any key to quit... _

That's all

Do I have to remove HDD password first?

Update: Didn't help removing HDD password

yozas · #9 Post by **yozas** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 10:11 am

mhca wrote:Tried it... but it didn't work.

It copies all the files to the RAMdrive and it asks me to press a key to continue the patching.
It says
Searching for IDE device.
Device found 1.
Unable to open input file, "FW.PRO"

Press any key to quit... _

looks like i forgot to change working directory for fw.exe
program. You can download fixed bootable image:
http://jeruzale.mine.nu/misc/cd_fixed.iso

or you can press ctrl+c to exit to command
prompt when copying to ram disk is finished, then type d: and press enter, type fw.exe, press enter.

mhca wrote: That's all Do I have to remove HDD password first?

Update: Didn't help removing HDD password

yeah, you have to remove the password, it is written so
in the readme:
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... hd44en.txt

waiting to hear of success..

mhca · #10 Post by **mhca** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:04 pm

I followed your directions yozas and was able to enter the firmware update and update from 00P4A0B4 to 00P4A0B5.

I removed the HDD password first.

After at reboot I got a BSOD with some kernel-stuff. Made me a bit afraid.
I decided to enter the setup utility again and saw that the firmware had changed to B5 instead, as intended.

I entered the bios and put a HDD password back on and removed both my USB key and USB CD. After that I tried booting into Windows again and everything went as normal except for the dialouge box telling me that is had recovered from a system error.

Phew

I was a bit worried (also my warranty ran out 20 days ago, hehe) since I had 2 hours of work for this week not backed up.

Thx for your help yozas.

Edit: Just realised that I had hibernated Windows after last use. Probably the reason why it gave me BSOD. (I guess this was the first BSOD on this machine)

yozas · #11 Post by **yozas** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:23 pm

mhca wrote: I entered the bios and put a HDD password back on and removed both my USB key and USB CD. After that I tried booting into Windows again and everything went as normal except for the dialouge box telling me that is had recovered from a system error.

I also got a message that windows had finished installing new
devices and offered a reboot.

mhca wrote: Phew I was a bit worried (also my warranty ran out 20 days ago, hehe) since I had 2 hours of work for this week not backed up.

Thx for your help yozas.

always have backups, not just before firmware updates

mhca wrote: Edit: Just realised that I had hibernated Windows after last use. Probably the reason why it gave me BSOD. (I guess this was the first BSOD on this machine)

Well yes, BSOD is surely because firmware was changed.
Windows had different disk firmware version in their hibernate file.
Same as trying to go out of hibernation after adding more ram,
or other hardware.

well I am happy for you

I am just not sure what does the last update give

Has anyone updated an X40 HDD f/w with external USB CD?

Has anyone updated an X40 HDD f/w with external USB CD?

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