Hitachi Harddisks Thread (5K3000, 7K3000, 7K2000)

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kkatarn

New Member
May 24, 2012
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Cologne, Germany
Hitachi has a dos executable for each series/size of drive, the problem is getting support to release it.
True enough :)

Your only option is persistence via telephone support.
Persistence is 2nd nature to me :)

I've been on the phone twice a week with Hitachi Support since my last posting in this thread some 3 weeks ago and ... finally ... I've received the DOS-Updater, supposedly for the 5K3000 3TB drives P/N 0F12460. Please find the link I received from Hitachi Support here: https://apps.hitachibackup.com/d/?LWRU2PUS

If you download this '0F12460_800_Dos.zip', unfortunately you'll find the 'MKDLBRD.EXE' updater, which I believe might belong to the 7K3000 series 3TB drives. See...
Hi, kkatarn !

If you don't have the DOS updater for the 5K3000 3TB, DO NOT use the DOS updater MKDLBRD.EXE specifically written for the 7K3000 3TB model ! You'll probably brick the 5K3000 drive !!

For the 5K3000 3TB drive, you need to search/ask for the MEDLBRD.EXE DOS updater (which I don't have). Its name is a guess I made from some observations regarding already released DOS updaters...

However, I uploaded the DOS updater+firmware 800 for the 7K3000 3 TB (model 0F12450) here:
http://ifile.it/t6egzxd

Keep us informed, try not to brick a good 3TB drive...
Best regards !
Nonetheless I've tested the 'new' 'MKDLBRD.EXE' from Hitachi Support with one of my 5K3000 3TB drives on SATA Port 0 of an Intel X58 based board in both AHCI and IDE compatiblity mode using a bootable USB-Stick ... to no avail. The new 'MKDLBRD.EXE' would no more recognize my drive than the one Kryptex kindly provided in a previous post.

I shall give it another try using a command prompt from WinXP 32-Bit and Win7 32-Bit but I kinda doubt that this will make any difference, so I'm most likely on the phone again with Hitachi Support next week discussing 'MEDLBRD.EXE' vs. 'MKDLBRD.EXE' :cool:

I'll keep you posted.
Kyle
 

1010

New Member
Jun 1, 2012
17
3
3
True enough :)



Persistence is 2nd nature to me :)

I've been on the phone twice a week with Hitachi Support since my last posting in this thread some 3 weeks ago and ... finally ... I've received the DOS-Updater, supposedly for the 5K3000 3TB drives P/N 0F12460. Please find the link I received from Hitachi Support here: https://apps.hitachibackup.com/d/?LWRU2PUS

If you download this '0F12460_800_Dos.zip', unfortunately you'll find the 'MKDLBRD.EXE' updater, which I believe might belong to the 7K3000 series 3TB drives. See...


Nonetheless I've tested the 'new' 'MKDLBRD.EXE' from Hitachi Support with one of my 5K3000 3TB drives on SATA Port 0 of an Intel X58 based board in both AHCI and IDE compatiblity mode using a bootable USB-Stick ... to no avail. The new 'MKDLBRD.EXE' would no more recognize my drive than the one Kryptex kindly provided in a previous post.

I shall give it another try using a command prompt from WinXP 32-Bit and Win7 32-Bit but I kinda doubt that this will make any difference, so I'm most likely on the phone again with Hitachi Support next week discussing 'MEDLBRD.EXE' vs. 'MKDLBRD.EXE' :cool:

I'll keep you posted.
Kyle
If it hasn't already I'd recommend asking for your ticket to be escalated to Adrian Cutler. Your ticket should have been closed by now with the issue resolved. At this point you might want to increase the frequency of your call backs to 1 a day until the issue is resolved by lower level support or until you reach Adrian Cutler directly.

About a month ago I called Hitachi support requesting FW800 for a different drive. I was sent firmware for a different model/size than what I requested. It doesn't surprise me this happened to you too, but call back and ask that your call be escalated.

