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Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM working good so far
There was a recent deal at NewEgg on the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 HD204UI 2TB 5400 RPM 32MB drives, so I decided to risk it as opposed to the other WD & Seagate 2tb drives. I installed them, upgraded the ...
Hi Everyone -
I'm a long-time reader, first time poster. I just purchased two new Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD204UI's for my ReadyNAS Duo. Like many other Mac users here I've been trying to figure out the best way to upgrade the firmware on the drives. Luckily one of my Macs is a first generation Mac Pro from 2006. It's easy to add and remove SATA drives to the Mac Pro's, so all I had to do was figure out if the Pro was capable of booting into DOS and running the F4EG.EXE firmware update utility from Samsung. Luckily it was! Here's what I did:
[DISCLAIMER: Proceed at your own risk. I strongly suggest reading through ALL instructions carefully before attempting this. If you're uncomfortable doing anything on the list, then don't! It doesn't make you any less of a computer nerd. And it goes without saying: I'm in no way responsible for any loss of data or hardware damage you might suffer.]
Overview:
What I did was essentially create a DOS boot CD using Windows 7 and VMWare Fusion. I burned it to a blank CD via the Mac's Disk Utility application. I then shut down, pulled all my SATA drives from my Mac Pro, and put one of the new Spinpoint drives in Bay 1. I booted my Mac using the new DOS boot CD and ran the F4EG utility to update the firmware. I then shut down and did the same thing for my second new Spinpoint. Finally, I put all the original drives back into my Mac Pro and was done.
Hardware and Software Used:
First Generation Mac Pro from 2006 (MacPro1,1) with EFI firmware 1.7f10
Snow Leopard 10.6.4
VMWare Fusion 3.1.2 w/ Windows 7 Pro installed (Parallels or Boot Camp would probably work also). WinZip installed (but I don't think it's necessary).
1 blank writable CD
Instructions:
[Steps 1 thru 11 must be done using Windows]
1. Start up Windows 7 using VMWare and launch any web browser.
2. Download the Samsung F4 Spinpoint patch software from http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=386
3. Unzip the archive and locate the F4EG.EXE program.
4. Go to http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootablecd
5. Feel free to skim through Hiren's site, but don't spend a lot of time worrying about it. There's some info about modifying Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files, but none of that will be necessary:-)
6. Download Hiren's bootcd.zip archive: http://www.hiren.info/download/freeware-tools/bootcd.zip
7. Unzip the contents of bootcd.zip to a new directory.
8. In the new directory, you should see several subdirectories (CD, Floppy, Tools) as well as Build-ISO and a readme file.
9. Copy the F4EG.EXE utility you downloaded from Samsung to the Floppy folder.
10. Double-click the Build-ISO icon. This will run a simple batch file and create a new file: BootCD.iso
11. At this point you'll need to copy BootCD.iso to a location on your hard drive that you can access via the Mac's Finder. For VMWare Fusion, typically that's a special "shared" folder set up to trade files back and forth between the Windows and Mac environments.
12. Locate a blank CD or DVD. Launch the Mac's Disk Utility program (located in Applications\Utilities). Use it to burn the BootCD.iso disk image to your blank CD or DVD.
13. If Disk Utility ejects the CD/DVD after the burn, put it back in your Mac.
14. At this point, it's time to start the process of upgrading the Spinpoint drives. Shut down your Mac (making sure your newly burned CD or DVD is still inside). IMPORTANT: Unplug your computer.
15. Disconnect all external USB and FireWire drives.
16. Open the Mac Pro's case. Remove all internal SATA drives (just slide out the sleds). If you've never swapped an internal drive on your Mac Pro before, you may want to refer to your Mac Pro's manual as a reference. Note that a little extra force may be necessary for any internal drive that's never been removed from your Mac Pro.
[The next few steps will need to be repeated for each Spinpoint drives you want to patch]
17. Attach your Spinpoint drive to one of the hard drive "sleds" and insert it into Bay 1 (the bay closest to the front of the Mac Pro). The two most important things to know are:
a) you won't need any cables
b) be careful when sliding the SATA drive into the bay (you don't want to damage the connectors inside your Mac or on your drives)
18. At this point, you should have:
a) a single Spinpoint SATA drive in Bay 1
b) a bootable CD or DVD in your DVD drive
c) no other hard drives attached to your Mac Pro in any way
19. Plug the power cord back into the Mac Pro and wait about 5 seconds.
20. While holding down the Option key on your Mac's keyboard, press the front power button.
21. Continue to hold down the Option key. After a few moments, you should see a gray screen with a single large DVD icon and the word "Windows" underneath. It can take up to 30 seconds for this to appear so be patient. If the large DVD icon never appears, then you may have created the BootCD.iso file incorrectly, or you may have burned the CD or DVD incorrectly.
22. Release the Option key. Click the Arrow icon below the word "Windows". This tells the Mac to boot from the optical drive.
23. You should see your monitor flash several times, and eventually see a blinking underscore character in the top left of your screen. Be patient. You may have to stare at that blinking underscore for several minutes.
24. The Microsoft Windows Startup Menu should appear. Now it's going to get fun!
25. Use your keyboard to select item 1 (Dos) and press Return.
26. The boot CD will load a few drivers. This should only take a few moments.
27. You should then get dropped to a old-school A:\> Dos prompt. Bet you never expected to see that on your Mac!
28. Type DIR and press Return. Make sure the Samsung F4EG.EXE program is listed. If it's not, you may have created your boot CD incorrectly.
29. Finally, it's time to upgrade the firmware on your drive. Type F4EG.EXE and press Return. This will start the firmware update process. The update should take less than a minute.
30. Once you see the message "Download completed successfully" along with a serial number, you're done. The drive has been successfully patched!
31. Shut off your Mac Pro by holding down the front power button for a few seconds.
32. Unplug the power from your Mac Pro.
33. Remove the Samsung Spinpoint hard drive. If you have multiple Spinpoints that need to be patched, then repeat Steps 17 through 33.
34. Once all Spinpoints have been patched, return your Mac Pro to its original state. Put the original Mac hard drives back in their proper bays, and re-connect any external USB and FireWire drives.
35. Boot up your Mac to make sure everything is okay.
You're done! Your Samsung Spinpoint drive(s) should now be ready for your ReadyNAS Duo!
It took me several hours of research, then several more hours of trial and error to get this to work. I just hope someone else out there finds the information helpful:-) Good luck!
- phil
I'm a long-time reader, first time poster. I just purchased two new Samsung Spinpoint F4 HD204UI's for my ReadyNAS Duo. Like many other Mac users here I've been trying to figure out the best way to upgrade the firmware on the drives. Luckily one of my Macs is a first generation Mac Pro from 2006. It's easy to add and remove SATA drives to the Mac Pro's, so all I had to do was figure out if the Pro was capable of booting into DOS and running the F4EG.EXE firmware update utility from Samsung. Luckily it was! Here's what I did:
[DISCLAIMER: Proceed at your own risk. I strongly suggest reading through ALL instructions carefully before attempting this. If you're uncomfortable doing anything on the list, then don't! It doesn't make you any less of a computer nerd. And it goes without saying: I'm in no way responsible for any loss of data or hardware damage you might suffer.]
Overview:
What I did was essentially create a DOS boot CD using Windows 7 and VMWare Fusion. I burned it to a blank CD via the Mac's Disk Utility application. I then shut down, pulled all my SATA drives from my Mac Pro, and put one of the new Spinpoint drives in Bay 1. I booted my Mac using the new DOS boot CD and ran the F4EG utility to update the firmware. I then shut down and did the same thing for my second new Spinpoint. Finally, I put all the original drives back into my Mac Pro and was done.
Hardware and Software Used:
First Generation Mac Pro from 2006 (MacPro1,1) with EFI firmware 1.7f10
Snow Leopard 10.6.4
VMWare Fusion 3.1.2 w/ Windows 7 Pro installed (Parallels or Boot Camp would probably work also). WinZip installed (but I don't think it's necessary).
1 blank writable CD
Instructions:
[Steps 1 thru 11 must be done using Windows]
1. Start up Windows 7 using VMWare and launch any web browser.
2. Download the Samsung F4 Spinpoint patch software from http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=386
3. Unzip the archive and locate the F4EG.EXE program.
4. Go to http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootablecd
5. Feel free to skim through Hiren's site, but don't spend a lot of time worrying about it. There's some info about modifying Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files, but none of that will be necessary:-)
6. Download Hiren's bootcd.zip archive: http://www.hiren.info/download/freeware-tools/bootcd.zip
7. Unzip the contents of bootcd.zip to a new directory.
8. In the new directory, you should see several subdirectories (CD, Floppy, Tools) as well as Build-ISO and a readme file.
