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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 ...
Since the deal between Seagate and Samsung the old links no longer work, the link to the drive update file can be found here:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=223451&NewLang=en
This will require a boot disk of some variety to boot into DOS to run the file. All I did was power down the NAS, take out one drive, connect it to the SATA header in my main PC, and run the update from a boot disk. Then replaced that one drive back to the NAS, and powered it up to ensure there was no detremential effect on the drive. With this done, I then proceeded to power down the NAS again, and repeated the update for the remaining 3 drives.
The update will run multiple times on the same drive. It would seem the update only checks for drive compatibility before performing the update. It does NOT seem to check if the update has already been applied. So regardless of the manufacture date of your drive (Mine: HD204UI/Z4 date: 10/2010) I would apply this patch to be on the safe side.
It is not nessecary to disconnect other drives from your main PC, although the paranoid among you may decide it prudent to do so. I have 4 internal SATA drives in my main rig already, and getting access to them and their cabling isn't easy, so i decided to risk leaving them connected. The tool correctly skipped these drives and only updated the single HD204UI drive I had connected each time.
One final note, using Intel's ICH10R southbridge in RAID mode on my main PC, i've lost two HDD's over the last month. Not sure if it's my built in caddy, my ham-fisted handling or the fact that the system is not running in AHCI mode (it does either IDE / AHCI OR RAID mode. AHCI cannot be active when RAID mode is active). I have heard that hot-plugging drives in any other mode than AHCI could prove fatal, so with my experience of losing those (albeit older, redundant) drives I played it safe and FULLY powered down between flashing each drive.
You can download a bootable ISO to use to flash your drives using a CD-RW / CD-ROM if you can't boot to DOS / USB. You can get it here:
http://captaingeek.net/tag/f4eg/
It already contains the F4EG.exe upgrade utility. When booting from the CD, choose the default options on each screen UNTIL it asks you for a HDD to install FreeDOS to. Then choose the boot from CD option instead. You'll be dumped to a command prompt. At which point doing a directory listing (DIR or DIR /W) will show the F4EG.exe program on the disk. In my case it was mapped to drive X:.
Just type F4EG.exe and hit enter with the HDD you wish to patch connected to your system. Power down, connect the next drive, rinse, repeat.
:)
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=223451&NewLang=en
This will require a boot disk of some variety to boot into DOS to run the file. All I did was power down the NAS, take out one drive, connect it to the SATA header in my main PC, and run the update from a boot disk. Then replaced that one drive back to the NAS, and powered it up to ensure there was no detremential effect on the drive. With this done, I then proceeded to power down the NAS again, and repeated the update for the remaining 3 drives.
The update will run multiple times on the same drive. It would seem the update only checks for drive compatibility before performing the update. It does NOT seem to check if the update has already been applied. So regardless of the manufacture date of your drive (Mine: HD204UI/Z4 date: 10/2010) I would apply this patch to be on the safe side.
It is not nessecary to disconnect other drives from your main PC, although the paranoid among you may decide it prudent to do so. I have 4 internal SATA drives in my main rig already, and getting access to them and their cabling isn't easy, so i decided to risk leaving them connected. The tool correctly skipped these drives and only updated the single HD204UI drive I had connected each time.
One final note, using Intel's ICH10R southbridge in RAID mode on my main PC, i've lost two HDD's over the last month. Not sure if it's my built in caddy, my ham-fisted handling or the fact that the system is not running in AHCI mode (it does either IDE / AHCI OR RAID mode. AHCI cannot be active when RAID mode is active). I have heard that hot-plugging drives in any other mode than AHCI could prove fatal, so with my experience of losing those (albeit older, redundant) drives I played it safe and FULLY powered down between flashing each drive.
You can download a bootable ISO to use to flash your drives using a CD-RW / CD-ROM if you can't boot to DOS / USB. You can get it here:
http://captaingeek.net/tag/f4eg/
It already contains the F4EG.exe upgrade utility. When booting from the CD, choose the default options on each screen UNTIL it asks you for a HDD to install FreeDOS to. Then choose the boot from CD option instead. You'll be dumped to a command prompt. At which point doing a directory listing (DIR or DIR /W) will show the F4EG.exe program on the disk. In my case it was mapped to drive X:.
Just type F4EG.exe and hit enter with the HDD you wish to patch connected to your system. Power down, connect the next drive, rinse, repeat.
:)
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