I'd be cautious about posting links hosted by Hitachi (https://apps.hitachibackup.com ) in this forum or elsewhere as they can link back to you and your ticket. Technically you're sharing proprietary technology and the email you received from Hitachi may include non-disclosure language (depends on who sends the email) which could result in legal penalties. It's not likely that this would occur, but it definitely would be smarter/safer to re-host if you choose to share at a later point in time.
 
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UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
433
247
43
NH, USA
...
Persistence is 2nd nature to me :)
And a heavy dose of patience too.

Maybe we can make some progress ...

I've done a crude examination of several of the DOS downloaders, using the Unix "strings" program.

The MKDLBRD.EXE contains:
Code:
 ...
  /IO2 xxxx - Set Port Address <Hex>  (ASR)
  /DRV x    - Specify Master or Slave(x=0:Master, x=1:Slave)
HITACHI 
HITACHI
HDS7230
HUA7230
MB3000EBUC
MB2000EBUC
MB2000ECQJ
MB2000GBUP
MB3000GBUC
noserial
 ...
Notice the HDS7230 & HUA7230 strings; they are the leading portion of the formal model #s for the 7K3000 DeskStar & UltraStar, respectively, product lines. And it is the full model # that is returned (in words 27-46) by a "Identify Device" ATA command to such a drive. If this downloader is performing the safety checks I envision, those strings are instrumental. And, why it doesn't recognize your HDS5C30(30ALA630). Also, note that these strings do not go far enough to identify the size of the drive (2TB vs 3TB).

Now lets look at MLDLBRD.EXE (which was in the 5K3000 2TB fw5C0 package that kryptex kindly made available in posting #107 [link]. It contains:
Code:
 ...
  /IO2 xxxx - Set Port Address <Hex>  (ASR)
  /DRV x    - Specify Master or Slave(x=0:Master, x=1:Slave)
HITACHI 
HITACHI
HCS5C20
HDS5C20
HDS5C30
noserial
 ...
Here we see the leading portion of model# for the DeskStar 5K3000 (HDS5C30). The string before it (HDS5C20) would suggest a DeskStar 5K2000 but I don't know if that happened :). [The HCS5C20 is the CinemaStar5K2000]

Anyway, since you were willing to try the MKDLBRD.EXE, why dont you try the MLDLBRD.EXE downloader in conjunction with the ME0NR800.BD firmware. I believe there is an excellent chance it will work (and is probably what they meant to send you).

Good luck! (and rsvp)

--UhClem
 
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kkatarn

New Member
May 24, 2012
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Cologne, Germany
If it hasn't already I'd recommend asking for your ticket to be escalated to Adrian Cutler.
1010 - Thanks a lot for all the good advice. I've been on the phone again with support and the 'Firmware Specialist' double-checked and confirmed that the DOS-Updater I received should work for my 0F12460 drive, however...

And a heavy dose of patience too.
<snip>
Anyway, since you were willing to try the MKDLBRD.EXE, why dont you try the MLDLBRD.EXE downloader in conjunction with the ME0NR800.BD firmware. I believe there is an excellent chance it will work (and is probably what they meant to send you).

Good luck! (and rsvp)

--UhClem
...the work done by UhClem seems to indicate that the feedback I received might be incorrect.

UhClem - thanks for investigating this.

Yesterday I wanted to give MKDLBRD.EXE another shot (before reading UhClem's post) and took my drive to work where I have access to a sizeable pool of different machines. I connected the drive to SATA-0 of an Intel ICH9 based motherboard and tried again using my bootable stick. Didn't work.

Then I connected the drive to SATA-1 in this machine, curious if MKDLBRD.EXE would work using a WinXP 32-Bit command prompt. Of course not.

Since I was at it, I decided trying HiTest 2.38 once again. HiTest detected the drive as status '50 - Frozen' and wouldn't complete the FW update - and this is when I did something I received as tip from OCZ for a SSD drive but hadn't tried before on my Hitachi - I power-cycled the drive while the rest of the machine was up and running. Then I re-scanned in HiTest and - to my great surprise - the drive was in a ready state. I tried again with the FW update sequence and it actually went trough :D

So, I now have updated a 0F12460 5K3000 3TB drive successfully from 5C0 to 800 ... finally.

