Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB compatibility?

[fordperf]

Flashing the firmware should not affect the data on the drive.

[fordperf]

Ok maybe someone who's successfully flashed their drives can tell me if this is even working.

I USB boot and change drives to C: which is the USB stick, and I run:

Code: Select all

C:\hd204ui.exe

Which then outputs:

Code: Select all

SFLASH V5.33  SAMSUNG Electronics Co., Ltd. (C)2000-2009
>>C:\HD204UI.EXE @20:34
C:\


That's it, thats' all that happens. No drive detected, no starting/complete, just exits back to C:\ prompt.

Methinks it's not seeing the Samsung...

EDIT: UPDATE

It was not seeing the Samsung. I had to put the SATA channel in Enhanced IDE emulation mode. Re-ran the process and viola, 10 seconds of flashing per disk later and everything is right with the world

[NickMili]

Ok maybe someone who's successfully flashed their drives can tell me if this is even working.

That's it, thats' all that happens. No drive detected, no starting/complete, just exits back to C:\ prompt.

Methinks it's not seeing the Samsung...

Correct - if the process works correctly, you'll first see output that shows all detected devices on each IDE/SATA channel in your system - it will then choose the appropriate Samsung drive, indicate that flashing is in progress, and at the end show a message that indicates "Download complete" and it will display the serial number of the drive that was updated.

In order for this utility to work, the drive/channel it is connected to must be accessible via the BIOS (i.e. without loading any special drivers). In my particular situation, all of my new systems are laptops - I have an older desktop system with an Asus P4PE board that has on-board SATA, but it is handled through a Promise FastTrak 376 controller ... the BIOS can't talk to this device by itself (Windows requires loading a driver for the controller before it can access it) so I was unable to flash the drives by just booting to a prompt. I had to purchase a SATA to IDE converter board to enable the flash utility to see the drives and perform the update. It actually just arrived today, along with my new DS211 unit - I flashed the drives without an issue, and the DS211 is now 40% through the process of creating my new RAID volume.

[czbird]

Would somebody be so kind as to publish their "augmented" boot CD with the Samsung patch already included (as described by gdtrfb55 on page 10 of this thread) to spare everybody else's time doing it theirselves again? That would really be nice
Thanks.

[fordperf]

along with my new DS211 unit - I flashed the drives without an issue, and the DS211 is now 40% through the process of creating my new RAID volume.

I just got my DS211j yesterday, put the drives in, and it took overnight to create the RAID-1 volume. Now I get to configure it remotely from work all day (thanks logmein.com )

[digo21]

I wanted to get 2 of these drives from my new ds211j I ordered.

But is there is a way I can do the update on a laptop? as I dont have a PC.

[HarryPotter]

Would somebody be so kind as to publish their "augmented" boot CD with the Samsung patch already included (as described by gdtrfb55 on page 10 of this thread) to spare everybody else's time doing it theirselves again? That would really be nice
Thanks.

Here it is:

http://tiny.cc/pw6id

[czbird]

Thanks, I'm sure this will be widely appreciated

[newtothis]

Hi everyone

This forum has been a great help with helping me decide on my nas! i finally went for ds210j, I was just wondereing,i hope to use 2x2tb Samsung hd204ui, I am mac based, Would i need to find a pc to update the firmwire on the drives before i install them?
Many thanks

[mountathos]

Here it is:

http://tiny.cc/pw6id

thank you for posting this - I just tried your image, and noticed there were a couple points where what I saw diverged from instructions on page 10- Long story short, I can't find the patch.

when i try to switch to x:, I get an "invalid drive X:"

I also noticed on the second boot menu, where the instructions say to use option 5, I only see 2 options, 1 for HD install and 2 for safe mode. I've been using 2.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[HarryPotter]

The correct steps with the iso file I am hosting:

- download the file
- burn it on a CD
- boot your PC from the CD
- chooe 1) "continue to boot from FreeDos"
- chose 1) "install to harddisk using FreeDos"
- chose your desired language
- chose "run FreeDos from CD"

Now you should get the prompt x:

- type "HD204UI" and press enter

[czbird]

type "181550HD" and press enter

In the ISO, I can see that the patch file is named HD204UI.EXE

[HarryPotter]

Yeah sorry, you are right, I was taken the name from an earlier version. I changed it now in my previous post.

[hambo]

This is probably a really stupid question - apologies!

If I install 2 F4S in a new ds211j - can I flash the firware by booting my laptop on the same network (i.e can I apply the f/w patch to the f4s if they are mapped drives rather than physically attaching them to a pc which I have no way of doing).

I'm new to all this and looking for the simplest solution. There was also talk of just disabling write cache - what would this mean in terms of performance?

Any helop greatly appreciated as the F4s or the WD 20EARS are the only economic choice for me.

[markglh]

Has anyone else noticed the patch lets you apply it to the same drive multiple times?
This isn't much of a problem, but that coupled with the fact the version doesn't update means there's no way of checking whether the drive has previously been updated.