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Users have different options to read and write ROM from Seagate and Western Digital hard drives.

For many hdds, users can use firmware repair tools to read and write ROM directly.

For some new hdds, firmware repair tools don’t support to read or write ROM due to SED lock, MCU lock or other PCB issue or ROM chip issue. At this situation, users can only use flash programmer to read and write rom from the ROM chips.

For traditional flash programmers, users need to solder the ROM chips off and put the ROM chip to the chip holder to read and write rom.

Not all engineers have good soldering skills and Dolphin team offered Chip-on HDD Flash Programmer Smart, users just need to remove the PCB and then users can use the pin reader to read and write rom without soldering the rom chips off.

Now users don’t need to remove PCB, don’t need to solder the ROM chips off, users just need to install the HDD ROM programming clip adapter to the HDD and then users can use Chip-on HDD Flash Programmer Smart and its software to read and write ROM easily.

Users can read details of HDD ROM programming clip adapters here.

Any question is welcome to [email protected] or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

This is one Seagate ST4000VX013 hard drive firmware repair and data recovery case study for one Dolphin user in India.

Patient HDD ID:
Model number: ST4000VX013-2XG104
Family: B2
Capacity: 4TB

ST4000VX013 Patient HDD Failure Symptoms:
Clicking noises; Spin up and down; partitions lost

ST4000VX013 Required HDD Repair Tools and Data Recovery Equipment
DFL-Seagate hdd repair tool
DFL-DDP data recovery equipment

ST4000VX013 HDD Repair and Data Recovery Steps
01: Backup head adaptive module;
02: Swap heads and write donor adaptive data by DFL-Seagate hdd repair tool;
03: Backup sys35 NGlist;
04: Clear g-list and regenerate translator;
05:  Repair data offset;
06: Disable vacant active;
07: Reverse scan to get all lost partitions by DFL-DDP data recovery equipment.

Any question is welcome to [email protected] or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

After Dolphin Data Lab released the latest G3 WD SMR HDD USB to SATA data recovery adapter and its software, it becomes easier and easier for Dolphin users to recover lost data from WD SMR USB hard drives.

Helpful videos to learn more about the G3 WD SMR USB HDD adapters and its software:

Video 01: How to Install G3 WD USB to SATA Data Recovery Adapter 
Video 02: How to Image Extract Lost Data From WD USB HDDS Faster and More Stably
Video 03: Latest data recovery assistant software for WD SMR USB HDDs

To recover lost data more easily from WD SMR USB hdds, users can try the following steps:

01: Connect G3 adapter to WD SMR USB hdds by USB type c cable;
02: Click connect device and Read ROM directly by G3 adapter software;
03: Generate unlock rom by DFL-WD hdd firmware repair software;
04: Click ‘Block 411 Write’ , select the generated unlock rom and write rom by G3 adapter software;
05: Close ROM operations by G3 adapter software and go to DFL-WD hdd repair software;
06: Lock UA writing, backup important firmware modules, specially module 190;
07: Test firmware modules and repair;
08: Open DFL-DDP data recovery software for disk image or file extraction, load 190 to ram auto if there’s all sectors 0000 issue.

Any question is welcome to [email protected] or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

This is one Western Digital hard drive firmware repair and data recovery case study for one DFL user in Malaysia.

Patient HDD iD:
WD5000BEVT-60A0RT0
PCB: 1672
Microcode: 14003R

Patient HDD Failure Symptoms:
Undetected
Modules were not available

HDD Repair and Data Recovery Tools used in this case study:
DFL-WD HDD Repair Tool
DFL-DDP Data Recovery Tool

HDD Repair and Data Recovery Steps:

01: Backup ROM and disable 02 and firmware restart;
02: Diagnosed the firmware modules and found out the microcode of the ROM and SA area was different and that meant the PCB was not original, the rom microcode was 14003R and the SA microcode was 140028;
03: Next Dolphin engineer found loaders of 14003R and loaded them to RAM automatically;
04: Backup original firmware modules and rom modules;
05: Fix slow issue;
06: Regenerate original ROM and write original ROM;
07: Open DFL-DDP data recovery software and all lost data was recovered.

