How do I find out what the firmware update for?

[Danielx64]

I asked this on Western Digital forums but the only reply that I got was useless really so i'm posting here in the hope that someone can help me out.

 

I'm trying to find some information about what the new firmware fixes for my external harddrive.

I taken a look athttp://support.wdc.com/download/notes/Win_Univ_FW_Updater_Release_Notes_v3.2.5.1.pdf?v=7762 and I don't see my drive listed. My drive is a My Passport Ultra Metal Edition 10th anniversary edition. I see  "My Passport Ultra" listed but I an not sure.

 

Thank-you 

[DevTech]

What is your objective?

 

If you want to update the drive, click on the "Update Firmware" button.

 

If you are concerned you will get the wrong firmware, that just doesn't happen with any modern hardware - after too many disasters, firmware update software started to check versions before offering to proceed many years ago. If the button is clickable it is either the right firmware or there will be a check after you click it.

 

I can't guess about all the possible ways that things can fail, but firmware update software by major manufacturers in 2016 is very careful about delivering the right firmware. Of course all modern software has bugs due to the internet driven lifecycle of speed speed speed so even updater software can have bugs.

 

Your "metal edition" is just crazy modern marketing at its best or at its worst depending on where the Point-of-View gun is aimed...

 

[Danielx64]

2 hours ago, DevTech said:

What is your objective?

 

My objective is to find what what the firmware update fix/add. Just like I can find out what the motherboard BIOS update does when I apply it (example add support for a new CPU that been released).

[DevTech]

2 minutes ago, Danielx64 said:

My objective is to find what what the firmware update fix/add. Just like I can find out what the motherboard BIOS update does when I apply it (example add support for a new CPU that been released).

Oh that's easy. The update fixes stuff.

 

Those motherboard BIOS lists - they meet some psychological objective maybe but on a typical update there are a ton of changes that are never listed. Until the day all of this is open source and we have access to their GitHub to see a detail code diff, it will always be a mystery why some crucially important fixes never even make it onto those readme files.

 

No point in spending any time looking for an update list that is for sure going to be missing some of the things that were updated.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

I have never had a problem with firmware updates from WD.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I would say before updating the firmware, have a backup of whatever is on that drive, if it's your only copy of something.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

If you cannot find the changelog for what the firmware updates on Western Digital's web site, contact their technical support and ask them to send you the URL to it, or a document containing the info.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky