• AnyStream is having some DRM issues currently, Netflix is not available in HD for the time being.
    Situations like this will always happen with AnyStream: streaming providers are continuously improving their countermeasures while we try to catch up, it's an ongoing cat-and-mouse game. Please be patient and don't flood our support or forum with requests, we are working on it 24/7 to get it resolved. Thank you.

UHD "Friendly" Drives

It didn't on my ancient ASUS board. I had to move the drives to sata 1 and 2 ports. Given what I've read, I'd say you got lucky which is awesome. :D

Yes, I've also an Asus P5Q3 (same CPU-generation) as Arock one.
A year ago I made the dumps with this board. Afaik I had to set first SATA port, too here, like you described ;)
 
Just in a worst case, what if EEPROM loses content, at least in area with laser calibration data and drv value, or it was fully erased, that method wouldn't help to restore your original firmware, at least not entirely, correct?

Yes, that's true.

But since my operations on the drive are limited to using the patched official flasher only, which never touches those areas, I don't have to worry about restoring them. As SamuriHL also said.


Do you have a computer with IDE mode ?
Do you have external UHD unit with USB only, so without SATA internally?

IDE mode is not needed for this method. In fact, all that's needed is the patched flasher and the firmware bins it uses.

That's one if it's beauties, no special set-up required.


In my case, I flashed an external unit with USB. Well, technically it was an internal unit housed in a USB enclosure.

I do know that it works for both internal SATA drives and external USB's.


Now, I have the ability to restore the drive's original firmware with the new tool should I ever need it (even though I can't see why I ever would. But just a safety precaution).

I did think of a scenario that I'd need this.

Should this new drive fail (God forbid) within 30 days, I would want to restore it to its original firmware before returning.

Hopefully I never have to exercise that option 'cause I love the drive now that it's friendly (lol).



T
 
Depending on how it fails it will either be possible to flash it using the same method, or, if the drive is completely dead, it wouldn't matter anyway.
 
Depending on how it fails it will either be possible to flash it using the same method, or, if the drive is completely dead, it wouldn't matter anyway.

Good point!


Would be a bad scenario if it's bricked because on return, the manufacturer could do a post mortem and discover the other firmware, invalidating my right to return.


Anyway let's just hope it never comes to that.



T
 
Good point!


Would be a bad scenario if it's bricked because on return, the manufacturer could do a post mortem and discover the other firmware, invalidating my right to return.


Anyway let's just hope it never comes to that.



T

They....could, I suppose. Is it worth it for them to do so? Not super likely. What would be "fun" is if they sent you a new drive with a version that couldn't be downgraded. LMAO Just kidding...I hope. :D
 
They....could, I suppose. Is it worth it for them to do so? Not super likely. What would be "fun" is if they sent you a new drive with a version that couldn't be downgraded. LMAO Just kidding...I hope. :D

Funny! :ROFLMAO:

Please don't throw that out into the universe. Karma might make it come true. :p



T
 
Ok here is the Link with English Language

https://m.dvdfab.cn/uhd-drive-tool?trackID=headmenu

@testiles ok but its better when you have a save option with Support by a official Software

See, I'm not sure how "official" this software from DVDFab really is.

In fact, as I understand it, the major problem with it is that it overwrites the drive's entire firmware which is dangerous and can lead to issues.

The new flash method was developed to use a true official flasher and as such does a firmware change exactly as the manufacturer intends them to be done.


Is DVDFab's tool safe and official?

Not sure - probably not - don't (necessarily) believe the hype.



T
 
It's nothing more than dosflash that runs on 64 bit windows. You still need to change your sata ports to ide, it still is flashing the entire eeprom including your encryption key and calibration data, and it still costs 109 bucks for something that's been made available for free by the community. Sure it dumps the firmware and stitches the encryption key (and maybe calibration data but I doubt it) into the "clean" firmware it's downgrading to but that's what the eeprom data mover tool does... Again for free. So for that 109 bucks what you're paying for is essentially the ability to not have to create a 32 bit winpe image. Otherwise it uses the exact same method that has been deemed unsafe by someone who knows a hell of a lot about optical drive firmware. Save your money.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
 
See, I'm not sure how "official" this software from DVDFab really is.

