SSD firmware update before windows install?

craigyroberts

craigyroberts

craigyroberts

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28 Sep 2011
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Hi all,

Going to be building my first pc on Sunday :)
I have a 120GB Agility 3 SSD, do i need to update the firmware before the installation or can I do it once i have windows 7 installed?

Cheers,
Craigy
 
Slave it to another PC and update it if you can, before any data is written to it, best policy. Also, you can't update it if windows is running off of it as a boot drive, so you'll have to do the same anyhow. There are ways around that like boot discs etc.. but no bother if you have the drive out already.
 
Justintime said:
Slave it to another PC and update it if you can, before any data is written to it, best policy. Also, you can't update it if windows is running off of it as a boot drive, so you'll have to do the same anyhow. There are ways around that like boot discs etc.. but no bother if you have the drive out already.
Click to expand...

Ok, so just just plug it into my old pc and update it from there. Is it a simple process? My old pc is about 5 years old.
 
Justintime said:
http://www.ocztechnology.com/files/ssd_tools/OCZToolboxMPv3.01.11.zip

Thats the link to the firmware toolbox. unzip and run as administrator (important, as it would not detect the drive if not run as an admin). Your controller must be set to AHCI in the BIOS. What mainboard is in your older PC?
Click to expand...

These are my old pc specs:
2.80 gigahertz Intel Pentium D
Packard Bell BV Cuba MS-7301 1.0
Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 3

So just plug in, go to bios set to achi, then update via the ocz toolkit as admin?
 
Thing is, if the BIOS is set to IDE mode, then enabling AHCI will cause windows to blue screen on startup. Theres ways to get around this, however, before even doing that.. i'm dubious whether your board actually has AHCI capability.
Do you have a spare mechanical hard disk? Are you building a new PC? If so, i'd temporarily install Windows on the mechanical hdd (with the BIOS set to AHCI of course) and slave the SSD after windows is installed and update it. How old is the SSD? The latest Agility 3 i got a few weeks ago from OC had 2.15 already.
Also, what OS are you going to install? Windows 7 i presume?
 
Justintime said:
Thing is, if the BIOS is set to IDE mode, then enabling AHCI will cause windows to blue screen on startup. Theres ways to get around this, however, before even doing that.. i'm dubious whether your board actually has AHCI capability.
Do you have a spare mechanical hard disk? Are you building a new PC? If so, i'd temporarily install Windows on the mechanical hdd (with the BIOS set to AHCI of course) and slave the SSD after windows is installed and update it. How old is the SSD? The latest Agility 3 i got a few weeks ago from OC had 2.15 already.
Also, what OS are you going to install? Windows 7 i presume?
Click to expand...

Cheers for the advice, yeah I just went into the bios and it does not seem the motherboard has ahci capability. I bought the Agility 3 at the start of the month so hopefully its already 2.15? Any way I can check?
 
I bought mine roughly at the same time. Never tried this, but maybe hooking up the SSD to your board and running the toolbox might give you the information. Not sure if AHCI is needed for the actual detection, or just to update it. AS SSD - http://downloads.guru3d.com/AS-SSD-Benchmark-download-2569.html will display the firmware info.. Never tried any of this in XP mind you, i've never had an SSD on an XP machine :p so it might not work at all lol.
 
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Justintime said:
I bought mine roughly at the same time. Never tried this, but maybe hooking up the SSD to your board and running the toolbox might give you the information. Not sure if AHCI is needed for the actual detection, or just to update it. AS SSD - http://downloads.guru3d.com/AS-SSD-Benchmark-download-2569.html will display the firmware info.. Never tried any of this in XP mind you, i've never had an SSD on an XP machine :p so it might not work at all lol.
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Ok, "never tried this" doesnt sound too promising :). However is it worth checking or would you say to leave it? Is there anything i could do to mess it up by plugging it into my old pc?
 
Never say never, but i've hooked up a few Agility and Vertex 3 to an ancient P4 board with no issues to. Only difference was it was running 32 bit windows 7, same no AHCI etc..
 
Ok well I think I am going to wait until Sunday when I set it all up. Then if I do need to update I'll redo do it all. I have a OEM version of Windows 7 64 bit, does this mean I can install it twice on the same machine?
 
Like i said, if you have a mechanical, install it on that and check the firmware of your SSD after. You don't need to activate the key or even type it in during install. But yea, it'll reactivate fine if you do.
 
Justintime said:
Like i said, if you have a mechanical, install it on that and check the firmware of your SSD after. You don't need to activate the key or even type it in during install. But yea, it'll reactivate fine if you do.
Click to expand...

I don't have a mechanical drive spare as my parents will be having the old rig. However I think I'm going to take the ssd round my friends house to plus it in his pc as its newer and check on there.
Cheers for the advice, much appreciated!

Craigy
 
You could always do what I did, which is probably an easier solution, is to mount the SSD in your new PC, but before you install Windows, prepare a simple bootable Linux USB drive (on any PC you like), by following the instructions on the OCZ website here.

One advantage od using this method is that the correct BIOS will be automatically downloaded from the OCZ server and installed for you, so there is no danger of chosing the wrong one!

Another quick tip, although you don't say wht motherboard you are using in your new build, but on some models (such as the new Asus ones) it is also possible to update the motherboard BIOS to the latest version before installing windows by using something like the inbuilt Asus EX flash 2 utility.

Good luck anyway! :)
 
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Montala said:
You could always do what I did, which is probably an easier solution, is to mount the SSD in your new PC, but before you install Windows, prepare a simple bootable Linux USB drive (on any PC you like), by following the instructions on the OCZ website here.

One advantage od using this method is that the correct BIOS will be automatically downloaded from the OCZ server and installed for you, so there is no danger of chosing the wrong one!

Another quick tip, although you don't say wht motherboard you are using in your new build, but on some models (such as the new Asus ones) it is also possible to update the motherboard BIOS to the latest version before installing windows by using something like the inbuilt Asus EX flash 2 utility.

Good luck anyway! :)
Click to expand...

Hi

I'm upgrading to a gigabyte z68ap-d3 so not sure it will support what your saying. However I will have a look at the Linux os link. How a USB stick do you need? I have a 4gb one?
 
craigyroberts said:
Hi

I'm upgrading to a gigabyte z68ap-d3 so not sure it will support what your saying. However I will have a look at the Linux os link. How a USB stick do you need? I have a 4gb one?
Click to expand...

Hi,

It certainly shouldn't make any difference to upgrading your SSD Firmware, and yes, a 4Gb drive will be fine, so long as you use the 'simple' Linux version they suggest.

If your drive already has the latest Firmware version installed, it will advise you accordingly, and not try and overwrite the same version again, which is also quite handy!
 
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Montala said:
Hi,

It certainly shouldn't make any difference to upgrading your SSD Firmware, and yes, a 4Gb drive will be fine, so long as you use the 'simple' Linux version they suggest.

If your drive already has the latest Firmware version installed, it will advise you accordingly, and not try and overwrite the same version again, which is also quite handy!
Click to expand...

Just read the post, looks easy enough so I'm most probably going to follow the Linux route.
Cheers
 
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