Question re: Upgrading Firmware on HGST Drives Branded as HP Drives (With HP-Specific Firmware)

Hardware Hub Storage
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So, here’s the short version:

  1. I had 8 HGST Ultrastar SAS2 SSDs in my system, with part number X.
  2. I wanted 8 more. I found some on eBay advertised as having the exact same part number. I bought them. They arrived.
  3. They’re branded on the outside as HP drives, with an HP part number, but have an OEM part number on the label that shows that they’re actually the same physical drives with the same exact part number as the group (1).
  4. They have an HP-specific (?) firmware–in any case, they have a different firmware verison than the first batch.
  5. They’re all healthy and show that they’ve barely ever been used (endurance remaining is at or near 100 percent), so I’m not wanting to replace them. (I’m also probably beyond the return window for reasons.)

Problem: The HP firmware drives misbehave in my Supermicro Server’s drive bays. The drives work and smartctl can see them, identify them, and report them as SMART STATUS: OK, but the persistent light on the drive caddy that’s supposed to stay solid green when the device is powered on and OK blinks when the system boots and the drives are detected, then goes dark. The activity light works.

This is purely aesthetic since I can check the drive status, but on the other foot, I like to be able to tell what’s going on with a system by looking at it–and I also can’t say for sure what else might be weird about HP firmware drives in a non-HP system. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume those were empty bays at a glance. Given the HP-firmware related horror stories I’ve read on here in other contexts, I’m not optimistic there won’t be more surprises later.

So. A couple questions:

  1. is there some reason I shouldn’t flash the actual HGST firmware on to these?
  2. If okay to flash, is there a n00b guide to this?

Most likely I’ll be flashing them under Windows 10, as I have a portable USB version of Windows on a USB stick set up for troubleshooting–that also has no issues outputting video over the IPMI VGA and recognizing my network adapters. I’ve run into issues with some Linux live ISOs not being able to get a stable ethernet connection to my LAN. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks!

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