In fact, as I understand it, the major problem with it is that it overwrites the drive's entire firmware which is dangerous and can lead to issues.

The new flash method was developed to use a true official flasher and as such does a firmware change exactly as the manufacturer intends them to be done.


Is DVDFab's tool safe and official?

Not sure - probably not - don't (necessarily) believe the hype.



T

Testiles if you really decided to want to dump your unit's firmware in some time, you never know why. Just wait for the next Windows 10 release in spring, when perhaps downloading a new 64Bit+32 Bit Win10 installation image (ISO) with the next release or some time later.
Just buy an empty USB-flash drive, max. 32GByte.
(Got a 32 GByte solid Transcend Flash Drive even for 8.99€ from Conrad seller, who is total expensive with other products. Pretty fast flash drive.
Partition the USB flash drive Primary, starting at sector 2048 and format it with "FAT32".
Extract the WInPE-ISO's content with "virtual-drive" onto the flash drive. You can use even use Windows 8 or Win10 built in Virtual drive in Windows explorer. ISO right klick ->"Bereitstellen" (->"Mount") copy to USB-Pen-drive-Win-installer-FAT32 partition or with e.g. 7-Zip.

In Windows (also works from another WinPE of course) open CMD-box, type in:
bootsect /nt60 G:
replace G: with corresponding drive-letter of your USB flash drive. with the instllation files:
This installs Bootcode-Sector into the Win10-partition on flash drive, for BIOS-Boot.
(This makes the Windows-install-files-partition bootable for a Bootmanager.)

If you want bootability without installing Bootmanager on USB-falsh drive, type in:
bootsect /nt60 G:
bootsect /nt60 G: /force /MBR
(replace G: with corresponding drive-letter of your USB flash drive.)

(You possibly need to extract "Bootsect" -program from install.esd / install.wim. Z-Zip allows to open install.esd and install.wim files.
[Edit]bootsect appears already included here in Win8.1 Installation in C:\Windows\System32\bootsect.exe

Unbenannt.PNG


Boot that Windows-Installation-media (Windows-Pre-Installation-Environment). And press SHIFT+F10 to open cmd box. (easiest to copy Dosflash_20 to Win-installflash-drive in a temp-folder).

Just type:
C:
D:
until it lists USB-installation-files with tempfolder and Dosflash_2.0
Navigate to Dosflash 2.0 directory.

Then Type:
DosFlash32_BH16NS40.exe

The "Read"-tab should be preselected (if not already)

Creating WinPE working even without Rufus. For UEFI-Boot, there's nothing more to do than the iso-file extraction, as the WINPE-ISO's directory and file structure content is identical with USB-Flash-Install-image creation methode, bootx64.efi etc. The MediaCreation Tool for example just adds that bootcode (first "hidden" Filesystem-Boot-sector) when using installation-usb-flash-drive method.

I can confirm Dosflash 2.0 and Windows-Pre-Installation-Environment works perfectly dumping firmware (in IDE mode). It appears safer than with Dosflash_1.7;)
 
Last edited:
Holy God in heaven NO need for all that! LOL Just create a 32 bit Win10PE image using:

https://www.aomeitech.com/pe-builder.html

When building it, you can add dosflash and any other tools you'll need. Write that out to a USB stick, boot from it with the sata ports in IDE mode, and Bob's your uncle. I think it took me all of 5 minutes to make my image. I chose to write it as an ISO so that when I need it, I can Rufus it onto a USB stick without having to recreate it. I used it to extract the firmware from my ASUS and LG drives and even used it to flash the LG drive a few different times before the new method came out. Much easier. :D
 