I do have another one waiting currently on FW 580, but this might take a while since it is currently doing Hot-StandBy duty in another Raid of mine - then I will try MLDLBRD.EXE, too.

Thank you all for participating, help and advice,
Kyle
 
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kkatarn

New Member
May 24, 2012
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Cologne, Germany
UhClem, would you mind if I contacted Hitachi Support with your findings?

I think I now have a good contact there who really seemed to be kind of embarrassed how long it took Hitachi Support to get the DOS-Updater -wrong version or not- to me.

I've done a crude examination of several of the DOS downloaders, using the Unix "strings" program.
Since I'm mostly a Windows guy I searched for something like 'strings' for Windows and found it @ http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439.aspx.
Sysinternals Strings for Windows produces similar output, so if you're OK with this I would sent 'my' output to 'my contact' asking to re-re-check if they really think that they've provided the correct, up2date DOS-Updater for my 0F12460 3TB 5K3000 drive.

Now lets look at MLDLBRD.EXE (which was in the 5K3000 2TB fw5C0 package that kryptex kindly made available in posting #107 [link].
The link in kryptex's posting seems to be dead, but the link from posting #115...
5C0 Firmware for the 5k3000 2tb:
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-f0f1736c.html

Is there one for 3tb?
The 5 x 5k3000 3tb drives i have came with 5C0.
...is still working.

Kyle
 
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UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
433
247
43
NH, USA
...I've been on the phone again with support and the 'Firmware Specialist' double-checked and confirmed that the DOS-Updater I received should work for my 0F12460 drive, however...
Be cautious/skeptical of people who have, and use, a title. Often coincides with the Peter Principle [link]. :)
So, I now have updated a 0F12460 5K3000 3TB drive successfully from 5C0 to 800 ... finally.
Excellent! And good job on the power-cycle idea. Writing low-level stuff to run under Windows (for example HiTest) is not trivial, but there are many other examples [even BIOS updaters] that seem much more robust than this one. Peter Principle again??
I do have another one waiting currently on FW 580, but this might take a while since it is currently doing Hot-StandBy duty in another Raid of mine - then I will try MLDLBRD.EXE, too.
I'll be interested to hear your report. While I don't have a lot of confidence (especially with these two added examples) in the DOS downloader(s) to be robust in the face of possibly unexpected "inputs", I am confident that the firmware author did the right thing, and will not accept a firmware download not intended for "his/her" device. (The worst that should happen is that you get the FAILED banner, and are left with your original firmware.) But the drive we're talking about here is Kyle's, so you would not be wrong to just take the little extra effort and use the technique that you have already been successful with.
 

UhClem

just another Bozo on the bus
Jun 26, 2012
433
247
43
NH, USA
UhClem, would you mind if I contacted Hitachi Support with your findings?
Not at all. (more below)
... so if you're OK with this I would sent 'my' output to 'my contact' asking to re-re-check if they really think that they've provided the correct, up2date DOS-Updater for my 0F12460 3TB 5K3000 drive.
But it really is your output. Given your effort to track down, and use, the Win "strings", you have converted yourself from a "hearsay witness" to an "eyeball witness".
 

1010

New Member
Jun 1, 2012
17
3
3
Not at all. (more below)

But it really is your output. Given your effort to track down, and use, the Win "strings", you have converted yourself from a "hearsay witness" to an "eyeball witness".
He should have been talking to Adrian at this point. Adrian has up/down approval on releasing firmware tools and/or retrieving DOS tools which still may be marked as internal. If a DOS tool is marked internal he has the ability to contact manufacturing (software engineering, etc) to seek approval.
 

kryptex

Member
May 13, 2011
117
11
18
OK...
As promised, I've updated the firmware on several 7K3000 @ 2TB drives, from FW 580 and 5C0 to 800.

Performance-wise, things didn't change at all. I've tested with HDTune: Bechmark, Random and Extra synthetic benchmarks.

