Fresh OS install on OCZ SSD @r3

A few of us have had major issues getting our OCZ (and Kingston) SSD's to play nice with our r3's. Here's some background, which was originally discovered by Mandrake.

1. r3's are shipping with SATA set to RAID in bios, even with only 1 HDD present.
2. OCZ's sandforce SSD's typically ship with extremely old firmware. You need to update this firmware before installing OS. This can only be done within windows, and only on slave drives. EDIT: any firmware before 1.29 can result in you experiencing what OCZ refers to as "Time Warp" (you lose all info stored on drive since last boot - happens at random). 1.29 decreases likelihood of this happening, but does not eliminate the possibility.
3. If you boot in RAID with HDD + SSD, windows does not detect the SSD (because it's not in the array).
4. If you boot in AHCI or ATA, you BSOD
5. Attaching SSD via SATA-to-USB = OCZ toolbox does not detect it
6. RST versions before 10.x do not work with HM67 chipset. RST 10.x will cause your r3 to crash whenever the drive on port 1 (2nd slot) is accessed. This means NO RAID via RST. See my post @OCZ for details. Issue currently outstanding with no intent to fix in the near future. OCZ says intel is re-writing RST for rev b3 anyway, so they won't even look at it until then.

So, how are you going to update this SSD? If you have a desktop, or a different notebook with 2 HDD bays, you're in luck - try that first! Otherwise, follow these simple 50 steps.

EDIT: Alternate - easier - method here - requires eSATA (by San Diego 7697)

1. Backup any files you want to keep
2. Download the r3 chipset and wireless/ethernet drivers (link later) and put them on a disk or usb. It's also a good time to grab the rest of the drivers.
3. Start -> F2 to enter bios -> Advanced -> Change SATA from "RAID" to "AHCI". Insert Windows7 OEM disk. Save & Exit (F10)
4. F12 to select boot device. Pick CD/DVD/BD. Re-install windows on the HDD
5. Once in windows, install chipset drivers & unpack the wireless drivers. Copy the directory wireless was unpacked to. (for some reason, dell decided against including an exe with this driver set)
6. run Device Manager, find Unknown Wireless Device, right click, update...
7. paste unpacked wireless driver directory and watch it install. Restart computer.
8. Run OCZ toolbox as administrator -> select drive -> security tab (I think) -> Update Firmware. toolbox will connect to webwebs and update. Turn off your r3 when this is completed.
9. remove HDD from slot 0, replace with SSD, move HDD to slot 1 [is this step necessary?]
10. Power your system, F12 if required to boot from CD
11. Erase OS from HDD, install on SSD
12. Victory

Thank you Mandrake for posting your experience with Vertex LE. My issue was with Vertex 2. This issue exists for all OCZ sandforce SSD.

 

After a Scary Firmware OCZ Vertex 2 update (was already the Primary drive). The next couple of times (on different systems, I put the SSD in an eSata dockng station went through the process of initializing the drive (from the Win 7 OS running a Raid 0) then used the OCZ toolbox to update the firmware.

After that the SSD was good to go for what I wanted to do with it (in my case I was switching from Raid 0 to SSD non Raid) i.e performed a clean install

 

I'm in a similar situation.

My R3 came with a single, magnetic hard drive. I already had an OCZ Vertex2 before I even ordered the PC, so I figured to installed Windows 7 fresh on that and pull the original hard drive from the R3 and hang onto it in case I ever need to send the R3 to the factory.

I read Mandrake's article, and so last night I installed the Vertex2 in the second hard drive bay (1) and fired up the OS as usual on my primary, original drive, and then installed the OCZ toolbox.

It was at this point I ran into a problem: the OCZ Toolbox would not detect the Vertex2 even though it was right there in device manager. After some research, I found that apparently the OCZ Toolbox doesn't work with the Intel version 10 drivers. Uninstalling the drive from device manager didn't help, for as soon as I launched the toolbox again, Windows would load the drivers and detection of the drive by the toolbox would fail once more.

There is apparently an extremely convoluted way to use a Linux boot environment to maybe successfully run the firmware update, but I am not feeling up to that task right now.

Has anyone else run into this problem? And have you been able to solve it? The instructions above seem to be an extension of those Mandrake already mentioned.

Thanks for any help that you can provide.

