On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 6:27 PM, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> wrote:
2008/10/29 Greg Freemyer <greg.freemyer@gmail.com>:
On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Dotan Cohen <dotancohen@gmail.com> wrote: <snip>
. Only in the past few weeks have I seriously considered switching drive manufacturers, though, after an email exchange with WD in which they say that their product is unsupported under Linux.
The rep went on to clarify that warranty failures would still be replaced, however, things like firmware updates (this is an issue on some WD 2.5" models) and some other tools would only be handled via Windows.
Actually I'm surprised they even support windows.
Most firmware updates are done via Dos Boot floppies from what I've seen. They typically provide a free version of dos to boot from.
Here's the kicker: the boot floppies are made with a windows-specific tool. Actually, it seems to do nothing more than unpack a tarball to the floppy. I am certain that it could be done in Linux. However, the online instructions are written for mousemaids and don't mention Linux at all. It would literally only take 4 lines of HTML. Furthermore, WD support has no clue that it could be done in Linux, in fact, they claim that it cannot be done.
I should mention that the Windows tool in question requires admin access on the windows machine, so it cannot be done at, say, your local library.
I bet they are using a Windows Tool to write a full dos floppy image to the floppy. I've seen that before. If so, the file they are copying should be about 1.44 MB In Linux, to put that on floppy its just: dd if=floppy-image-file of=/dev/floppy bs=512 Greg -- Greg Freemyer Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer First 99 Days Litigation White Paper - http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org