From: "Jos Heemskerk"
To: Ade Rixon
Subject: Success at last
Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 21:39:24 +0200

After 2 years of intermittent attempts I have now managed to flash my CTD8000
drive with the audio firmware. 

Looking back I must say it is not difficult to flash the audio firmware.
However, it is difficult to find a firmware version that will allow you to
flash the audio firmware over it. Most firmwares will simply refuse the update
and the Firmware Update Program (FUP) will show the error: "write command
buffer failed". 

I have now collected 7 different firmwares for the 4326, and only the one I
extracted from a Compaq rompaq this morning prepared the drive for burning the
audio firmware.

For the ones interested, here is what I did:

Getting the Compaq firmware (ARC80000.BIN)
From the Compaq site I downloaded Rompaq sp1483.exe from page
http://www.compaq.com/support/files/rompaq.html . Executing this file will
create three diskettes. The third diskette holds file ARC80000.316 and the
ROMPAQ.EXE file. Normally you would use this diskette to boot and update the
firmware. In my case it wouldn't recognize the tape drive. The solution is to
decompress the firmware with the command 

ROMPAQ /D ARC80000.316 C:\ARC80000.BIN.

Getting FUP 2.5
The ARC80000.BIN that is now created is a binary image, and not a HEX file.
You can load a BIN file by using version 2.5 of FUP. This program is part of
the firmware update packages on the Seagate site. I used
http://www.seagate.com/support/tape/download/6610500.exe 
You need all the FUP.* files from this package.
Always start up FUP with the /force parameter.
After running FUP with the ARC80000.BIN the firmware should report : ARCHIVE
4326XX 27871-XXX0316 (FUP 2.5 wouldn't work for me when the current firmware
was ARCHIVE 4326XX 27871-XXX0324. I had to flash to ARCHIVE Python
00095-0015.ac first with V5ACA-52.HEX and FUP 1.5)

Burn the audio firmware
With FUP 1.5 and V5ACB-15.HEX it is now possible to burn the audio firmware.
Again use the /force parameter.
I found V5ACB-15.HEX at http://www.hoxnet.com/dat-tools/fup/ . This is where
you will also find a copy of FUP. (I think it is FUP 1.6) 

So here is the sequence I had to go through:

      STEP:
     PROGRAM:
     FILE:
     FIRMWARE REPORT AFTER:
     
            ARCHIVE 4326XX 27871-XXX0324
     
      1
     FUP 1.5
     V5ACA-52.HEX
     ARCHIVE Python 00095-0015.ac
     
      2
     FUP 2.5
     ARC80000.BIN
     ARCHIVE 4326XX 27871-XXX0316
     
      3
     FUP 1.5
     V5ACB-15.HEX
     ARCHIVE Python 01931-XXX5.AC
     

I hope this will help other people to make their drive audio capable.
If you cannot find a particular file, feel free to mail me at
bosse@NOTTHISBIT.xs4all.nl (note the SPAM-retardant address).

Thanks for the support on the site.

Jos Heemskerk