Any question is welcome to [email protected] or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

Dolphin team have released newer software for both DFL hdd firmware repair tools and data recovery tools.

DFL DDP USB3.0 data recovery equipment: V2.31 11.11 2022
DFL Seagate hdd repair tool: V4.211, 11.21, 2022
DFL WD hdd repair tool: V2.991, 11.11, 2022
DFL Toshiba and Fujitsu hdd repair tool: V1.6 11.11 2022
DFL Hitachi and IBM hdd repair tool: V1.4 11.11 2022
DFL Samsung hdd repair tool: V2.0 11.11 2022

The new software works more excellently for repairing firmware corruption and recovering lost data from new Seagate and WD hard drives.

Users can download the latest software from the user-only forum: https://forum.dolphindatalab.com/

Any question is welcome to [email protected] or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

This is one Seagate ST1000DM003-1SB102 Pharaoh_Oasis Family 94 patient hard drive from one DFL user in India.

Patient HDD Symptoms:
1, Busy and not detected;
2, LED and cannot enter F3 T>;
3, Many PreampFaultStatus errors in the com terminal;
4, SIM Error 1002 LBA 0000000000046469 FD FCFFF3FF and RW Error 44440080;

The patient HDD has LED lock and the engineer tried shorting method and couldn’t enter F3 T>.

The following are the com terminal messages:

“Model : ST1000DM003-1SB102
……………………………………….. Serial : Z9AA78H
……………………………………….. Firmware :
……………………………………….. Capacity :
……………………………………….. Heads number :
Boot 0x40M
SpinUp

Trans
Rst 0x40M Thermistor Temp 0019

PreampFaultStatus = 0004
PreampFaultStatus = 0004
PreampFaultStatus = 0004
PreampFaultStatus = 0004
PreampFaultStatus = 0004
SIM Error 1002 LBA 0000000000046469 FD FCFFF3FF
RW Error 44440080

LED:0x000000BD FAddr:0x00006454
LED:0x000000BD FAddr:0x00006454”

By remote support, Dolphin engineer helped the user edit the head map in ROM by DFL Seagate hdd firmware repair tool, generate unlock rom, write unlock rom, send unlock key, enter F3 T>, backup nglist, clear glist, regenerate translator, etc. Finally the user got lost data back by DFL-DDP data recovery equipment.

Any question is welcome to [email protected] or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

Dolphin team is going to release the new software upgrade for the DFL WD HDD auto repair tool, this is one major software upgrade.

Within this software upgrade, users will get the most commonly used functions except the auto repair, such as reset smart, edit ID, format with P-list, etc. Read more

Dolphin new software upgrade for WD HDD auto repair tool has been available and users can ask for one download link to try the new. Within this program, Dolphin team added one new data mode to run auto arco to adjust the physical parameters and then the hdds will be fully detected, after this, users can write the original data recovery firmware modules and then get the data back.

This new WD hdd repair program has contained many new WD hdd families and PCB series to be supported. What are the new support list for WD hdd auto repair tool: Read more

To repair Seagate hard drives, DFL-SRP USB3.0 for Seagate is the best choice. To diagnose the Seagate damaged hard drives, the most important part is to find the failure reason.

To diagnose the Seagate hard drive by COM port is very important and basic for repairing Seagate hard drives. Today when the engineer connected one Seagate hard drive, the engineer opened the COM port and enter the COM terminal window, power on the hard drive, the terminal outputs the following messages: Read more

This is another successful hdd repair case study to repair western digital WD3200AVVS-62L2B0-WCAV16752981 hard drives automatically by DFL Auto HDD repair tool.

Model     :  WD3200A
FW Rev    :  03.04E03
S/N       :  WD-WCAV14187751
Capacity  :  298GB(625142448)
Cylinders :  16383  Heads:  16  SPT:  63 Read more