latest news about Dolphin data lab data recovery tools, data recovery training courses, data recovery solutions.

The following new hard drive head replacement tools are available within the Hard Drive Ramp Toolkit Pro. 

Newly added head replacement tool on March 17, 2024
STH81 for Seagate 10TB helium drives, ST10000NM0478, 4 platters, 8 heads

Newly added head replacement combs Jan.3rd, 2024:
T3-7: Toshiba desktop hdd, 7 platters, MG06ACA800E, 8TB;
W3-9: WD helium hdd of 10T-16T, 9 platters;
ST3-4: Seagate ST8000NM0178, 8TB, 4 platters;
ST3-5: Seagate ST4000NM0035, 4TB, 5 platters;
SST24: Seagate SAS HDD, ST1800MM0129, 1.8T, ST2400MM0129, 2.4T;

Newly added Toshiba hdd head replacement tool on November 1 2023: T21, for laptop toshiba hdds with 1 platter, please note the existing T22 is used for 1-platter toshiba laptop hdds for many cases;

Newly added Western Digital Head Comb for WD 6T 800001 and 4T 810011 on November 1 2023:
W3S, example supported models-WD60PURX-64T0ZY0; WD40EJRX-89AKWY0

Newly added Toshiba Head Combs July 14, 2023
T312: Toshiba 3.5″ HDDs, 1/2 platters
T3-3: Toshiba 3.5″ HDDs, 3 platters
DT01ACA100, DT01ACA200, DT01ACA300, DT01ABA100V, DT01ABA200V, DT01ABA300V, etc

Users can find more hard drive head and platter swap tools here.

Section 1: Repair Modes
DFL Samsung firmware repair tool
can do both hdd repair and hdd refurbishing, hdd repair is to fix firmware failures without affecting data but hdd refurbishing will remove bad sectors and destroy data.

Section 2: Number of HDD Supported by the DFL Samsung Hardware

Users can connect 3 drives to DFL-SRP Samsung Portable hdd repair tool and 4 drives to DFL-PCIe Samsung hdd repair tool.

Section 3: Operating System to Install the software
Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, any of them is ok. DFL tools have unique driverless technology. No need to install device drivers.

Section 4: Biggest Advantages over Competitors

Easy to use and install on any pc, powerful with best technique support and data recovery resources. Free data recovery training videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/datarecoverytools

Section 5: What Kind of Samsung HDD Failures DFL Samsung can Fix

01: Samsung HDDs with many bad sectors;
02: Samsung HDDs with ATA locked;
04: Wrongly detected Samsung hard drives;
05: 0 capacity detected Samsung hard drives;
06: Non-detected/Busy Samsung hard drives;
07: Dead Samsung hard drives, to fix this kind of dead Samsung drives, users need to have flash programmer, donor PCB and firmware sources or physical head and platter swap tools to work with DFL Samsung firmware repair tool.

Section 6: Common Samsung HDD Firmware Failures-Quick Fix

01: Fix LED Error
02: Clear A-list

Section 7: ROM Operations-Firmware on PCB
01: Read ROM;
02: Write ROM;
03: Write Burn Resources;
04: Get ROM Info.

Section 8: Service Area Operations-Firmware on Platters

01: Soft Reset;
02: Hard Reset;
03: Zero Fill;
04: Auto HDD family detection;
05: Read/write modules and module testing;
06: Edit HDD ID and password removal;
07: Read/write tracks.

Section 9: Defects Operations

01: View G/P list;
02: Clear A-list;
03: View/Reset Smart;
04, Enable/Disable Smart;
05: Format.

Section 1: Work Modes

Toshiba drives work in both ATA and COM modes, Fujitsu drives work mainly on ATA mode, for password removal, need to work in COM mode.

Section 2: Repair Modes
DFL Toshiba/Fujitsu firmware repair tool
can do both hdd repair and hdd refurbishing, hdd repair is to fix firmware failures without affecting data but hdd refurbishing will remove bad sectors and destroy data.

