The link wouldn't work for me earlier ... it is working now.  There is also a "nautilus" utility that can be used on Dell drives ... it will update ALL Dell drives, regardless of make/model ... keeps you from having to download a dozen different utilities.  Yes, that is why the update is failing:  Dell firmware cannot be updated with retail/generic firmware, and retail/generic firmware cannot be updated with Dell firmware.
I've got a 2950 III with 8 Fujitsu 146GB drives installed in a RAID 10 array. The first six drives are configured for use in a virtual disk with the last two drives configured for use as dedicated hot spares. OMSA describes the firmware version of these two drives as 0102. I ran the firmware update described here: [URL] The six drives in the virtual disk were all successfully upgraded to firmware version D80A. The two hot spares weren't attempted. I tried to run the installer again and the installer notes that the installed and packaged versions are both D80A, but OMSA says that the two hot spares are still at 0102. Is this expected behavior? Are hot spares treated differently? If so, can the firmware be updated as they are now or do I need to swap them into the virtual disk to do the upgrade?
2950 HDD D80A Firmware Upgrade for Dedicated Hot Spares