is there a way - flashing a drive safely - backing up old firmware?

is there a way - flashing a drive safely - backing up old firmware?

i.e. i have a DVD drive and some firmware to flash it with. THe model
of firmware matches. My experience is that these things work. It's
my DVD drive and I have no reason to fear.

But i'm aware that they can fail, with bad repurcussions. (and maybe
if it were somebody else's DVD drive i'd do more to protect myself
against it going wrong). And just for the technical fun of it.

I'm wondering, if there are ways , and what the ways are - especially
a generic way / generic ways - to backup the firmware on the drive. So
that even if the wrong firmware was to be written onto the drive. The
old firmware could be put back on there..