Samsung HD Firmware Update on a Mac?

I don't wish to disappoint you but those instructions are not for a Mac. They are for a PC.

Were I you I would get a different hard drive, but stay away from so-called "green" drives because they are a PITA.

You would need to try it by running Windows on your Mac.

"BTW, thanks for helping me to update my acronym dictionary with "PITA". For a minute there, I was about to stick my Samsung hard drive into a pocket bread sandwich..."

You are more than welcome for the acronym. 😁

I wish I could help you with the Samsung firmware update, but I'm not at all familiar with what needs to be done. If you want to try it via Windows then here are some alternatives for running it on the Mac:

Windows on Intel Macs

There are presently several alternatives for running Windows on Intel Macs.

1. Install the Apple Boot Camp software. Purchase Windows XP w/Service Pak2, Vista, or Windows 7. Follow instructions in the Boot Camp documentation on installation of Boot Camp, creating Driver CD, and installing Windows. Boot Camp enables you to boot the computer into OS X or Windows.

2. Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. Parallels is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.

3. VM Fusionand Windows XP, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7. VM Fusion is software virtualization that enables running Windows concurrently with OS X.

4. CrossOver which enables running many Windows applications without having to install Windows. The Windows applications can run concurrently with OS X.

5. VirtualBox is a new Open Source freeware virtual machine such as VM Fusion and Parallels that was developed by Solaris. It is not as fully developed for the Mac as Parallels and VM Fusion.

6. Last is Q. Q is a freeware emulator that is compatible with Intel Macs. It is much slower than the virtualization software, Parallels and VM Fusion.

Note that Parallels and VM Fusion can also run other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, OS/2, Solaris, etc. There are performance differences between dual-boot systems and virtualization. The latter tend to be a little slower (not much) and do not provide the video performance of the dual-boot system. See MacTech.com's Virtualization Benchmarking for comparisons of Boot Camp, Parallels, and VM Fusion. Boot Camp is only available with Leopard or Snow Leopard. Except for Crossover and a couple of similar alternatives like DarWine you must have a valid installer disc for Windows.

You must also have an internal optical drive for installing Windows. Windows cannot be installed from an external optical drive.

You absolutely do not need Windows to apply the update. What those instructions are telling you is how to burn a bootable FreeDOS CD with the updater. Having done that, you boot the CD and apply it. One of the comments on the page has a link to a page (in German) from which you can download a pre-made bootable image. Burn it in Disk Utility, boot from it, and follow the directions. I can't vouch for its validity, but that's the idea.

The only way to find that out is to try it. Remember, I'm not telling you this disc will correctly update your firmware, or for that matter, that it won't destroy the drive completely. Don't even consider using it unless you have at least two independent backups of all data on all connected drives.

You can burn the ISO to flash memory, your Mac can boot from USB flash cards.

And always remove all drives except the one you want, and have backed up data 2x at least.

When there was trouble with Seagate firmware 7200.11s a lot of people had to update the drive firmware, so look around for threads and stories.

Linux CDs are common for doing such tasks.