DFL

DFL-Hitachi
User Manual
By Stanley Morgan
Dolphin Data Lab
http://www.dolphindatalab.com
http://www.wdrepair.com
http://www.hddtools.net
sales@dolphindatalab.com
@dolphindatalab.com

-Nov.
Nov. 9, 2014
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Index-DFL-FRP
P For HT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1.0 Important to read before you use DFL-FRP
DFL
for Hitachi P2
2-3
FRP for Hitachi Support List P3-4
2.0 DFL-FRP
2.01 Hitachi IBM Families
2.02 Hitachi ARM Families
3.0 Hitachi Firmware
re Structure And Features P5-6
3.1 Hitachi Firmware Components P6
3.2 Hitachi HDD Firmware Compatibility P7
3.3 Hitachi Hard Drive Key Data Recovery Modules P7
4.0 How To Diagnose Hitachi Hard Drives And Find Out Failure Reasons
P7-8
4.1 Hitachi Hard Drive Repair Steps With DFL-FRP
FRP For Hitachi P8-9
4.2 Hitachi Password Removal And PCB Mode P9-10
Password Removal Video Download P9
4.3 How To Enter PCB Mode/Safe Mode P10-12
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5.0 Starting To use FRP-HT

FRP
Program (Clear Steps) P12-16
Load Res. From File
Load Res. From HDD
Check Tech Key
mware Operations and Functions P16-23
6.0 Firmware
Video Instruction Download
Module List Window
Defect Logs Window
Hex Window
Menu-Program (F)
Menu-General
General Functions
Common Repair(Sector access interruption Fix)
Warning menu-Format
Format
Menu-FW
FW Operations
Menu-Defects
Defects Manager
Menu-Window (W)
7.0 Troubleshooting For DFL-FRP
DFL
For HT P24-26
7.1 The application has failed to start because its side-by-side
side
configuration is incorrect.
7.2 The program fail to start/open.
7.3 How
w To Select Compatible PCB
7.4 How To Select Compatible Heads

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1.0 Important to read before you use DFL-FRP

DFL
for Hitachi
1, Supported and recommended OS: windows 7 32bit, 64bit os;
2, Download Hitachi Installation video here:
http://www.dolphindatalab.com/pdf
http://www.dolphindatalab.com/pdf-datarecovery/DFL-Hitachi-Installation.zip
Installation.zip

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3, For Windows 7 64bit Installation, watch the video here:

https://vimeo.com/104911854
and download the driver signing program here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B wIoDGqvTA5bXpzeFhYVUc1Zzg&au
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-wIoDGqvTA5bXpzeFhYV
thuser=0
DFL FRP for Hitachi program,
4, Make sure you are using the latest version of DFL-FRP
after users enter the program, click the About DFLHT under Help
Help of the top
menu bar and users find the current version being used.

FRP for Hitachi Support List

2.0 DFL-FRP
DFL-FRP
FRP for Hitachi supports Hitachi-IBM
Hitachi IBM series and the newer ARM series, when users
enter the program, the Hitachi families
families and other ID info. are automatically detected.

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2.01 Hitachi IBM Families include the following:

2.02 Hitachi ARM Families include the following:

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3.0 Hitachi Firmware Structure And Features

For Hitachi IBM series,, the firmware has three firmware copies. Copy 0, Copy 1 and
Factory Copy;; If copy 0 is damaged, the hdd will read the copy 1 automatically, if both
copies are damaged, the hdd wont
won t read the factory copy but users can use Hitachi
program to read the modules of factory copy and write to the copy 0 and copy 1 to fix the
firmware failure.
Factory copy locates on different area from Copy 0 and Copy 1 within the service area.
There is a flag recorded on NVRAM, which decides which one is to boot at power-up.
power
For drive with two heads or more, Copy 0 and factory copy locate on primary
primar head while
copy 1 locates on secondary head. While for drive with one head only, the three copies
locate on the same head.