Section 3: Number of HDD Supported by the DFL Toshiba/Fujitsu Hardware
Users can connect 3 drives to DFL-SRP Toshiba/Fujitsu Portable HDD Repair Tool and 4 drives to DFL-PCIe Toshiba/Fujitsu HDD Repair Tool.

Section 4: Operating System to Install the software
Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, any of them is ok. DFL tools have unique driverless technology, no need to install drivers.

Section 5: Biggest Advantages over Competitors

Easy to use and install on any pc, powerful with best technique support and data recovery resources.

Section 6: What Kind of WD HDD Failures DFL WD can Fix

01: Toshiba/Fujitsu HDDs with many bad sectors;
02: Toshiba/Fujitsu HDDs with ATA locked;
03: Wrongly detected Toshiba/Fujitsu hard drives;
04: 0 capacity detected Toshiba/Fujitsu hard drives;
05: Non-detected/Busy Toshiba/Fujitsu hard drives;
06: Dead Toshiba/Fujitsu hard drives, to fix this kind of dead Toshiba/Fujitsu drives, users need to have flash programmer, donor PCB sources or physical head and platter swap tools to work with DFL Toshiba/Fujitsu firmware repair tool;

Section 7: Common Toshiba/Fujitsu HDD Firmware Failures-Quick Fix

01: Clear G-list;
02: Virtual translator;

Section 8: ROM and SA Operations

01: Read ROM;
02: Read/write firmware modules;
03: Read/write tracks;
04: Edit ID;
05: Password removal;
06: Heads read write test;
07: Techno on/off;
08: Smart on/off;
09: ECC error on/off;
10: Flash permanent cache on/off;
11: Cut zones;
12: Cut heads
13: Start/Stop Motor.

Section 9: Defects Operations

01: View/Clear G-list, P-list;
02: G to P;
03: View/Reset Smart;
04, Virtual translator;
05: Scan defects and add to G/P-list.

Section 10: Fujitsu HDD FW operations

01: Read/Write ROM;
02: Sector Edit;
03: Edit SN;
04: Remove Password;
05: Read/write modules;
06: View/Reset Smart;
07: Format;
08: Scan and add defects to defect list;
09: Clear T-list/P-list.

Section 1: Repair Modes
DFL Hitachi/IBM firmware repair tool can do both hdd repair and hdd refurbishing, hdd repair is to fix firmware failures without affecting data but hdd refurbishing will remove bad sectors and destroy data.

Section 2: Number of HDD Supported by the DFL Hitachi/IBM Hardware
Users can connect 3 drives to DFL-SRP Portable Hitachi/IBM firmware repair tool and 4 drives to DFL-PCIe Hitachi/IBM firmware repair tool.

Section 3: Operating System to Install the software
Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, any of them is ok. DFL tools have unique driverless technology, no need to install drivers.

Section 4: Biggest Advantages over Competitors

Easy to use and install on any pc, powerful with best technique support and data recovery resources. Free data recovery training videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/datarecoverytools

Section 5: What Kind of Hitachi/IBM HDD Failures DFL Hitachi/IBM can Fix

01: Hitachi/IBM HDDs with many bad sectors;
02: Hitachi/IBM HDDs with ATA locked;
03: Wrongly detected Hitachi/IBM hard drives;
04: 0 capacity detected Hitachi/IBM hard drives;
05: Non-detected/Busy Hitachi/IBM hard drives;
06: Dead Hitachi/IBM hard drives, to fix this kind of dead Hitachi/IBM drives, users need to have flash programmer, donor PCB sources or physical head and platter swap tools to work with DFL Hitachi/IBM firmware repair tool;
07: Patient HDDs with weak heads;
08: Patient HDDs with forgotten password;

Tips: If users wish to recover lost data from Hitachi helium drives with UNC error, users need to email us to get detailed data recovery solution.

Section 6: Common Hitachi/IBM HDD Firmware Failures-Quick Fix

01: Sector access interruption Fix for both 2.5” and 3.5” hard drives;
02: Single weak head fix.

