Warning about updating firmware in NewerTech Voyager Q

In addition to the firmware update process for the NewerTech drive dock GUID problem (see previous post) needing a few extra steps (see this post), it can also brick your dock (make it completely non-functional), even if you follow their instructions precisely.  Here's how:

You must have a drive inserted in the dock when doing the firmware update, as clearly stated by their instructions. What the instructions don't tell you is that the drive must NOT be mounted on the Windows system being used for the update.

Since my drives are normally formatted HFS+ (journaled) I probably would never have known, except for my using a still unformatted, but coincidentally DOA drive, to do my initial firmware updates.  Due to some other coincidental problems using one of the docks and my having noticed that the drive I'd used previously was DOA (it wouldn't even spin up), I tried formatting a new drive FAT 32 and carrying out the same procedure on the final NewerTech dock I needed to update.  The update failed, after wiping the firmware on the dock, officially turning it into a brick.  Actually, it went into a USB upload mode and awaited firmware flashing as if from scratch.  Fortunately, I was able to find out the flash vendor, type, speed, and burst read setting from another working Voyager device, and I was able to find the appropriate config_934DSB.txt file from the data installed with the firmware uploader app, and after switching back to the damaged, non-mounting disk, I successfully flashed the device's firmware and recovered it completely.  But it was scary and I was borderline clueless when I started that process.  It may be sufficient to unmount the drive (make it "safe to remove") before flashing, but I'm not going to try it.  If you use an unformatted or HFS+ formatted disk it shouldn't be an issue.

If you find yourself with a bricked drive dock, to recover, use the same Oxsemi Uploader.exe app that caused the problem.  Click "Select Flash" and enter the following values for the NewerTech Voyager Q [Vantec NexStar NST-D100UFS values in square brackets]:

• Flash Vendor:  Silicon Storage Technology
• Flash type:  SST39xF020 - 8 bit
• Speed:  70 ns [50ns]
• Enable burst read:  on [off]

Click "OK".  Then click "Upload/Upgrade Firmware".  At the first dialog, navigate to and select the "config_934DSB.txt" file (probably in C:\Program Files\Oxford Semiconductor\Oxsemi Uploader\Data\UF934DS).  [Use the "config_934DSA.txt" file for the Vantec.]  At the next dialog, select the firmware update file, per NewerTech's original instructions.  Let the upgrade finish, and you should have a functioning drive dock again.  Then follow the instructions in this post to actually change the GUID and you've finally solved the problem that started all this.