NEC ND-4550 Firmware Update, really that complicated?

[ChromeBeauty]

Just got my new ND-4550 a saw that there is already a newer fw.
Then I checked the readme for that fw and wondered if all those steps a really necessary.

Connect drive to secondary IDE channel as Master
(OK)

Disconnect all slave hardware from IDE secondary Master
(OK)

Use standard UDMA-2 IDE cable
(What’s “standard”? I got normal 133 cables, is that enought?)

Update in Windows “Safe Mode”
(OK)

Under Windows 2000 & XP login as administrator
(OK)

Update without DMA mode, under Windows XP & 2000 in the device manager - “IDE ATA/ ATAPI controllers”, you can switch from DMA to PIO mode
(OK, but why that??? Never switched back to PIO for fw update)

Disconnect all external USB/ FireWire devices.
(Does this count too for joystick, keyboard, and mice?)

Deactivate virusscanners, active desktop programs and packetwriting agents
(Aren’t they off anyway in safe mode???)

Do not turn off power during the updating process.
(BIG OK!)

Sorry for all those question but the fw update with my old drive was much easier.

BTW anyone OK with 1.07 or are there any problems with it?

[DrageMester]

This procedure is just NEC’s way of covering their a** if anything should happen when you flash the firmware. This way they will be able to say that it’s the user’s own fault in 99.9% of all cases, because almost nobody can be bothered to follow all of these rules just to upgrade a firmware on a drive.

Personally I would much rather take the minuscule risk of something going wrong, and then having to buy a new drive, than to perform this long and arduous route to flashing perfection.

Normally you can break most of these rules without any problem. The absolutely necessary rule is that you shouldn’t turn off power during the flashing process.

But you have to take the responsibility for making that decision yourself.

[etp]

I think you can skip all that with BINFLASH!

[Liggy]

Binflash shouldn’t be different to the original NEC flasher here.