Buffalo ext drive will not open after Firmware flash

[Peabody111]

I cant seem to locate the ASUS flash tool

[zittrig]

Check my post above then. Perhaps more luck with the modified ASUS flasher?

No that won't work you need recovery for this situation

Ok, thanks Billy. So there have to be another recovery solution.

[Billycar11]

Remember the longer this drive is on the wrong fw the more likely it is to be dead

[Peabody111]

Remember the longer this drive is on the wrong fw the more likely it is to be dead

Its probably dead then

[Billycar11]

Remember the longer this drive is on the wrong fw the more likely it is to be dead

Its probably dead then

Still worth trying but leave it unplugged from power and USB when your not recovering it

[zittrig]

For my understanding:

1. What does the recovery mode different to flash another firmware directly?

2. Why is a drive more likely dead in relation how long it runs with the wrong firmware? Installed is installed. Or what other technical aspects need to be considered here?

[Sayaka]

1. What does the recovery mode different to flash another firmware directly?

RECOVER/rawflash "main,nowait,nocheck,boot=[wrong boot ID]", aka "flash with fake boot ID", is much more powerful. You can do things with it that you can't do with a normal flash, such as crossflash a BP55EB40 without doing a bootloader flash/rawflash full beforehand, and it also allows you to recover a wrongly flashed drive such as this one (nowait,nocheck is also nice to have when the drive tray doesn't respond anymore). It is also, apparently, more dangerous than a normal flash if done wrong.

2. Why is a drive more likely dead in relation how long it runs with the wrong firmware? Installed is installed. Or what other technical aspects need to be considered here?

I believe it's because a slim firmware installed on a desktop drive (or the opposite ! especially the opposite) is dangerous. It interacts with the hardware in a way that a "correct" firmware wouldn't. Some people actually managed to set their slim drives on fire by flashing desktop firmware onto them, according to Mike.

Please give me a bit more time and I will post detailed instructions on the command line version very soon, which for some reason seems to work for some people when the SDFtool Flasher way fails.