Re: [t13] ATA Drive firmware update.

Wed, 08 Jan 2003 16:31:38 -0800

The best thing is to check with the individual drive vendors (who are all on the T13 reflector and should see this).  I don't know how much the original design has changed, but it used to have support for pass/fail on the update, I believe we used ABORTED status if the update failed.  At any rate, ID Device contains revision information.  Again, check with the specific device vendor for implementation details.
 
Also, I would agree that they wrote their tools to use PORTS 1Fxh and 17xh.  I think the update utils probably ran in DOS mode as well :-).  I would guess there are all sorts of tools that are going to break as drives are moved to NATA mode.
 
gary laatsch
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: Gana Pat
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: [t13] ATA Drive firmware update.

Thanks Gary !!
 
DOWNLOAD MICROCODE seems to be a good solution for my FW update issue.
 
Is there a way to read the FW code or  to verify the updation process ?
 
Since its use seems to be prohibited for the ATAPI devices, does it mean that the ATAPI devices never support FW update ? Or is there anyother way of updating the FW for the ATAPI devices.
 
Now I understand that this method may not work with all the drives. But I am trying to find a way, most people agree for updating the drive FW.
 
Also I guess, the drive FW update utilities provided by the drive vendors assume the ports 0x1F0 and 0x170 for the drives. But how will they work if it is connected to a native mode PCI ATA controller ?
 
Thanks in advance,
Gana
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 1:13 PM
Subject: Re: [t13] ATA Drive firmware update.

Gana,
 
    I designed Download Microcode (command code 92h) support for one of the drive companies when I worked for them.  It is standard ATA command for the purpose of updating firmware.  The driving force was most drive vendors designed their update packages to be very PCish and drives can wind up in non-PC enviorments (MAC, A/V, etc), so there may not be a PC type machine available to update with.  I know at least one or two of the OEM's wrote their own utility for updating with that worked fine with a couple other drive vendors as well.  The packets of data would be vendor unique, but the command support "SHOULD" be to ATAPI specification.  Of course, having been in the biz a long time, nothing is that simple is it?
 
gary laatsch
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: Gana Pat
Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 9:56 AM
Subject: [t13] ATA Drive firmware update.

Hi Folks,
 
I want to write a drive firmware update utility for ATA HDDs. (There are some rationale why I don't want to use Drive manufacturer's FW update util). What command is used to update the drive firmware in the ATA drives ? Is this standard across all the vendors ? Any hint in this area would be really helpful to me.
 
Thanks,
Gana

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