New SSD not recognized by OCZ Toolbox

Hi all, (issue resolved)

I've got a new 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD I'm trying to install but have run into a snag at the start. I had some reservation about getting the Vertex 3 but decided to give it a shot. I have a G73SW-A1. My plan was to remove the 2nd hard drive (non OS drive) and put the Vertex 3 in its place so that I could run the OCZ Toolbox and update the firmware if needed. As most probably know, the Vertex 3 firmware can't be upgraded if the drive is OS drive. I was then going to remove the OS HD and put the SSD in its place and do a clean install of the OS. My problem is that after restarting with the vertex in place as the secondary drive, the Vertex 3 is not recognized by the OCZ toolkit. It says there is no OCZ technology drive found. All of the options are grayed out.

The Vertex 3 shows up in the BIOS and in the device manager and in Windows Explorer after I formatted it. It still will not show up in the OCZ Toolbox. I do have AHCi enabled in the BIOS.

I suppose if I can't get the Toolbox to recognize the drive my only option will be to put the Vertex 3 in place as the primary drive and go ahead and install the OS and see what happens. I might get lucky and the drive already has the current firmware. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on why the toolkit won't recognize the Vertex 3 I would appreciate them. Thanks.

Edit to add: Issue Resolved. See post #4.

 

Is your computer running the Intel RST drivers or just the default Microsoft ones? (iastor or msahci)

Whichever it currently is, try use the other one.

 

I have the same issue with my Vertex 2 (bought before I understood how much of a fail OCZ was). OCZ toolbox never recognized it. And the whole "can't update firmware on an active drive" bit is annoying. Intel and Crucial let you update and you don't even lose data...OCZ is long behind the curve on usability on their tools for sure.

All I can think of is namaiki's suggestion, but I have a feeling that isn't going to help you.

 

My issue is resolved. I couldn't get the Toolbox to recognize my OCZ Vertex 3 so I went ahead and just put it in as the primary drive and did a clean install of the OS. Once I had the OS installed, I COULD run the toolbox but only to see the firmware version (2.11 in my case} which is the most current I believe. I still can't run the update obviously but the drive is working ok at this point. Although, I have heard of some people who's drives were stable on 2.09 who now have issues with 2.11. I'm hoping mine remains stable on 2.11. Thanks to those that responded. From this thread and others, the general consensus appears to be that it is the RST drivers that cause the problem. I didn't see any of those responses before deciding to just go ahead and install the OS and see what happens. The outcome is the same since the drive was already upgraded to 2.11.