Section 7: ROM Operations-Firmware on PCB
01: Read/Write ROM;
02: Read/Write NVRAM;
03: Edit and Regenerate NVRAM;
04: Edit head map in NVRAM;
05: Head test;
06, Cut head

Section 8: Service Area Operations-Firmware on Platters

01: Read/write firmware modules;
02: Recover G-list translator;
03: Edit hard drive ID;
04: Remove password;
05: Unlock DVR;
06: LBA to CHS

Section 9: Defects Operations

01: View/Clear G-list, P-list;
02: View and reset smart;
03: G to P-list;
04, Scan to add to G-list;
05, Format and Zerofill.

Portable Data Recovery Equipment-DFL-DDP USB3.0
Section 1: Number of HDD Supported by the DFL DDP Hardware

Users can connect 3 drives to SRP DDP Portable Data Recovery Equipment and 4 drives to PCIe DDP Data Recovery Equipment.

Section 2: Operating System to Install the software

Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, any of them is ok. DFL tools have unique driverless technology, no need to install device drivers.

Section 3: Biggest Advantages over Competitors

Easy to use and install on any pc, powerful with best technique support and data recovery resources.
Free data recovery training videos: http://www.youtube.com/user/datarecoverytools

Section 4:
HDD Diagnosis
Power on test; Bad Sector Scan; Single LBA read test; LBA range read test; head read test; HDD ID read test; HDD COM Terminal Test.

Section 5: HDD Erase

Zerofill the HDD/Low-level HDD Format

Section 6: Disk Image

00: Write-block is enabled as default setting;
01: Full disk sector by sector image/disk clone;
02: Partition image: data-only image or sector by sector image;
03: File image, users can select the wanted files and run disk image;
04: Data-only image;
05: Selective head image, users can image good heads first and image defective heads;
06: Multiple-pass image;
07: Customized and fully controlled image by detailed imaging settings, users can control how to handle errors, what speed to be imaged at, how different damaged hard drive should be imaged properly and differently;
08: Users can easily set the source and target drive, or setup dynamic virtual HDD as target hdd;
09: Seagate auto head map in RAM during imaging;
10: Hitachi auto translator fix during imaging;
11: Toshiba auto translator fix during imaging;
12, Auto source and target hdd error handling;
13, Western Digital Loading T2Data/190 to RAM auto for WD SMR drives, this one is specially helpful for formatted smr hdds;
14: Users can make best use of all above image methods or settings to image hdds with lots of bad sectors, weak heads at higher success rate;

Section 7: File Extraction
01, Auto read and list file directory even when mbr is damaged;
02, Users can select wanted partitions, folders and files to recover;
03, Scan lost partitions and scan MFT to get lost data back;
04, Recover files by file type;
05, Users can search the wanted files by keyword and then can easily get target files back in the shortest time;
06, Users can list files directly from hdds with many bad sectors, if only small files or several files, users can select to extract the files directly;
07, Users can easily switch from file extraction to disk image.

08, Detect bad files and save file ending with error;
09, Full controlled file extraction settings for best extraction result;
10, Selective head file extraction;
11, WD SED HDD auto decryption(before PCB 8x00xx series);
12, Export file directory tree;
13, Export file statistics report including hash values, file name, file size, access time, create time, file attribute,etc.

Section 8: Common Firmware Repair
For each hard drive brand, DDP offers quick solutions to the common firmware damaged cases.