Holy God in heaven NO need for all that! LOL Just create a 32 bit Win10PE image using:

https://www.aomeitech.com/pe-builder.html

When building it, you can add dosflash and any other tools you'll need. Write that out to a USB stick, boot from it with the sata ports in IDE mode, and Bob's your uncle. I think it took me all of 5 minutes to make my image. I chose to write it as an ISO so that when I need it, I can Rufus it onto a USB stick without having to recreate it. I used it to extract the firmware from my ASUS and LG drives and even used it to flash the LG drive a few different times before the new method came out. Much easier. :D
--
Your method is super for a downgrade. :)

I just described easy way if s.o. still decided to dump firmware, it seems less risky using Dosflash 2.0 than Dosflash 1.7. And for that an easy method creating a WinPE image, to get Dosflash 2.0 up and running (without any other software to download and to install)
--
"pe-builder is 3rd prty software, and I'm careful using software from unknown sources.

The method I described is without any 3rd party tools and also works without repartitioning a flash drive.
It's just another suggestion how to create a WinPE image.

Mount ISO to virtual drive (via WinExplorer Right click on WinPE-ISO ->"mount"; or use Virtual Clone Drive/ Daemon Tools /Alcohol)
Go to drive letter, where WinPE-ISO mounted and mark all files in its root-directory. Right click "Copy" and paste them (copy) them onto Fat32-USB-pen-drive.

And then type one (optional two) of those two commands in a cmd:
Code:
bootsect /nt60 Flashdrive-letter:
Installs Windows-Bootcode to flash drive WinPE partition, so Windows PE USB-Key is bootable in Legacy-Mode (needed for Dosflash_2.0)
--
(optional when it's only a one-Partition flash drive and/or no other Bootmanager/booprogram installed)
Installs Windows-Bootcode to flash drive Master Boot Record, so Windows PE-Bootmanager is directly booting (without using another Bootmanager on the USB-Key) in Legacy-Mode (needed for Dosflash_2.0)
Code:
bootsect /nt60 Flashdrive-letter: /force /MBR

That's it.
Noone is too dumb for that! :)
This method also works with EFI, as all WIN-PE-ISO's since Win 8 also contain an "\EFI\boot\bootx64.efi"
 
Last edited:
Testiles if you really decided to want to dump your unit's firmware in some time, you never know why. Just wait for the next Windows 10 release in spring, when perhaps downloading a new 64Bit+32 Bit Win10 installation image (ISO) with the next release or some time later.....

theosch, thanks for the tip but I'm gonna be real.

The only reason I even touched my drive firmware is because the new flasher tool makes it a 2 or 3 click operation with no tech skills required.

Basically yeah a caveman could do it so I guess I qualify. :=)

But the rest of this is WAY over my head dude.


Good looking out though!


T
 
theosch, thanks for the tip but I'm gonna be real.

The only reason I even touched my drive firmware is because the new flasher tool makes it a 2 or 3 click operation with no tech skills required.

Basically yeah a caveman could do it so I guess I qualify. :=)

But the rest of this is WAY over my head dude.


Good looking out though!


T

Yes you to decide anyway. I got it, I didn't forget it, but before I was "stubborn". :)

Let it just see as rather as general tip if s.o. e.g. else decided to dump firmware. Then preferably better with Dosflash 2.0, as on Dosflash 1.7+FreeDOS it's rather likely to accidently catching "E" next to "R", than using Dosflash 2.0 which is using its pre-selected Read-Tab.
If s.o. decided to dump firmware, maybe best using Dosflash 2.0 (pre-selected Read-Tab).
And it should encourage to use that, with a fast and easy way of creating a WinPE drive without any 3rd party tools.

Personally myself for dumping a backup firmware, I'll use Dosflash 2.0 + WinPE in the future for that, avoiding Dosflash 1.7, for reading out EEPROM.
Additionally I will use SamuriHL's great trick to downgrade firmware in the future, so not using any Dosflash for the writing part. :)

 
Last edited:
I want to be clear here...it's not my trick! I am simply advocating it. Mike is the one that provided us all with the information on how to modify the firmware for downgrade enable. I take no credit whatsoever for this method.
 
Back
Top