[martinlink]

Hey,
finally managed to revive my brother's stubborn ES.2 [ST3250310NS] but now I have come to a new issue with the firmware upgrade:
The drive is a HP server one, the model is GB0250EAFJF and firmware is HPG1. The firmware on server drives from HP cannot be upgraded without some smart array which I don't even know how to operate, let alone install one in my PC...

(http://h20000.www2.h...35&mode=4&idx=1)

So my question: seeing as the drive is physically still a Seagate ES.2 in its essence, would it be possible to install a Seagate branded firmware on it (which doesn't require some advanced server hardware)?
If so, which one should I choose - the SN06 or the SN16?

Also, could a firmware update render my data unusable by any chance?

Thanks a ton in advance!

[jaclaz]

martinlink, on 10 February 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

So my question: seeing as the drive is physically still a Seagate ES.2 in its essence, would it be possible to install a Seagate branded firmware on it (which doesn't require some advanced server hardware)?

Yes.

martinlink, on 10 February 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

If so, which one should I choose - the SN06 or the SN16?

NEITHER !

martinlink, on 10 February 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

Also, could a firmware update render my data unusable by any chance?

Yes.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, for ANY reason attempt to write a firmware that is NOT specifically targeted for the device UNLESS you are told to do so by:

• a representative of the manufacturer
  
• someone that really knows on the SPECIFIC device and whom you can trust blindly

You want the HPG6 from HP:
http://h20000.www2.h...ectID=c01612429


You may want to explore the possibilities of the OFFLINE update utility:

Quote

For ProLiant 100-series servers and ProLiant 300-series servers using the HP Integrated SATA RAID Controller, HP SC40Ge HBA, or HP SC44Ge HBA, use the Offline Flash Tool for SATA HDD FW available for download as SoftPaq SP43542 at the following URL:

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub...7421430/v53295/

SoftPaq SP43542 contains a USB Key based offline SATA hard drive firmware upgrade utility. The utility will upgrade SATA hard drives to Firmware Version HPG6. Follow the instructions in the "100 series USB Drive FW Update Tool how-to.doc" file that is created when SP43542.EXE is executed. The "how-to" document contains additional information and sample upgrade instructions for select platforms.

jaclaz

[martinlink]

Hey,
Thanks for the suggestions. I tried the offline update tool and when I run the installer, it said:
"The software is not supported for installation on this system.

The OS is not supported.


Press 'Close' to exit Setup."

So I tried unpacking it manually and the USB installer started fine. When it got to the point where it installs the boot data on my USB pen drive, the program just freezes and does not finish the process
The USB stick I'm using is a Kingston DataTraveller 4Gb formatted in FAT32 like the tool suggested.
Any suggestions?

[jaclaz]

martinlink, on 11 February 2012 - 11:50 AM, said:

So I tried unpacking it manually and the USB installer started fine. When it got to the point where it installs the boot data on my USB pen drive, the program just freezes and does not finish the process

WHICH EXACT USB installer?
WHAT EXACTLY are the unpacked contents of that thingy?

jaclaz

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 11 February 2012 - 04:11 PM

[martinlink]

The package contained the standard HP usb disk formatting tool which ran just fine, and a special program which was meant to put the boot files onto the formatted drive.
I got the latter to "finish" the process of making the usb stick bootable once after about 30 failed tries. But when I tried booting from it afterwards, there was just a white _ blinking on a black screen and nothing happened for 5 minutes...
I guess the program isn't compatible with my computer setup. It is meant for servers as the document on HP's page said, after all.
I'm using an Asus P5QL-Pro motherboard with the standard SATA controller if that matters.

EDIT! Forgot to mention that the package you linked me in your first post contained a doc file telling me to download this:
http://h20000.www2.h...147989f8d00c6df
It contained a "HP USB Ky utility 1.1" which is the program that is used to make a bootable usb drive <- this is the program which crashes!

This post has been edited by martinlink: 12 February 2012 - 01:46 PM

[jaclaz]

martinlink, on 12 February 2012 - 01:24 PM, said:

The package contained the standard HP usb disk formatting tool which ran just fine, and a special program which was meant to put the boot files onto the formatted drive.
I got the latter to "finish" the process of making the usb stick bootable once after about 30 failed tries. But when I tried booting from it afterwards, there was just a white _ blinking on a black screen and nothing happened for 5 minutes...
I guess the program isn't compatible with my computer setup. It is meant for servers as the document on HP's page said, after all.
I'm using an Asus P5QL-Pro motherboard with the standard SATA controller if that matters.

From what you say there must be some issue with making the USB stick bootable, and/or in the copying of the files.
The blinking cursoer is typical of a "wrong" setttings in the bootsector, (wrong CHS values) and this can in some case be a fault of the HP USB utility.
Can you try making the stick bootable with RMPREPUSB with grub4dos, verify it boots on your machine and then try running the "special program" on it?

It doesn't make sense that it doesn't boot, the thingy should work (to create the bootable stick) oon *any* machine, not necessarily on the intended targeted server.

jaclaz

P.S.: EDIT:
out of curiosity I did a quick check.
The thingy I got contains a "plain" .iso image of a Linux system.
I managed to run it in QEMU allright, not by directly loading the .iso, but using a grub4dos boot floppy with this menu.lst entry (parameters got from isolinux.cfg):

title stupid HP
root (cd)
kernel /SYSTEM/VMLINUZ media=cdrom rw root=/dev/ram0 ramdisk_size=121260 init=/bin/init loglevel=3 ide=nodma ide=noraid pnpbios=off usrramfs=1 splash=silent showopts 
initrd /SYSTEM/INITRD.IMG
boot

I presume you can do the same on USB stick using the settings in syslinux.cfg.


Then it seemingly hangs on udevd, after having printed "this is not a supported server", and It takes forever to load (several minutes), but eventually you have an option to run the update for EITHER:
Flash SATA drive models - GB0250C8045, GB0500C8046, GB0750C8047
Flash SATA drive models - GB0250EAFKF, GB0500EAFJH, GB0750EAFJK, GB1000EAFJL

Tthe first choice seemingly runs CP010461.scexe
and second CP010456.scexe
(these are files that are in the .iso under COMPONENTS)

BTW the documentation says:

Quote

NOTE: the fwutil.iso file must be mounted as a windows driver letter or burned to CD media. The USB key utility will not correctly with an .iso file.

and that the HD controller has to be set as "IDE" and NOT to "SATA" or raid.

I guess you need to find a friend with some Linux knowledge and understand if these files can be run from a "plainer" Linux or if the firmware can be extracted form those .scexe files.
Good hints are here: http://lackof.org/ma...iant-Guide.html

Most probably the good guys at HP ask you to download a huge installer only to have it execute the 4 (four) batch lines in usbcreator.cmd:

xcopy %1\*.* %2\ /e /k
move %2\system\initrd.img %2\
move %2\system\vmlinuz %2\
move %2\usb\syslinux.cfg %2\

that should equate to:
copy whole contents of CD to USB stick (in root or possibly in a folder \boot\) then move to the same (root or folder) initrd.img, vmlinuz and syslinux.cfg.

This post has been edited by jaclaz: 12 February 2012 - 05:20 PM