For ARM series,, the firmware has two copies, copy 0 and copy 1. Except the key
modules, users can find the donor modules from the same family.

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3.1 Hitachi Firmware Components

Hitachi hdd firmware contains three parts: ROM
NV-RAM(NV-Ram
m chip) and SA modules on the platter.

(Stored

in

ROM

chip),

NV-RAM
RAM is unique to Hitachi HDD,
HDD NVRAM (Non-volatile
volatile random access memory) is
actually a flash ROM chip with serial access (SOIC8) on PCB (Printed Circuit Board). It
usually locates at U6 (2.5) or U5 (3.5), it contains head/platter adaptive, rom overlay
modules checksum statistics, SA top info, each SA top is unique and therefore, NV-RAM
must be original for data recovery.
Not all drive families have NVRAM chip. Old drives produced before ATDA and ATCS
have no NVRAM chip. Some new models dont have NV-RAM chip either; instead, an
external Flash ROM chip is used.
Size of NV-RAM
RAM chip varies from 256 bytes to 2048 bytes depending on different families.
It contains important adaptive parameters, such as firmware boot flag, head map, SA
address, and adaptive parameters
parameters of data area etc. Among all these data, SA address
and adaptive parameters of data area are critical for each HDD.

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3.2 Hitachi HDD Firmware

Firmw
Compatibility
Usually users can find the donor of the same model and capacity and more accurate is
to check the firmware version code/NV-RAM
code/NV
version code. There
here is a version marker
recorded in modules like RESF/RAM0/OVR1 etc, which can be used to identify
id
compatible firmware modules.

3.3 Hitachi Hard Drive Key Data Recovery Modules

list/Translator module, must be original,
original PDM1, PDM2 are copies;
PSHT: P-list/Translator
RDMT: G-list module,, RDM1 and RDM2 are copies
SRVM: Cylinder defect and servo adaptive data table;
ZONE: Zone allocation table.
CNSL/MLBA: Containing hdd logical configuration info.
Other Important Modules:
SECI/ICES/PSWD: Password modules

4.0 How To Diagnose Hitachi Hard Drives And Find Out Failure Reasons
1, Power up the drive;
2, If the motor spins up, find out if the head is clicking; if the motor sleeps, it can be failure
of NV-RAM,
RAM, ROM, PCB or Motor damage.

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3, If the head is clicking, it can be either failure of physical components (head damage or
other electrical components
components damage) or firmware modules (RSVD and USAG module
damage); If the head is not clicking, Firmware module damage or the RSVD and USAG
are not read/missing

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4.1 Hitachi Hard Drive Repair Steps With DFL-FRP

FRP For Hitachi
Backup all possible modules before any operation on the patient drives.
1, Connect patient hdd to FRP-HT,
FRP
enter the program and power up the drive;
2, If the hard
rd drive becomes ready,
ready users can load from hdd and go to the module list
and check modules and find out which modules are damaged;
3, For Hitachi-IBM
IBM series, Read modules
modules from the factory copy, or read the backup
modules and then write to the damaged modules;
For Hitachi ARM series, users need to check modules in copy 0 and copy 1 and backup
modules and see if the damaged modules can be damaged by getting donors from above
checking or users need to get donor modules from drives of the same family.
Pls. note: when users are trying to write donor modules, users are suggested to test if the
heads are readable and writeable. Users can open any module and write to edit one byte
of it and try to save and open to test. If readable and writeable, then change the module
back to its original status.
Sometimes if the damaged modules are located at some physical bad sectors, the module
write can fail.
4, If the hard drive stays busy,
busy this can be NVRAM or firmware module damage or other
physical component damage. For FRP HT, lets
let s talk about firmware damage.
So if the busy status is caused
caused by firmware issue, we need to enter PCB mode (connect
PCB alone or separate the PCB and motor contact with one business card), open
NV-RAM
RAM and change one mark within the NV-ram
NV ram to make the drive ready. After the drive
gets ready, users can enter the program
prog
to check modules.

