Today is September 18, 2021. As the Mid-Autumn Festival is coming, we are about to push the advance announcement in the coming update as a gift for you!So we start to preview the key upgrade content of next MRT update.

First of all, we need to clarify a concept, in the upgrade of MRT, the main play is mainly focused on three sections: Seagate, Western Digital, Data Explorer.The update content is also launched in these three sections!

Seagate part, key words -- optimization and enhancement.

In version 2.1.6.1 MRT brings some important firmware unlocking support for new models or families. Let's review:

8C family (LX015 SSHD) firmware unlocking

A2 family (NM0007 and NM0127) firmware unlocking

AE Family (ST1000LM049) firmware unlocking and virtual boot

B2 family (ST4000VX005) Firmware unlocking and virtual boot

B5 family (NM000A 8T) firmware unlocking

The information gathered from the current view, a new model of Seagate and large capacity can get a very good support from the existing Seagate support list, in addition to part of A2, B5 families of model can not be unlocked.We also hope that users can communicate more with us, especially when you are handling this type of drives,which are not supported to unlock firmware.

Recently, we collected a model belonging to AF family. The firmware version of this model is special and new, RGM1, and the ROM cannot be read directly and unlocked.Here is a reminder,it is not MRT that does not support, but Seagate's new mechanism.Because the hard disk belongs to the mobile hard disk, it is not easy to directly obtain the hard disk for research.We hope those users, who have the same type of hard disk, can contact us.Thank you very much!

Back to the update, the main focus of this update is to support MCMT parsing and 58 family support for P-list.The most troublesome problem with the popular Seagate mobile hard drive family, currently mainly the AF family, is the reconstruction of the 241A failure. Note That data in this faulty hard disk cannot be recovered once translator regeneration has been done. According to the research, the crux of the problem is still the MCMT mechanism.Such a hard disk should not directly be performed with translator regeneration command!

In the past six months, we have received a lot of negative comments about the function of adding defects to defect table. In addition to optimizing the function of adding G-list, this update will also support the common models of the 58 family to add P-list, making refurbishment easier to realize.

Western Digital part, key words - extraordinary upgrade: firmware unlocking.

As early as in 2018-19, WD's mainstream mobile hard disk series began to introduce models with 800xx series PCB numbers, mainly focusing on 800041-USB (800022-SATA),800067-USB (800065-SATA),and 800069-USB (800066-SATA).Later, it gradually updated the new PCB number such as 800077, 810011, 810003, 810013, 810035 and so on.One of the biggest problems with these hard drives is the firmware lock, which causes a lot of headaches for engineers.

For this firmware lock, we officially announce a major progress, MRT  after one year, after studying part of the PCB number, finally achieved the firmware unlocking with the locked PCB without the need of unlocked PCB.

In order to cooperate with the unlocking process, the handshake function of the serial port will refer to Seagate's unlocking handshake. For this purpose, we adjusted the family panel and added "handshake unlock", as shown below:  

 For the follow-up PCB support, we will continue to make efforts, please look forward to it!As for the new family, we also support some PCB numbers this time to facilitate you to deal with firmware. 

Another problem for WD is the 190 problem. The failure of this module often leads to the loss of data, and in most cases, the total data is almost lost.In view of this problem, our research direction is to determine 190 items, only after the items are resolved, it is possible to recover the data.

Data Explorer section, keywords - RAW scan support for more file formats.

The main purpose of this update is to strengthen the support of RAW scan. The RAW scan function has always been the weak point of MRT DE module, and usually requires the use of tools like Rstudio for data recovery. This update will further enhance the function.

The last thing you care about must be SSD.

Objectively speaking, the research progress of SSD has slowed down. The WD firmware unlocking mentioned above is the result of concentrating all the power of MRT. MRT will gradually increase its investment in SSD, and the focus will start to shift to SSD.The research on SSD is still on SM2258XT, which has a wide range of applications and a wide range of product solutions.We sincerely accept the criticism for the poor support of the MRT's existing SSD functions. We will continue to invest more energy to research, optimize and strengthen it!