Couple of Questions about updating C300 Firmware.......

Firstly, sorry if this has already been covered....Just tryin' to be ultra careful with the install of my first SSD so I thought I would ask the Guru's of SSD!

Just got my 256gb C300 and its Rev. 0006 with 0007 being the latest. The drive is brand new and not used at all. I have read the instructions on Crucial's site and have downloaded and burnt the .iso image for 0007 to disc ready to flash the firmware.

Here's where you guys can maybe help me out. My laptop has two HDD bays and currently the second bay is empty. I plan on clean installing the OS to the SSD when ive done the firmware. My qyestions are:

1. Can firmware be flashed from the second hdd position or does it need to be in the primary position?

2. Currently, (and dont ask me why it shipped like this) but I have RAID enabled in bios - I have to do this firmware in IDE/ATA mode (I believe)....will my current HDD boot in this mode?

3. What steps do I need to do to use my existing HDD in the secondary bay once this is all done?

Any help much appreciated.
Thanks!

 

Primary or Secondary does not matter for SATA they are essentially the same just given names in bios.

If your not going to use RAID you should turn it off but it takes more than one drive to use RAID so not sure how you can have it enabled if you only have one drive in.

Just install the 2nd drive and if its already been formatted windows will just pick it up as a extra drive for use in windows.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

Well, deffo only have one drive in atm, been into bios several times and sata operation is set to RAID....I believe Dell were having some issues maybe at production level with this as some people were getting their orders messed up....those who ordered a raid config were getting w/out...maybe mine came "vice-versa"

Before I do the SSD, would changing sata operation to AHCI mean that my current HDD with OS wont boot? - would it do any harm to just try it out of curiosity?

Oh, and whilst on the subject of this, I should install my OS to my SSD in AHCI mode, right? - just wondering about how that will affect the current HDD format for the second drive....would I have to reformat it?

 

RAID and AHCI are effectively the same as i recall. I have a RAID running on my desktop for my data partition (RAID 0) and a Vertex 2 installed on the same controller. It runs fine at rated speed. I think you will be fine switching RAID to AHCI. Easy way to check...switch to AHCI in BIOS and try to boot. it won't boot properly if it isn't compatible. In such a case just switch back. If you are only going to use the old drive to pull data off of, it will run fine in any mode.

That said, you have 2 drives, and one is a SSD. You won't be using RAID, so you might as well do the install to the SSD in AHCI.

 

Cheers....yeah, I have no idea why it shipped with RAID in Bios....weird....anyway, I have changed it to AHCI and its booted just fine. When I come to install the OS, I will install under AHCI but I think I need to flash this firmware under ATA/IDE mode according to Crucial's instructions.

I will probably put the current 750gb HDD in the secondary bay and format it to use as blank storage (currently has OS on it and I wont need two disks with OS lol)

So, I think it is gonna be:

1. Pull current drive and install SSD under ATA to flash firmware
2. Change back to AHCI and install OS to SSD in primary bay
3. Install old HDD in secondary bay and format.

Should be set then.....

 

I believe the firmware update instructions say you "may" need to change to IDE mode.

I have updated the firmware of both of mine in AHCI mode without problem.

 

You got it right on, that is just what I did on my l702x and M4. You might not need to change mode for the flash, but honestly it takes less time to change it from the get-go than it would to try without and then fight possible issues later. I flashed in ATA mode, which is what the BIOS on my system calls IDE...probably the same on the M18x.

 

Well,

With my current HDD now set to AHCI, I thought I would see if I could change it to ATA but she wont boot.

If I pull my HDD out, stick the SSD in and power on simply to enter bios....is it possible/will it work to change to ATA mode then?

 

No, you don't change to ATA from AHCI and see if it boots.

You simply change to ATA mode and flash the firmware from the bootable media (CD/DVD/USB key) you created.

Then, change back to AHCI mode with the updated firmware installed.

Good luck.

 

Thanks for the advice. Much appreciated.

 

Glad I guessed right about where you were 'stuck'.

Hope it goes smoothly for you now.

 

Tiller's got you covered. Just pull the spinner, put in the SSD, switch BIOS to ATA and update FW. Then switch BIOS to AHCI, install Windows. Then you can put the old spinner in at any point afterwards.

You saw that your old drive would not boot in ATA. That is as expected, the driver needs to be added to Windows for that to work. But don't worry about it, just do the clean install on the SSD and enjoy!

 

Thanks again guys! - I will report back later once "mission accomplished" - now to go and download all my drivers