I've noticed only 1 modification: the Ultra CRC error rate was very high (and increasing with time) on FW 580. Firmwares 5C0 and 800 reset this SMART value back to 0 and no further increase can be observed.

Best regards,
KrypteX

P.S.
For those who want to do it, the APM can be set to any value (e.g. 128) from the default "Off" value (=254) by using the Hitachi Feature Tool 2.16 (can handle SATA 6 gbps).
 
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TerroristTate

New Member
Jul 26, 2012
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Hello all, I am having some issues that I hope you kind folks can shed some light upon! These issues just so happen to coincide with what appears to be the primary topic of this thread. Firmware, and Hitachi drives.

Long story short, I have about 72 3TB Ultrastars that I need to RAID (HUA723030ALA640). These were purchased under the explicit approval of said drive by Areca's so-called "HDD Compatibility List." Not so very compatible Areca, not so very compatible at all...

Long story, not so short - 72 drives showed up and didn't work at all, I get boot loops because the Areca controller (1880ix) REALLY doesn't like these drives and the firmware initialization times out at 300 seconds and reboots the machine. I have traced it down to a rather interesting error that is directly related to the firmware on the drives. 3/4 of my fancy expensive new drives have A10 firmware and the other 1/4 have 800 firmware. 800 works like a charm, A10 just makes the Areca controller shit itself like its got a bad case of the ebola virus.

The REALLY interesting part is that I can actually load a chassis that is MOSTLY full of drives with the 800 version of firmware, and just a few A10 drives AND IT WILL GET PAST THE BOOT INITIALIZATION!! I have straight up tested and confirmed a few times on different hardware too! Putting only 2 drives (1 of each firmware) in a chassis and turning the computer on causes the Areca to hang. Adding 1 more 800 firmware drive and it passes the initialization like a champ, it is retarded as all hell.

So anyway this all led me to the conclusion that I need to flash these drives with the 800 version of firmware. Easier said than done apparently because I have tried everything under the sun, the DOS version of the util (MKDLRBD.exe), the Windows XP version (HiTest). Both were provided directly from Hitachi support, the man himself (Adrian) and neither worked, under a variety of sata controllers and/or directly attached to sata ports, on the mb. It goes on and on and on (going on 25+ hours of troubleshooting).

At this point I am either going to be returning about $25k worth of drives or I need to figure out a way to flash these stupid things - the latter being the ideal situation.

If anyone can help that would be really - REALLY - great. It is somewhat ironic that I purchase the good stuff in order to avoid this situation and still wind up in it.

Thanks,

TT
 

kryptex

Member
May 13, 2011
117
11
18
Hi,

I'd have a question first. Both drives with FW 800 and A10 are Ultrastar 7K3000 @ 3TB drives (HUA723030ALA640, P/N: 0F12456) ? Same model ? Is there any other difference between them ?

I don't know if the MKDLBRD.exe + FW 800 you have are identical to the firmware package of the standard Deskstar 7K3000 @ 3TB drive (HDS723030ALA640, P/N: 0F12450) ? Can you confirm ? (Can you give us a link for the Ultrastar 7K3000 FW ?)

I've found an interesting site, give it a look:
http://support.aberdeeninc.com/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=68&nav=0,3,19

It is the firmware file 5C0 for the 7K3000 3TB drive to be used with Areca controller... please read the readme file first, I haven't tried it myself.

Keep us informed,
KrypteX
 

kryptex

Member
May 13, 2011
117
11
18
Oh, I forgot. I know nothing about firmware A10, but it seems to me that firmware A10 might be NEWER than 800 (A comes after 8 in hexa).

Anyway, FW 800 works very well for me on Deskstar 7K3000 @ 2TB drives (I had FW 580 and 5C0 previously with thousands of Ultra CRC errors and dropouts. FW 800 solved this particular issue).

Cheers,
KrypteX

P.S. Are you sure you got the UltraStar version of FW 800 from support, and not the Deskstar one (P/N 0F12456 vs 0F12450) ? It would be interesting to compare the 2 firmwares + their respective DOS updaters.
 
