Re/ Mark_J's comment: The firmware itself is not disk specific, but model specific. If you have a model ABC123XYZ, there will be a firmware package for that model, and it can be downloaded to any disk of that model. The disk-specific information (as you said: track and sector locations, bad block maps, SMART, but even more importantly zone mapping) is stored in similar places on the drive, but is not part of the firmware. However, that information may be stored on the same physical media (chip or ... see below), so replacing the flash chip may wipe out two things.