Seagate HDD Common Firmware Repair Solutions: Busy fix, ready-then-busy fix, capacity 0 fix, MCMT fix, Dos fix, SMART fix, SIM 1002 fix, SIM1009 fix, LED fix, partial sector access fix, Load ATA/APP to RAM for old Seagate hdds, etc;

WD HDD Common Firmware Repair Solutions: NHPA, Slow fix, edit head map in RAM, load T2data/190 to RAM for WD SMR HDDs, remove password, show microcode, repair 190, wd smr hdd slow fix, etc;

Hitachi HDD Common Firmware Repair Solutions: Virtual translator to load P-list/PSHT to RAM for both 2.5” and 3.5” ARM family;

Samsung HDD Common Firmware Repair Solutions: Clear A-list, LED fix;

Toshiba HDD Common Firmware Repair Solutions: Virtual Translator, Clear G-list

Section 9: Mount/Un-mount Drives

Users can easily mount and unmounts the drives connected to Dolphin data recovery and hdd repair hardware, and users can easily read all files inside the mounted drives or can use any third-party data recovery software to scan the mounted hard drives.

Western Digital hard drive firmware repair tool-DFL-WD
Section 1: DFL WD Versions

DFL-WD has two versions: Standard manual version and Auto Repair version.
For Standard version, users get all repair and refurbishing functions in separate menus and users can fix the firmware failures for either refurbishing or recovery purpose.
For Auto Repair version, the program will write completely new auto repair ROM and new auto repair firmware to the patient hdd and then run online arco and online/offline selftest to refurbish the HDD. So Auto version is mainly for hdd refurbishing.

Section 2: Repair Modes
DFL WD firmware repair tool can do both hdd repair and hdd refurbishing, hdd repair is to fix firmware failures without affecting data but hdd refurbishing will remove bad sectors and destroy data.

Section 3: Number of HDD Supported by the DFL WD Hardware
Users can connect 3 drives to SRP Portable WD HDD Repair Tool and 4 drives to PCIe WD HDD Repair Tool. For offline hdd refurbishing, users can refurbish many more drives at the same time with DFL WD tool.

Section 4: Operating System to Install the software
Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, any of them is ok. DFL tools have unique driverless technology, no need to install device drivers.
Section 5: Biggest Advantages over Competitors

Easy to use and install on any pc, powerful with best technique support and data recovery resources.
Free data recovery training videos here: http://www.youtube.com/user/datarecoverytools

Section 6: What Kind of WD HDD Failures DFL WD can Fix

01: WD HDDs with many bad sectors or full of bad sectors;
02: WD HDDs with SA locked;
03: WD HDDs with ATA locked;
04: Wrongly detected WD hard drives;
05: 0 capacity detected WD hard drives;
06: Undetected/Busy WD hard drives;
07: Dead WD hard drives, to fix this kind of dead WD drives, users need to have flash programmer, donor PCB sources or physical head and platter swap tools to work with DFL WD firmware repair tool;
08: Patient HDDs with SED status;
09: Patient HDDs with weak heads.

Section 7: Common WD HDD Firmware Failures-Quick Fix

01: Slow fix;
02: Remove password;
03: Unlock ROM generation(WD SMR HDD firmware unlock);
04: Unlock smartware protected hdd;
05: Edit head map in RAM;
06: Load ATA;
07: Show microcode;
08: WD weak head repair to enhance head read/write capability by adjusting head adaptives;
etc

Section 8: ROM Operations-Firmware on PCB
01: Read/Write ROM and ROM modules;
02: Module 47 regeneration;
03: ROM deep test;
04: Auto get Head map;
05: Read/write head adaptive parameters;
06: ROM regeneration;
07: DIR Starting address edit;
08: Cut head in ROM for refurbishing purpose;
09: Bypass SA, very helpful to fix many WD SED drives such as enterprise SA locked drives;
10: Initialize ROM, for refurbishing purpose;
11: Region’s Edit;
12: Force Loading;
13: Disable 411;
14: Disable 02;
etc

Section 9: Service Area Operations-Firmware on Platters

01: Read/write firmware modules;
02: Read/write tracks;
03: Read/write SA;
04: Generate modules 11, 02, 03, 36, etc;
05: Module testing and editing;
06: Edit HDD ID and password removal;
07: Extract modules from tracks;
08: Scan and record bad sector locations and add bad sectors to P-list;
09: Create modules;
10: Delete modules;
11: Edit module length;
12, Cut zones;
13, Format SA;
14, Set TPI/CAP;
15, Extract modules from SA region;
16, Shift modules;
17, Clear modules;
18, Test modules;