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1010

New Member
Jun 1, 2012
17
3
3
Hello all, I am having some issues that I hope you kind folks can shed some light upon! These issues just so happen to coincide with what appears to be the primary topic of this thread. Firmware, and Hitachi drives.

Long story short, I have about 72 3TB Ultrastars that I need to RAID (HUA723030ALA640). These were purchased under the explicit approval of said drive by Areca's so-called "HDD Compatibility List." Not so very compatible Areca, not so very compatible at all...

Long story, not so short - 72 drives showed up and didn't work at all, I get boot loops because the Areca controller (1880ix) REALLY doesn't like these drives and the firmware initialization times out at 300 seconds and reboots the machine. I have traced it down to a rather interesting error that is directly related to the firmware on the drives. 3/4 of my fancy expensive new drives have A10 firmware and the other 1/4 have 800 firmware. 800 works like a charm, A10 just makes the Areca controller shit itself like its got a bad case of the ebola virus.

The REALLY interesting part is that I can actually load a chassis that is MOSTLY full of drives with the 800 version of firmware, and just a few A10 drives AND IT WILL GET PAST THE BOOT INITIALIZATION!! I have straight up tested and confirmed a few times on different hardware too! Putting only 2 drives (1 of each firmware) in a chassis and turning the computer on causes the Areca to hang. Adding 1 more 800 firmware drive and it passes the initialization like a champ, it is retarded as all hell.

So anyway this all led me to the conclusion that I need to flash these drives with the 800 version of firmware. Easier said than done apparently because I have tried everything under the sun, the DOS version of the util (MKDLRBD.exe), the Windows XP version (HiTest). Both were provided directly from Hitachi support, the man himself (Adrian) and neither worked, under a variety of sata controllers and/or directly attached to sata ports, on the mb. It goes on and on and on (going on 25+ hours of troubleshooting).

At this point I am either going to be returning about $25k worth of drives or I need to figure out a way to flash these stupid things - the latter being the ideal situation.

If anyone can help that would be really - REALLY - great. It is somewhat ironic that I purchase the good stuff in order to avoid this situation and still wind up in it.

Thanks,

TT
EDIT: Kryptex made an interesting reply re: firmware version. You might want to call Hitachi first to find out if FW A10 was released after FW 800.
EDIT2: it appears downgrades may be possible, at least on enterprise products. (TerroristTate reply)


Ignore using Hitachi Hi-Test (windows application), you'll only introduce more problems to troubleshoot.


Flashing with the DOS tool is usually quite painless if the following steps are observed.

1. Connect the HDD you wish to flash to the lowest numbered port (usually port 0) on the motherboard's integrated SATA controller. (connecting to the wrong port can result in the drive not being recognized by the DOS tool --> failed update)
2. Boot the system and enter the BIOS, disable AHCI for the onboard SATA controller (which should toggle a legacy IDE compatibility mode)
3. Save the bios settings, reboot.
4. Boot into DOS from a USB drive or floppy.
5. Run the DOS tool.

Assuming that the DOS tool is correct (Hitachi DOS executables are specific to each model) and you have been given the correct firmware, your firmware update should proceed rather easily.

There are 5 possible issues here or combination of any.

1. You have not connected the HDD to the correct SATA port on the motherboard
2. You have not disabled AHCI for your onboard SATA controller on the motherboard
3. You were given the wrong DOS executable for your drive by Hitachi support
4. You were given the wrong firmware
5. You are trying to run the DOS tool inside a windows OS from the cmd prompt (lol I hope this isn't the issue here and I imagine it isn't)


A correct executable + wrong firmware or vice-versa still equals a failed firmware update.

Go back and test the drive with an onboard controller, remove that step from the equation. Test on two different machines if you have to. If it still doesn't work you should call back Hitachi support and escalate. You paid for enterprise drives and thus you should ask for a higher level of support or at least they should verify you were sent the correct DOS executable and firmware.
 
