Asus BC-12D2HT 3.00 Official (patched) flasher

[wtm11]

Before trying to flash your drive by any mean, always make a back-up of your drive's original firmware and copy it to a safe place (USB drive, cloud storage...). You must make your own back-up because each drive has a unique embedded key. I personnaly used this method to save my own drive firmware.

This patched flasher must only be used with the Asus BC-12D2HT. I tested it with my own drive which was manufactured the 28/12/2017 and with 3.01 firmware out of the box.
Since this patcher is based on Asus official patcher, it will automatically update your drive firmware to the 3.00 version (embedded key will be kept).
This solution is safer and simpler than the SPI flash method (with DOSFLASH) because all the flash processing is done by Asus official flasher. In theory, firmware back-up is not needed but I strongly recommend to still have a back-up.

How to flash:

1. Start the patched flasher
2. Click on "START"
3. Wait for the "FW Updating Completed Sucessfully" pop-up
4. Click on "OK"
5. Click on "EXIT"

How did I patched Asus flasher (informational only, not needed to flash):

I downloaded the Asus BC-12D2HT 3.01 firmware official flasher from Asus website.
I dumped my own drive 3.01 firmware with the DOSFLASH method.
I downloaded the Asus BC-12D2HT 3.00 firmware which was kindly uploaded by flynn.
The official 3.01 firmware present in the Asus official flasher start at offset 0x070EA0 and end at 0x270E9F (2 MB).
There is no difference between my own 3.01 firmware and the official 3.01 firmware before offset 0x1E0000. We can conclude this part doesn't contain embedded key, configuration, log...
The next part (starting from offset 0x1E0000) of my own firmware has a similar structure with the 3.00 firmware from flynn but the values are not the same. This confirms that this part contains the embedded key (and other stuff).
But in the official 3.01 firmware it is mostly blocks of 0 (0x00) or blocks of 1 (0xFF), which indicates the flasher (or the drive) will automaticaly replace those blocks with the values of the previous firmware.
Note there is one exception to that from offset 0x1EC000 to 0x1EC056 but we will get back to that later:

In the end, I simply replaced the block starting at offset 0x000000 to 0x1DFFFF by the same block from flynn 3.00 firmware. Which corresponds to the block starting at offset 0x70EA0 to 0x250E9F in the official Asus flasher.
Then I replaced the block from offset 0x1EC000 to 0x1EC055 in the official 3.01 firmware by the same block from flynn 3.00 firmware. Which corresponds to the block starting at offset 0x25CEA0 to 0x25CEF5 in the official Asus flasher.
Thanks to mike_admin, we know that there is a downgrade enable byte at offset 0x0x1EC056 which should be set to 0xDE to enable downgrade. Hence I replace this byte from 0xFF (disable) to 0xDE (enable). viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873#p70277

[Billycar11]

this way is dead stop posting it only use this new way here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873
it is way safer and easier

[st4evr]

As Billy advised, please read the forum stickies and other information before posting. This method is outdated.

To anyone reading this, please follow Billy’s link.

[wtm11]

this way is dead stop posting it only use this new way here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873
it is way safer and easier

Could you please argue your point of view? The method for flashing indicated in the topic is clearly the same as mine. Moreover, the Asus BC-12D2HT is not part of the list of supported device.

[Billycar11]

this way is dead stop posting it only use this new way here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873
it is way safer and easier

Could you please argue your point of view? The method for flashing indicated in the topic is clearly the same as mine. Moreover, the Asus BC-12D2HT is not part of the list of supported device.

asus 3.02 from the BW-16D1HT will work on the BC-12D2HT.

my point of view is explained here why the dos flash way is bad: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18857
and here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873

[wtm11]

this way is dead stop posting it only use this new way here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873
it is way safer and easier

Could you please argue your point of view? The method for flashing indicated in the topic is clearly the same as mine. Moreover, the Asus BC-12D2HT is not part of the list of supported device.

asus 3.02 from the BW-16D1HT will work on the BC-12D2HT.

my point of view is explained here why the dos flash way is bad: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18857
and here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873

This method does NOT use FLASHDOS but the offical Asus flasher. Please read every single word of the first post before posting again!

