bill bolton wrote:
There are certainly some commonly available drives, like the Fujitsu MHV2xxx series (which includes 100GB and 120GB drives) that seem to be T43 compatible, and ungradeable by the standard IBM firmware process, without going through any special hoops.
That's true and especially for users with a T42 a known problem. Since my harddisk has shown up growing sector errors i had to look for a new one. Lenovo-Drives are most often priced three or four times higher than the ones with same specs from the manufacturer. So i bought a new Fujitsu MHV2080AH for 60 € and installed it. The drive performed good, but seemed to be a bit loud. So i became interested in flashing the firmware to a current lenovo version.
I've tried the guides which were posted in here, had some problems and found a solution for the fujitsu drives.
Warning: Do ALWAYS a BACKUP first!!! This guide is only for power users.
Step 1. Download the iso image from the following link
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62282
Step 2. Burn the image file into a CD-R or CD-RW disc
Step 3. Check the FW.PRO file in the disc and look for your drive (i.e. mhv2080ah):
; MHV2080AH 80.0GB
"FUJITSU MHV2080AH","00840096","008400D8","ZC8400D8.BIN","hfuf06.exe","","",""
"FUJITSU MHV2080AH","008400D7","008400D8","ZC8400D8.BIN","hfuf06.exe","","",""
You can see that the phrases include 3 important parts of information for automated flashing work:
00D8: Version control phrase
ZC8400D8.BIN: New firmware file
hfuf06.exe: Flash program for specified harddisk
NO CHECKSUM file !!!
The missing Checksum File is special for many fujitsu types.
Find the phrases whitch matchs your harddisk and write down the 3 parts for following work.
Step 4. Boot with the CD, and leave the update-programm with CTRL+C.
You will get a normal Dos-Prompt.
(Using the F5-Key during boot sequence disabled the installation of the CD-Rom-driver and lead to nowhere.)
Step 5. Type in the command in the following format:
[Flash program] [Version control phrase, first char. ADD an O not a null] -pm /F [New firmware file]
The command then looks like:
HFUF06.EXE o00D8 -pm /F ZC8400D8.BIN
Excute the command and don't get irritated if there is an error message. Just continue to the next step.
Step 6. Type in the command with a little change in the following format:
[Flash program] [Version control phrase, first char. ADD an I not a 1 or a L] -pm /F [New firmware file]
The command then looks like:
HFUF06.EXE i00D8 -pm /F ZC8400D8.BIN
Excute the command and you will see the PASS information.
Ok, until here it sounds easy. But the real problem begins here.
That's why you have to do
two more steps!
The drive lost it's data, that's not critical since you did your backup. But in my case the drive was no longer accessable. So i had to find a new way...
First i did a
low level format with a tool from maxtor MAXLLF.EXE which can low level format more than just the maxtor drives. You can access it for example under
http://www.zenerino.ch/download/downloa ... maxllf.exe or just google for it.
It takes some hours!!! to complete.
Second i did a
normal format with a windows xp installation cd to get a complete harddisc error table and an accessable drive. Afterwards i put my Acronis-Backup on it and everything works perfect.
Good Luck!