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1010

New Member
Jun 1, 2012
17
3
3
Oh, I forgot. I know nothing about firmware A10, but it seems to me that firmware A10 might be NEWER than 800 (A comes after 8 in hexa).

Anyway, FW 800 works very well for me on Deskstar 7K3000 @ 2TB drives (I had FW 580 and 5C0 previously with thousands of Ultra CRC errors and dropouts. FW 800 solved this particular issue).

Cheers,
KrypteX
Not sure if firmware A10 is more recent than FW 800, but if A10 is more recent that would explain the issue. You can't downgrade firmware.
 
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1010

New Member
Jun 1, 2012
17
3
3
OK...
As promised, I've updated the firmware on several 7K3000 @ 2TB drives, from FW 580 and 5C0 to 800.

Performance-wise, things didn't change at all. I've tested with HDTune: Bechmark, Random and Extra synthetic benchmarks.

I've noticed only 1 modification: the Ultra CRC error rate was very high (and increasing with time) on FW 580. Firmwares 5C0 and 800 reset this SMART value back to 0 and no further increase can be observed.

Best regards,
KrypteX

P.S.
For those who want to do it, the APM can be set to any value (e.g. 128) from the default "Off" value (=254) by using the Hitachi Feature Tool 2.16 (can handle SATA 6 gbps).
Thanks for the feedback :)
 

mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
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odditory (if you are reading this), did you manage to get hold of Areca 1880ix FW beta v1.51

Would this possibly fix the Areca not recognising the A10 drives ?
 

TerroristTate

New Member
Jul 26, 2012
6
0
0
Hi,

I'd have a question first. Both drives with FW 800 and A10 are Ultrastar 7K3000 @ 3TB drives (HUA723030ALA640, P/N: 0F12456) ? Same model ? Is there any other difference between them ?

I don't know if the MKDLBRD.exe + FW 800 you have are identical to the firmware package of the standard Deskstar 7K3000 @ 3TB drive (HDS723030ALA640, P/N: 0F12450) ? Can you confirm ? (Can you give us a link for the Ultrastar 7K3000 FW ?)

I've found an interesting site, give it a look:
http://support.aberdeeninc.com/index.php?_m=downloads&_a=viewdownload&downloaditemid=68&nav=0,3,19

It is the firmware file 5C0 for the 7K3000 3TB drive to be used with Areca controller... please read the readme file first, I haven't tried it myself.

Keep us informed,
KrypteX
Well, I sure wish I would've checked the thread this morning instead of by 10pm tonight... Damn. I am going in Saturday so I will post all the other details that I don't have right now then. I haven't seen anything about a 5C0 firmware but I will have a look at the site. Thank you for the link!
 

kryptex

Member
May 13, 2011
117
11
18
odditory (if you are reading this), did you manage to get hold of Areca 1880ix FW beta v1.51

Would this possibly fix the Areca not recognising the A10 drives ?
Question: what firmware do you have at this point on your Areca 1880ix ? The latest seems to be 1.50 on the mf. site.
Is there a 1.51 beta out ?

Edit: Just found odditory's posts on this site regarding FW 1.51:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1038982910
 
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TerroristTate

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Jul 26, 2012
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2. Boot the system and enter the BIOS, disable AHCI for the onboard SATA controller (which should toggle a legacy IDE compatibility mode)
You sir ... you are a hero today!

This right here was the problem. As soon as I turned AHCI off it came up like butter and worked ****ing PERFECTLY! You don't even know how insanely happy this just made me.. I still don't know if having everything downgraded to fw 800 will work with the Areca, but right now just getting the firmware on the drives has made me feel like I found the lost city of Atlantas, had a 3 way with Jennifer Connelly and Jessica Alba, and won the Olympics (for the last 50 years in a row). Overkill? Maybe, but so worth it!

So, one point of fact btw, A10 is indeed newer than 800, however 800 was flashed onto the drive quite successully! I will confirm that the Areca see's the same when I finish flashing the rest of this chassis.

Thank you again 1010!

TT