[st4evr]

It’s not only Billy’s point of view, but Mike’s (owner/developer of MakeMKV) point of view and other well known developers who have been working on this for over a year. And they are correct. The most proper and safe way to flash the firmware of the drives in question is detailed in those posts and as to why. Following an outdated method may only add more problems and confusion. Welcome to software development. That’s how this works. Progress.

[chiefaj]

this way is dead stop posting it only use this new way here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873
it is way safer and easier

Could you please argue your point of view? The method for flashing indicated in the topic is clearly the same as mine. Moreover, the Asus BC-12D2HT is not part of the list of supported device.

I don't understand the criticisms either. It looks like Billycar11 has seen the words DOS Flash and assume that this is the old way?

As far as I can tell, you have done a similar thing as MartyMcNuts did here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873#p70282, except for with the BC-12D2HT flasher. Is that right?

[wtm11]

It’s not only Billy’s point of view, but Mike’s (owner/developer of MakeMKV) point of view and other well known developers who have been working on this for over a year. And they are correct. The most proper and safe way to flash the firmware of the drives in question is detailed in those posts and as to why. Following an outdated method may only add more problems and confusion. Welcome to software development. That’s how this works. Progress.

There is a big misunderstanding on what I propose. May be my first post was not clear enough.

First, I had already read all the posts you pointed at me before creating this topic.
Secondly, I totally agree with Mike. SPI / DOSFLASH flashing method is unsafe and complicated. I strongly recommend not using it. As Mike said, many (crazy) people are copy/pasting portions of firmware and flash it without understanding what those portions do.
Mike suggest to use the official flasher method which use the drive's self-update feature which do some verification before applying the update. I think he is right because it is safer than raw SPI write and because the self-update procedure will automatically transfer the embedded key and other stuff specific to the drive. This is exactly what my patched flasher does, since it is based on Asus flasher, it uses the self-update feature of the drive. The 3.00 firmware embedded in my tool is clean. I explained how I cleaned it in the "How did I patched Asus flasher" section.

In my first post, I recommend to make a back-up (with FLASHDOS or whatever) of your drive's firmware before using my tool because I tested it on a single drive (my own) and on a single system (motherboard, OS...). If you propose a patched flasher (even if based on an official flasher) that you tested only once and state that it is safe, you are naive and dangerous. You can trust me, as an electronic engineer, I experience Murphy's Law every day.

I detailed how I did patch the official flasher this part is purely informational. You don’t need this part in order to flash your drive. I did it because I do not trust patched binaries from others (it could be infected).

Last, the patcher in this topic does not document the modification done to the official patcher, or it is spread all over the thread and it may be incomplete. Moreover, Billy is recommending to flash the BC-12D2HT drive with the BW-16D1HT 3.02 firmware which is the perfect example of misunderstanding of what Mike said (i.e. don't flash what you don't understand). Billy (and I) don't have the source code, specifications and schematics of the drives to state that doing this will be safe and won't have side effects even if it seems to work. That is why I don't trust this tool at the moment.

I encourage you to read again carefully my first post and ask as many question on the method as you want, but please, stop destroying the topic and misleading newcomers.

[wtm11]

this way is dead stop posting it only use this new way here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873
it is way safer and easier

Could you please argue your point of view? The method for flashing indicated in the topic is clearly the same as mine. Moreover, the Asus BC-12D2HT is not part of the list of supported device.

I don't understand the criticisms either. It looks like Billycar11 has seen the words DOS Flash and assume that this is the old way?

As far as I can tell, you have done a similar thing as MartyMcNuts did here: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=18873#p70282, except for with the BC-12D2HT flasher. Is that right?

Yes, it is the same method.

[FlyGuy]

Thanks for the firmware wtm11. I was unable to get any of the patched DE firmware from the Hax0r guide to load. Yours worked great for me though. Thank you!

[wtm11]

Thanks for the firmware wtm11. I was unable to get any of the patched DE firmware from the Hax0r guide to load. Yours worked great for me though. Thank you!

Thank you for your feedback.

If I get enough (successful) feedback, I will remove the bold red backup recommendation.
So please don't hesitate to post when it works for you.

[nirvanos]

Worked perfectly! thank you very much!!

[hd5man]

Seconding Nirvanos' post. Just updated and it seems to have worked flawlessly. Thanks!

[papillon121]

hi, ive got the version 3.11 with my BC-12D2HT

i pushed start on your tool and get back

"Updating Failure #4"

What can i do?