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If above method fail to make the hdd ready, users can try to write one new donor
NVRAM to make the drive ready, if this way still fails, this means the drive busy status can
be caused by non-firmware
firmware failures.

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4.2 Hitachi Password Removal And PCB Mode

Its very easy to remove the password of Hitachi hard drives by FRP-HT,
FRP HT, when users
connect the hard drives to FRP-HT,
FRP
the program will detect the password
automatically and pop up with messages telling users what to do to remove the
password.
Hitachi-IBM
IBM Password Removal Video Instruction:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B wIoDGqvTA5YmMtcmhrdGlnMGs/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-wIoDGqvTA5YmMtcmhrdGlnMGs/view?usp=sharing
Hitachi ARM Password Removal
Remova Video Instruction:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B wIoDGqvTA5UWc0Y1VFSi1jMmM/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-wIoDGqvTA5UWc0Y1VFSi1jMmM/view?usp=sharing
Hitachi hdd password feature: once the hdd is locked with password,
password, both the SA and data
area are locked, users cannot access to either of them.

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If users want to remove the hitachi password, users must learn about the PCB mode(safe
mode).

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4.3 How To Enter PCB Mode/Safe

Mode
Mode
For laptop hard drives,, to enter PCB, the FRP-FT
FRP
program will automatically judge
whether it has NV-ram,
ram, if with NV-ram,
NV ram, users can connect the PCB only to enter safe
mode; if without NV-ram,
ram, users can short connect to enter the safe mode, the short
connection images are offered in the installation folder.
To connect
onnect PCB only With NV-RAM:
NV

To short connect without NV-ram

NV
(Old drives like ATCS, ATDA family):
family)

To short connect without NV-ram

NV ram (Old drives like ATMR and HTS548 family):

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For 3.5 IDE hard drives, users enter safe mode by image guide below:
Safe Mode:

Master Mode-In
In normal working mode, users must set the drive as master:

For 3.5 SATA Hitachi HDD,

HDD To enter the safe mode, users need to separate
eparate the motor
and PCB, remove the connection
connect
cable between motor and PCB:

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5.0 Starting To use FRP-HT

FRP
Program (Clear Steps)

1, Connect everything properly and connect the patient hard drives

2, Double click the DFL-HT
HT icon on the desktop and enter the program;
3, Click the power
ower icon to power up the drive.
drive

Wait until the log section outputs message-Searching

message
arching disk completes
completes and the drive
gets ready.

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At this time, users are suggested to scan the bad sectors, scan different parts of the hdd
and learn about the hdd basic health information to have the initial judgment.
judgment
4, Click the green start icon to further enter the program and select the HDD family and set
the working directory:

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5, Next the program will try to read the hdd ID details, Load Res. from HDD is used as
default. The hdd family is automatically detected within this interface.

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Load Res. From File

When the hdd ID information is not loaded properly with the default option, users can try to
Load. Res From File, users need to select one firmware folder, either with original backup
modules or with donor modules.
PCB Mode is mainly used to handle busy drives or remove password.
Check Tech Key
For Hitachi drives, sometimes you can get IDed and enter the program but when users
cannot access to the SA, SA is locked for being accessed and at this time, users need to
tick the Check Tech Key by loading the tech key to unlock the SA access. It works for
some drives without sa access due to tech key missing.
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Switch SA Access: to be added function to test if the NV-ram

NV ram read/write is normal.
6, Next users can futher enter the program
program and start to use all functions inside.

Like image above, users need to pay attention to the logs window, and users can find
what is happening within the program and track the working process.

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6.0 Firmware Operations and Functions

Firmware operation video instructions:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B wIoDGqvTA5T2M3R21ubVJpWW8&authuser=0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-wIoDGqvTA5T2M3R21ubVJpWW8&authuser=0

Module List Window

For Hitachi-IBM Series,, users can find
fi therere
re three copies for each firmware module:

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there three copies of each module.