Section 10: Service Area in RAM

01: Edit head map in RAM;
02: Read/write modules in RAM;
03: Edit HDD ID in RAM;
04: Load module DIR in RAM;
05: Load translator in RAM;
06, Slow fix in RAM;
07: Change module size in RAM;

Section 11: Defects Operations

01: View/Clear G-list, P-list, SA list;
02: View/Generate T-list;
03: View/Reset Smart;
04, Translator Clear and regeneration;
05: Translator Auto fix;

Section 12: WD Selftest

01: Arco operations, one button ARCO and single ARCO steps, users can customize the ARCO process whenever needed to optimize the physical parameters and then the hdd selftest success rate will be higher;
02: Auto ARCO, all users need to do is to select the firmware path, initialize the SF/ROM/FW to start;
03: Generate ARCO process;
04: Initialize Selftest;
05: Edit SF script;
06: Generate source disk process;
07: Initialize module 02;
08: Initialize module 40;
09: Clear IBI logs, Restore SF logs;
10: 18xx Unlock;
11: Run single SF process;
12: Monitor and Stop selftest;
13, Format with G/P/GP

Seagate hard drive firmware repair tool-DFL-Seagate
Section 1:
HDD Working Modes
Engineer can work in both ATA and COM terminal mode to diagnose and repair the HDD.

Section 2: Repair Modes

DFL Seagate firmware repair tool can do both hdd repair and hdd refurbishing, hdd repair is to fix firmware failures without affecting data but hdd refurbishing will remove bad sectors and destroy data.

Section 3: Number of HDD Supported by the DFL Seagate Hardware

Users can connect 3 drives to SRP portable Seagate hdd repair tool and 4 drives to PCIe Seagate hdd repair tool.

Section 4: Operating System to Install the software

Win 7, Win 8, Win 10, any of them is ok. DFL tools have unique driverless technology, no need to install device drivers.

Section 5: Biggest Advantages over Competitors

Easy to use and install on any pc, powerful with best technique support and data recovery resources.
Free data recovery training videos here: https://www.youtube.com/user/datarecoverytools

Section 6: What Kind of Seagate HDD Failures DFL Seagate can Fix

01: Seagate HDDs with many bad sectors;
02: Seagate HDDs with SA locked;
03: Seagate HDDs with ATA locked;
04: Wrongly detected Seagate hard drives;
05: 0 capacity detected Seagate hard drives;
06: Undetected/Busy Seagate hard drives;
07: Dead Seagate hard drives, to fix this kind of dead Seagate drives, users need to have ROM chip reader, donor PCB sources or physical head and platter swap tools to work with DFL Seagate firmware repair tool;
08: Seagate patient HDDs with LED status;
09: Seagate patient HDDs with weak heads;

Section 7: Common Seagate HDD Firmware Failures-Quick Fix

01: Busy fix;
02: Capacity 0 fix;
03: Ready then Busy Fix;
04: DWF fix;
05: Sim 1002 fix;
06: Sim 1009 fix;
07: MCMT corruption fix;
08: Dos fix;
09: SMART fix;
10: LED fix;
11: Partial sector access fix;
12: Clear NG;
13: Remove password;
14: SMR HDD Format fix;
15: SSHD non-spin fix;
16: Clear media cache;
17: Load ATA/APP for old Seagate drive(Barracuda 7200.7-.10);
18: CELOG fix;
etc

Section 8: ROM Operations-Firmware on PCB

01: Read ROM by ATA or COM;
02: Write ROM by COM at any defined baud rates;
03: Head adaptive ROM;
04: CC49 ROM;
05: Edit head map in ROM;
06: Terminal/firmware unlock by generating and writing unlock rom;
07: Edit ROM;
08, Cut head in ROM;
09, Adjust Heads’ Working Temperature;
10, Disable Subsystem to fix LED issue;
11, Change ROM modules, write key original rom modules to donor ROM;
12: Nohost fix ROM generation;

