u/louij2

Firmware’s OEM (SN02) — standard Seagate firmware update fails, won’t take it.

Tried the F3 diag route over UART. Terminal works, get the F3 T> prompt fine, but anything security-related returns Diagnostic Port Locked. Reads but won’t act — looks like it wants a signed Seagate unlock.

Before I sink more time in: has anyone actually recovered OEM-locked Exos like these? Specifically —

• Master password level high vs maximum — did --security-erase work, or was the master cap set to max?
• Any way past the locked F3 port, or is that a hard wall without Seagate?
• Bulk approach that isn’t “RMA them one at a time”?

Not after data, just want them wiped and usable. Hundreds at stake so trying to figure out if this whole lot is salvageable or if I have locked bricks.

Recent upgrades to the homelab rack. Running 3x HP DL360 G9s with a combined ~600GB RAM across the fleet, handling virtualisation workloads. The new addition is a 12-bay hot swap NAS chassis from Alibaba running Unraid on a Ryzen 9 3900X with 128GB RAM, with an LSI 9305-16i running 12 * 4TB HDDs with 2 for parity. After years of suffering in a cramped 2U Chinese case I’ve got something proper for Unraid.

Also have an empty Dell PowerEdge 860 above for cable management and 3 Raspberry Pis tucked at the top handling lightweight tasks.

Networking post to follow, still more to share.