OWC Blu-ray drive?

[steve4424]

Hi all

Considering the purchase of an OWC Mercury Pro external Blu-Ray drive for my iMac. This uses their 5.25" external case with USB 3.0 connection and a separate power supply; the supplied drive is an LG WH14NS40. A slightly more expensive bundle uses the WH16NS40. From what I read in the forums that's a reasonable drive. I can't tell from the docs on-line what version firmware is on the drive.

If I need to flash this, well, I use a Mac and have no access to a PC/Windows. So I'd like this to work right out of the box with MacOS Catalina and MakeMKV 1.15.2.

Any thoughts?

[mike admin]

If I need to flash this, well, I use a Mac and have no access to a PC/Windows. So I'd like this to work right out of the box with MacOS Catalina and MakeMKV 1.15.2.

It will.

But if you want LibreDrive, most likely you'll have to update firmware. The native OSX flashing tool is present in 1.15.2, but it is command-line only.

[steve4424]

Mike, thanks. What I've read here is that if it works, don't mess with the firmware. I take it that that's good advice

I've read the posts about LibreDrive. How important is it to have that?

[d00zah]

What is LibreDrive?

[MKV Maker]

I have two units with the WH16NS40 within the wonderful aluminium enclosures. The firmware in both of the units from OWC are version 1.03. Fortunately for me, I use Fusion Pro with the latest build of Windows 10 in which a modified ASUS optical drive firmware changer runs, and the source firmware file is Mike's MK firmware build for this particular model of LG drive. Currently, the two drives – which are identical – are running version 1.05. My advice is to flash the firmware via virtual machine provided you know how to pass the drives directly to the virtual machine. That is the sine qua non to do so via virtual machine.

[MovieMan88]

Sorry to piggy back on this thread, but I have an OWC external drive running 1.05 firmware that I am trying to downgrade. I cannot use the Self Update firmware software because I get a "Checksum mismatch" error, so i tried to use DosFlash64 with my windows 10 64bit OS and it does not recognize the drive. My guess is because its not connected via SATA.

I see MCV Maker was able to flash them with an Asus firmwave changer? Is that the Asus Flasher by MartyCcNuts?

[d00zah]

Sorry to piggy back on this thread, but I have an OWC external drive running 1.05 firmware that I am trying to downgrade. I cannot use the Self Update firmware software because I get a "Checksum mismatch" error, so i tried to use DosFlash64 with my windows 10 64bit OS and it does not recognize the drive. My guess is because its not connected via SATA.

I see MCV Maker was able to flash them with an Asus firmwave changer? Is that the Asus Flasher by MartyCcNuts?

Read the 1st post of Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2021.

Sections of interest, in your case:

Recommended Firmware to flash for MakeMKV:

Newer OEM Firmwares and encrypted:

Unlocked Flashers, Downgrade Enabled Firmware and MK Firmware:

As the v1.05 (you don't mention drive model) is encrypted, your tool options are command line, or SDFtool Flasher (Windows only).

[MovieMan88]

Sorry to piggy back on this thread, but I have an OWC external drive running 1.05 firmware that I am trying to downgrade. I cannot use the Self Update firmware software because I get a "Checksum mismatch" error, so i tried to use DosFlash64 with my windows 10 64bit OS and it does not recognize the drive. My guess is because its not connected via SATA.

I see MCV Maker was able to flash them with an Asus firmwave changer? Is that the Asus Flasher by MartyCcNuts?

Read the 1st post of Ultimate UHD Drives Flashing Guide Updated 2021.

Sections of interest, in your case:

Recommended Firmware to flash for MakeMKV:

Newer OEM Firmwares and encrypted:

Unlocked Flashers, Downgrade Enabled Firmware and MK Firmware:

As the v1.05 (you don't mention drive model) is encrypted, your tool options are command line, or SDFtool Flasher (Windows only).

Its an LG BH16NS40 drive, my concern is what firmware am I suppose to use? The only one I have seen that matches is the BH16NS40-NS50 firmware, but I dont believe that is what my drive is. At least I dont see the NS50 anywhere is system information.

[MovieMan88]

if I am not mistaken I have to side load LG WH16NS60 1.02MK to by pass the firmware checks in the 1.05 code?

[d00zah]

Its an LG BH16NS40 drive, my concern is what firmware am I suppose to use? The only one I have seen that matches is the BH16NS40-NS50 firmware, but I dont believe that is what my drive is. At least I dont see the NS50 anywhere is system information.

Recommended Firmware to flash for MakeMKV:

WH16NS40 on any Firmware directly to > WH16NS60 1.02MK

NS50 is implied... wouldn't be much of a guide if the specific recommendation resulted in a bricked drive. WH16NS60 1.02MK is recommended because it's faster & addresses the sleep bug.

Sleep Bug:

All UHD Friendly drives have the sleep bug, this is when a UHD disk is left idle in the drive for 2 minutes. Once the drive goes to sleep, the UHD Friendly drive will no longer be able to read the disk without opening and closing the disk tray and will make horrible seeking noises until this is done.

Sleep Bug Fix:

To fix the sleep bug on a UHD Friendly drive flash firmware from an UHD Official drive like WH16NS60 DE 1.00 or 1.01MK

if I am not mistaken I have to side load LG WH16NS60 1.02MK to by pass the firmware checks in the 1.05 code?

True of any of the recommended FWs. The fact that you are starting from a known encrypted FW is he key point...

As the v1.05 (you don't mention drive model) is encrypted, your tool options are command line, or SDFtool Flasher (Windows only).

[MovieMan88]

Its an LG BH16NS40 drive, my concern is what firmware am I suppose to use? The only one I have seen that matches is the BH16NS40-NS50 firmware, but I dont believe that is what my drive is. At least I dont see the NS50 anywhere is system information.

Recommended Firmware to flash for MakeMKV:

WH16NS40 on any Firmware directly to > WH16NS60 1.02MK

NS50 is implied... wouldn't be much of a guide if the specific recommendation resulted in a bricked drive. WH16NS60 1.02MK is recommended because it's faster & addresses the sleep bug.

Sleep Bug:

All UHD Friendly drives have the sleep bug, this is when a UHD disk is left idle in the drive for 2 minutes. Once the drive goes to sleep, the UHD Friendly drive will no longer be able to read the disk without opening and closing the disk tray and will make horrible seeking noises until this is done.

Sleep Bug Fix:

To fix the sleep bug on a UHD Friendly drive flash firmware from an UHD Official drive like WH16NS60 DE 1.00 or 1.01MK

if I am not mistaken I have to side load LG WH16NS60 1.02MK to by pass the firmware checks in the 1.05 code?

True of any of the recommended FWs. The fact that you are starting from a known encrypted FW is he key point...

Tried to flash it with MK file: HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin and got a Updating failure #5

Using the modified ASUS ODD FW Changer

As the v1.05 (you don't mention drive model) is encrypted, your tool options are command line, or SDFtool Flasher (Windows only).

[MovieMan88]

I also tried using the SDFTool but that cannot locate the OCW USB external drive, dont know how I can be so confused on what seems like such a simple task.

[d00zah]

Tried to flash it with MK file: HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS60-1.02-NM00100-211810291936.bin and got a Updating failure #5

Using the modified ASUS ODD FW Changer

You read right past this note... TWICE. Using the modified ASUS ODD FW Changer CAN'T work when starting from an encrypted FW...

As the v1.05 (you don't mention drive model) is encrypted, your tool options are command line, or SDFtool Flasher (Windows only).

Newer OEM Firmwares and encrypted:

New Encrypted firmware
List of Know Encrypted firmware (so far, any firmware with date in 2020 is encrypted)

HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BH16NS40-NS50-1.05-N000600-212005061331.bin
HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_WH16NS40-NS50-1.05-N000900-212005061440.bin

I included the link to the MacOS command line instructions 'cuz that's the sub-forum you're posting in, but as you are using Windows... you MUST use the SDFtool Flasher (it's a link) w/ 'enc' checked.

[d00zah]

I also tried using the SDFTool but that cannot locate the OCW USB external drive, dont know how I can be so confused on what seems like such a simple task.

This OWC enclosure?

USB enclosures/sata adapters that work with optical drives and flashing:

OWC Mercury Pro 5.25 case

If not, are you able to temporarily connect the drive internally?

& this model OWC enclosure should probably be added to the list.

USB enclosures/sata adapters that work with optical drives but don't support flashing:

SDFTool w/ 'enc' checked?

If you selected WRITE:

• Click the second drop down box to select a firmware to flash.

• Check the "enc?" checkbox only if your drive has an encrypted firmware on it (see list of encrypted firmware below).

You can now press the START button to flash the selected firmware to your drive. Once the firmware has been flashed successfully, the application will refresh the drive list shown in the drop down box.

[MovieMan88]

I also tried using the SDFTool but that cannot locate the OCW USB external drive, dont know how I can be so confused on what seems like such a simple task.

This OWC enclosure?

USB enclosures/sata adapters that work with optical drives and flashing:

OWC Mercury Pro 5.25 case

If not, are you able to temporarily connect the drive internally?

& this model OWC enclosure should probably be added to the list.

USB enclosures/sata adapters that work with optical drives but don't support flashing:

SDFTool w/ 'enc' checked?

If you selected WRITE:

• Click the second drop down box to select a firmware to flash.

• Check the "enc?" checkbox only if your drive has an encrypted firmware on it (see list of encrypted firmware below).

You can now press the START button to flash the selected firmware to your drive. Once the firmware has been flashed successfully, the application will refresh the drive list shown in the drop down box.

I have the OCW Mercury Pro, yes. That Is why I used this thread to get an answer. Hoping that would work. This enclosure has the LG BH16NS40 and the SDFTool does not recognize any drive exists. I am running Windows 10 64bit.