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.