Redefining the primary head is one outstanding function of HD Doctor for Maxtor. Suppose that when we are doing a diagnosis for one Maxtor drive, we found there are some serious problems happened on firmware of primary head or firmware read failure(for example, bad sectors in SA), and the primary head cannot be functional any more. In this situation, the drive can work normally again by redefining the primary head.
This case study will take Maxtor 6Y series for example.
First of all, we need prepare one donor firmware and ROM file. It is better that the donor firmware is obtained from the source hard disk by the primary head. If it is inaccessible, then we need find another good hard disk which has same Model number, Cod, the first three number of SN with the defect one. For ROM, it is only required for ROM file of the corresponding primary head. For instance, there is one hard disk, the primary head is the third one, and then its corresponding ROM file is from the file of primary head 3. If we want to redefine the primary head as 4, then we need prepare another hard disk with the same Model number and ROM file from its primary head 4 (Match of ROM please refer “ROM definition of Maxtor 6Y series”) Connect hard disk together with console and computer, then start HD Doctor for Maxtor, and then load hard disk:
From above picture, we can see this drive has three head: 3, 4, 5 and the primary head is No. 3. Then, let’s try how to define the primary head as 4.
First, enter firmware download interface, read all the modules of the primary head and wait for it complete:
After that, then come into the parameter operation column, select “select head” and manually change 3 to 4:
Then, hard disk is working in head 4, and then come to the firmware upload. First set the upload path and then choose all modules, confirm the hard disk is working in head 4, then click “Smart Upload”:
One point we need to take care is to write by “Smart Upload”. Cause the head 3 cannot be written directly to head 4 (because of the different verify code). After the Smart upload, the program will automatically scan and examine the firmware verify code while the firmware is written.
After the firmware of head 4 is written successfully, we can write the new ROM. Firstly, turn off power and set the disk to safe mode and turn on the power and move to ROM Interface, Click ‘write ROM Back’ and select the prepared ROM: From the Code number, we know this disk is 6Y1B series which is corresponding to the 11th letter of ROM ‘J’ (If the 11th letter is ‘W’, then it is 6Y1V series.) The number ending with the ROM is no.4; the head 4 is the primary head:
Here we need to note one thing: The operation (Read or write) of ROM to Maxtor drive must be under safe mode, otherwise the programs will shows ‘errors’.
After opening the ROM file, the ROM will be written into the ROM chip and at this time, the ‘BUSY’ and ‘DSAP’ sign will be turned on and the status bar will shows ‘very busy’ and after about 1 minute, the status bar shows ‘Ready’ until the ROM is written successfully. And at the same time, we can move to ‘HDD BOOT MANAGEMENT’ to check the finished info:
Now set the drive to normal mode, reboot the system and load resources:
From the picture above, we can see the ‘Select HEAD’ displays ‘4′ which means the primary head has been head 4 and our primary head redefining is successful.
With primary head redefinition, we can solve malfunctions like unstable head or bad sectors in the firmware area.
0 Responses
Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.