 

That's exactly what happened to Mandrake and I. Follow the steps I laid out and you'll be golden - and yes, the above steps are based on what Mandrake posted. My goal was to silly-proof them (because I read what drake posted and still couldn't get it working for 2 hours).

 

kunekaden,

Your instructions seem to indicate that I need to reinstall Windows on the original hard drive? I'm sorry if I'm not understanding them clearly. Head cold today and my brain is fogged.

If that's the case, that's not an option for me. I wish to keep my original hard drive intact if I can at all. Basically as a fallback in case things go wrong with all my plans for the R3.

I suppose I can image the original hard drive, but am I correct in my reading of your instructions? I'm looking at clean installs of Windows on both the original hard drive and then the SSD once I can actually update the firmware?

 

If you want to do it with your existing drive you much first go through the process of switching from a RAID to AHCI. The instructions are documented here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...-switch-irrt-ahci-mode-e6400-e6500-vista.html

Note: I never tried these instructions to validate them.

 

That's what I'm saying, yes.
Nice link, Mandrake. I wonder if it really works.

 

Mandrake,

Thanks for the link. I did try the MS portion of the fix—modifying the registry key—but as with the original poster in that thread, it didn't work.

Unfortunately, that post details a chipset other than the one we have in the R3, so I've no idea what the registry key and hex code are for our chipset to make the extra changes he details.

Looks like I'm stuck for now and will have to look into that unwieldy Linux boot solution I found yesterday.

 

I'm assuming you want to keep the files on your OS partition of momentus slim?

 

Yes, I want to keep the Momentus pretty much as is, only using it to prep the Vertex2 for use as my main drive. I got the cheapest OS (Home Premium) with the R3 since I'm a TechNet subscriber and plan to use Ultimate going forward.

However, should it need to go back to the factory, I can pull my Vertex2, put the original back, and that way my data is safe and I don't get a computer back without my expensive SSD.

Looking in more detail at the Linux method, I'm not even sure that one will work either. The fact that it wants to have internet access in that limited boot environment worries me, as I'm skeptical that the drivers for the NIC in the Linux environment will work with the R3.

However, I'll attempt it anyhow.

I'll report back after I try it sometime this weekend.

 

No other spare hard drive to use?

 

Not that isn't being used elsewhere. Heh.

And I did get the firmware flashed with the Linux process I linked in a previous post. Right now installing Windows 7 Ultimate.

There was a network hiccup as I feared, but I moved past it quickly and will detail my solution soon.

 

Why not find a spare drive? You can buy them new for $50-100 and used for $30-70 so it's not much if you want to keep the factory drive the exact way it is and still be able to use the 2nd hdd for storage.

 

I'll be ordering a second hard drive for data, but wanted to get the OS installed on the SSD quickly.

I'm writing this from the Windows 7 Ultimate install on the Vertex2, but I am having trouble with the 460M driver as others have reported. But I'll discuss that in one of the other threads. Don't want to drag this one off-topic.

The two issues I encountered with the Linux firmware update were one quite minor and the other as I expected: no driver for the wired NIC.

The first problem was that the Vertex2 did not show up in the list of mountable drives. However I was able to guess its drive identifier was sdb since the Momentus was sda and the flash drive with the update utility was sdc.

The NIC issue took a bit longer, but the solution came fairly easily as well. I did a bit of looking in the menu and found an app for the wireless, and sure enough, it was seeing all my SSID, meaning that it did have a driver for the Intel 6300, so I put in the encryption passphrase and had internet. The firmware update took seconds.

Now to clear of the last niggling problems with the 460M and this system should run beautifully.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the link to go to for the drivers (at least for the video) at laptopvideo2go or something like that?

 

Ok, installed my OCZ SSD and all's good, but when I go to run the toolbox to update the firmware I get "Firmware update is not supported on primary drive"

Any ideas? Should I swap the HDD and SSD out?

 

That's exactly why I posted this guide.
You either need to update firmware while the drive is not the primary drive or go through a convoluted process using a linux boot to update.

 

Well I don't have it as my primary drive.

 

Is your operating system installed on it?

 

I followed your guide - only thing is, I kept my HHD as primary (it's got my OS on it) and had the SSD in my secondary bay.

 

Then I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for you. I won't pretend to be an expert where I am not.

try asking for help here. Though, be careful, the 'staff' is generally rude. Make sure to fill out all of your system info and give as much other info as possible.