Section 9: Service Area Operations-Firmware on Platters

01: Read/write firmware modules;
02: Read/write tracks;
03: Read/write/Edit SYS files;
04: Repair unknown firmware failures by tracks;
05: Repair unknown firmware failures by ABA;
06: Read/Write LOD;
07: Read/write SA;
08: Scan and record bad sector locations and add bad sectors to P-list;
09: Edit HDD ID (Model number/ LBA /SN number) and remove password;
10: Test SYS files;

Section 10: Service Area in RAM

01: Edit head map in RAM;
02: Load ATA in RAM;
03: Edit ID in RAM;
04: SAP Control flag;
05: Load translator to RAM;
06: Load ROM to RAM (for hot swap purpose);

Section 11: Defects Operations

01: Read/write/Edit G-list, P-list, NG list, Smart;
02: Delete non-SF defects in P-list, very helpful for fixing some sector access problems;
03: Delete specific defects on specific heads, this is usually used to cut heads for hdd refurbishing purpose;
04, Translator Clear and regeneration;
05: Translator Auto fix;
06, Format with Glist/Plist;
07: Offline bad sector repair;

There’re many Western Digital patient hard drives suffering bad sectors in the service area and users cannot operate on the firmware modules properly. At this time, if the firmware modules are corrupted, the patient drives become undetected, the data area becomes inaccessible, what to do to get the lost data back?

For some WD hdd recovery cases, users can swap the heads and the firmware area can be read properly. Some heavy drives or drives with multiple platters require adaptive rom to write to enhance heads’ read and write capabilities.

For some WD hdd recovery cases, users can use hot swap method by DFL-WD hdd repair tool to read original firmware modules and then use hot swap method again to recover lost data from original drives. The key is to find one good donor drive.

For some WD hdd recovery cases, users need to change the module size by DFL-WD firmware repair tool to bypass the bad sectors, this one is very helpful, no need to find donor head or donor hard drive;

For some WD hdd recovery cases, users can shift the bad sector firmware module by DFL-WD hdd firmware repair tool to one free good track without bad sectors and users can write the good module to the new track selected.

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

This is one Seagate ST4000VX013 hard drive firmware repair and data recovery case study for one Dolphin user in India.

Patient HDD ID:
Model number: ST4000VX013-2XG104
Family: B2
Capacity: 4TB

ST4000VX013 Patient HDD Failure Symptoms:
Clicking noises; Spin up and down; partitions lost

ST4000VX013 Required HDD Repair Tools and Data Recovery Equipment
DFL-Seagate hdd repair tool
DFL-DDP data recovery equipment

ST4000VX013 HDD Repair and Data Recovery Steps
01: Backup head adaptive module;
02: Swap heads and write donor adaptive data by DFL-Seagate hdd repair tool;
03: Backup sys35 NGlist;
04: Clear g-list and regenerate translator;
05:  Repair data offset;
06: Disable vacant active;
07: Reverse scan to get all lost partitions by DFL-DDP data recovery equipment.

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab

With DFL-WD hard drive firmware repair tool, users can easily recover the lost data from Western Digital Hikvision DVR password protected hard drives.

The patient hard drive in this article was one Western Digital SMR hard drive, 2TB, PCB-810011.

When users connect the patient hard drives to computers or data recovery hardware, the data area was not accessible, the firmware area was locked too.

To recover the lost data from the Western Digital Hikvision DVR hard drive, users need to remove the firmware lock by DFL-WD hdd firmware repair tool and then within the WD hdd firmware repair software, there’s one function to remove the dvr password for this patient hard drive.

After fixing the DVR password protection issue, users can make best use of the original PCB to recover the lost data by DFL-DDP data recovery equipment.

Any question is welcome to sales@dolphindatalab.com or add Dolphin Skype ID: dolphin.data.lab