Patent ID: 8266611

Claim:
A hard disk drive (HDD) operable within a host, and comprising: a disk having a user data region adapted to store user defined data and a non-user data region storing physical information data associated with the HDD and a Disk Operating System (DOS) boot program; and a microprocessor configured to execute an algorithm, comprising: receiving a firmware download from the host, storing the firmware download to a first region of the disk, in response to completing the step of storing the firmware download to the first region of the disk: setting a download flag value, and generating a message to the host indicating a need for an OFF/ON power cycle, and following the OFF/ON power cycle: resetting Logical Block Address (LBA) mapping for a second region of the non-user data region storing the DOS boot program in response to the value of the download flag having been set, and controlling transfer of the firmware download from the first region to a third region of the non-user data region following execution of a boot procedure run by the host using the DOS boot program.