Apple HDD Firmware

[SprintFlunky]

I think I have a simple question. I bought a 40 gig Hitachi Travelstar on Ebay - popped it into my Windows XP laptop and the system freezes when it tries to boot. In looking over the label, I noticed it has an Apple logo and Apple HDD firmware 2003 on it.

Does that mean this I bought a HDD that only works on Apple computers? Can the firmware be flashed?

I have tried this HDD in 2 different laptops and get the same result - no HD found in the boot process. I'm not sure if it's a DOA or the Apple Firmware that's causing the problem.

Thanks for any help - I'm going nuts over this!

 

[electronicsfreak]

Dont know much about apple but id reccomend checking to be sure your jumpers are set right.

 

[SprintFlunky]

No jumpers so it's the master. I've been building PC's for 15 years and this is the first time I've seen a HD with Apple Firmware. I suspect that the EBAY seller has a large shipment and is selling them without even knowing he has a mixed bag. I checked his history and everything was ok - but in the past couple of days he has had several bad references due to a DOA drive - I'll bet they are in the same boat as me - an Apple drive with a Windows PC

That is the purpose of this post - I need to know if the firmware is preventing the BIOS from seeing the drive or is it truly DOA.

 

[mainegeek]

SprintFlunky,
The drive probably has an unrecognizable file system on it.
ie:Mac OS
Try booting with your OS cd and remove any/all partitions and then re-partition and format it.

 

[SprintFlunky]

Tried that, but I'm going to try something different tonight. One laptop freezes when it tries to identify the hard drive and the other (more stable) says no boot drive. Both PC's had CD-Rom as the primary boot drive but it can't get past the drive initialization. I think the drive is dead, but I don't know if the Apple firmware is causing an issue.

Thanks for the response - this is driving me nuts!

 

[dglienna]

If you have an old copy of FDISK laying around, you could try that. It is rock solid. If it doesn't recognize your disk, and format it, you can probably write it off.

-David
2006 Microsoft Valued Professional (MVP)

 

[carpetbelly]

an apple hdd of that age should be a standard IDE drive.

I'd say download a linux live CD (something like ubuntu). Make sure you have the drive in place and boot from the CD. Then see if you can at least format the CD from linux.

 

[Amos43]

Hi,

You could try to go the HD manufacturer's website and download new firmware. I guess you would need to boot windows GUI off a CD to run the update, or plug it in a working laptop and run the update from there.

 

[SprintFlunky]

This is the response I received from Hitachi:

Thank you for contacting Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.

Typically Apple drives will have different firmware however normally the change is not sufficient to cause the drive to not work in an IBM PC system. If the drive is not working in multiple PC's typically that would
indicate a physical problem with the drive. If you have not already, you might want to try reseating any adapters to the drive and to check for bent pins on the unit.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Looks like the Drive is DOA: Got it from Ebay and the seller is willing to do 1 exchange. 50/50 chance I get one that working.

Thanks for all the responses - at least we cleared up the Apple firmware question.