9. Copy the F4EG.EXE utility you downloaded from Samsung to the Floppy folder.
10. Double-click the Build-ISO icon. This will run a simple batch file and create a new file: BootCD.iso
11. At this point you'll need to copy BootCD.iso to a location on your hard drive that you can access via the Mac's Finder. For VMWare Fusion, typically that's a special "shared" folder set up to trade files back and forth between the Windows and Mac environments.
12. Locate a blank CD or DVD. Launch the Mac's Disk Utility program (located in Applications\Utilities). Use it to burn the BootCD.iso disk image to your blank CD or DVD.
13. If Disk Utility ejects the CD/DVD after the burn, put it back in your Mac.
14. At this point, it's time to start the process of upgrading the Spinpoint drives. Shut down your Mac (making sure your newly burned CD or DVD is still inside). IMPORTANT: Unplug your computer.
15. Disconnect all external USB and FireWire drives.
16. Open the Mac Pro's case. Remove all internal SATA drives (just slide out the sleds). If you've never swapped an internal drive on your Mac Pro before, you may want to refer to your Mac Pro's manual as a reference. Note that a little extra force may be necessary for any internal drive that's never been removed from your Mac Pro.
[The next few steps will need to be repeated for each Spinpoint drives you want to patch]
17. Attach your Spinpoint drive to one of the hard drive "sleds" and insert it into Bay 1 (the bay closest to the front of the Mac Pro). The two most important things to know are:
a) you won't need any cables
b) be careful when sliding the SATA drive into the bay (you don't want to damage the connectors inside your Mac or on your drives)
18. At this point, you should have:
a) a single Spinpoint SATA drive in Bay 1
b) a bootable CD or DVD in your DVD drive
c) no other hard drives attached to your Mac Pro in any way
19. Plug the power cord back into the Mac Pro and wait about 5 seconds.
20. While holding down the Option key on your Mac's keyboard, press the front power button.
21. Continue to hold down the Option key. After a few moments, you should see a gray screen with a single large DVD icon and the word "Windows" underneath. It can take up to 30 seconds for this to appear so be patient. If the large DVD icon never appears, then you may have created the BootCD.iso file incorrectly, or you may have burned the CD or DVD incorrectly.
22. Release the Option key. Click the Arrow icon below the word "Windows". This tells the Mac to boot from the optical drive.
23. You should see your monitor flash several times, and eventually see a blinking underscore character in the top left of your screen. Be patient. You may have to stare at that blinking underscore for several minutes.
24. The Microsoft Windows Startup Menu should appear. Now it's going to get fun!
25. Use your keyboard to select item 1 (Dos) and press Return.
26. The boot CD will load a few drivers. This should only take a few moments.
27. You should then get dropped to a old-school A:\> Dos prompt. Bet you never expected to see that on your Mac!
28. Type DIR and press Return. Make sure the Samsung F4EG.EXE program is listed. If it's not, you may have created your boot CD incorrectly.
29. Finally, it's time to upgrade the firmware on your drive. Type F4EG.EXE and press Return. This will start the firmware update process. The update should take less than a minute.
30. Once you see the message "Download completed successfully" along with a serial number, you're done. The drive has been successfully patched!
31. Shut off your Mac Pro by holding down the front power button for a few seconds.
32. Unplug the power from your Mac Pro.
33. Remove the Samsung Spinpoint hard drive. If you have multiple Spinpoints that need to be patched, then repeat Steps 17 through 33.
34. Once all Spinpoints have been patched, return your Mac Pro to its original state. Put the original Mac hard drives back in their proper bays, and re-connect any external USB and FireWire drives.
35. Boot up your Mac to make sure everything is okay.
You're done! Your Samsung Spinpoint drive(s) should now be ready for your ReadyNAS Duo!
It took me several hours of research, then several more hours of trial and error to get this to work. I just hope someone else out there finds the information helpful:-) Good luck!
- phil
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