For Hitachi ARM Series,, therere

Right click on any of the module users get the following menus:

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So users can edit, read and write any wanted modules.

modules
Users can select all modules and test and find out which ones are damaged, and then
select the damaged ones, and select to write current modules to overwrite the damage
modules to repair them. Remember which are key modules and which are replaceable as
discussed in the previous
evious section.

Defect Logs Window

When users click the Defect
Defect Logs,
Logs , users will see empty window like below:

Users need to go to the top menu bar, click Defect Manager and click the view G-list,
G
P-list,
list, Smart, etc and then the Defect Logs Window will output the corresponding contents
of the defect list:

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Hex Window
The hex windows displays all 00 when users click on the window, this is because users
dontt open any module to view:

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At the bottom of the Hex windows, therere

there option for users to select to open for Hex view
like below:

Users can view the sectors by LBA, ABA, can view modules, open RAM, ROM and
NV-RAM, etc.

Menu-Program (F)

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Under this menu, one function is very useful, that is Open Work Dir and from here, users
can easily find the backup modules and you can open them and check any time.
Menu-General Functions

Within this menu, soft reset is often used to remove some minor errors during the
operations, the error status register can be on.
Common Repair(Sector
(Sector access interruption
int
Fix)-For Hitachi-IBM
IBM series this function is
disabled because the failure doesnt
doesn t usually occur within these drives while in Hitachi
ARM series, this function is enabled for 2.5
2.5 laptop hard drives at this moment.
Warning menu-Format
Format is not allowed to use for data recovery, itss for refurbishing purpose, it will format
the data area.
With Security Password and Security Unlock,, users can set the password to the
drive to protect it and users can also remove the password with the set password.
pa
Stop Motor/Standby and Start Motor /Recalibration are mainly used for Hot swap.

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Menu-FW Operations

Under this menu, users can easily read/write modules, read ROM (ROM is not easy to get
damaged) within Hitachi, read/write/edit/regenerate NV-RAM.
NV
Users
sers can also use the
One-click
click Backup to backup all the firmware resources.
RAM is available
availa
for Hitachi-IBM
IBM series in the current version and will
To regenerate NV-RAM
later support the Hitachi ARM series.

Menu-Defects Manager
Within this menu, users can view p-list,
p
view/clear g-list,
list, and view smart and reset smart.

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Menu-Window (W)
Within this menu, users can easily switch among program starting window, SATA channel
window and IDE channel window.

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7.0 Troubleshooting For

F DFL-FRP For HT

1, The application has failed to start because its side-by-side

side
side configuration is
incorrect

Running environment installation: within the installation folder, theres

the
one file
called vcredist_x86,, some pcs have this installed, then ok, but if this running
environment is missing, users get the following error message when trying to
run the program.

2, The program fail to start/open

Pls. check the device manager for three places: Disk Drives (Find out if the
SATA and PATA channels come up normally.); Under universal serial bus
controller (Find out if the DFL-Firmware
DFL Firmware Repair Plus Device comes up
normally.) and Ports (If the COM port has been installed successfully.)
successfully Anyway,
COM port is usually not used for Hitachi hard drives.
Please find out if the USB cable and other cables are well connected, pls.
pls
check if you are running the program as administrator.

3, How To Select Compatible PCB

Hitachi HDD:
Hitachi 3.5 HDD PCB

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The first letter of the first two lines on the interface lable is required to be the same.

Hitachi 2.5 and 1.8 PCB: Main controller chip and PCB number.
number

4, How To Select Compatible Heads

Hitachi HDD Compatible Heads

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1 Model
2, Manufacturing date

Tips:
1, After successful head swap, we get more or less bad sectors during
the scan of the hdd. This has two reasons: Manual head installing and
uninstalling of the heads cannot reach the level of standard within the
factory;
tory; Even within the clean bench or clean room, there can be still
some dust causing the bad sectors;
2, After swapping heads, dont
don t connect the patient drives directly to pc to
read data, bad sectors may get the pc hang and worse still, the
t
heads
might be damaged.

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