Hi there! I have an Mac Pro 3,1 (early 2008). I've configured the drives as follows:
-Intel X25-M 80 80 gb SSD drive in optical bay 1, connected via SATA port on motherboard: used exclusively for OSX (currently 10.6.1) and Apps
-Pioneer SATA optical drive in optical bay 1, connected via 2nd SATA port on motherboard
-HD Bays 1 & 2: two 1 TB drives, configured in a software striped RAID via Disk Utility
-HD Bay 3: 1.5 TB drive used for Time Machine
-HD Bay 4: clone of OSX & Apps for backup boot
My Intel SSD currently has firmware 8610. In reality, since it's primarily a read drive instead of a write drive, I haven't experienced any performance degradation. However, I still would like to update the f/w to 8820.
Following Intel's exact instructions, I downloaded the ISO image via Firefox instead of Safari. I then burned the ISO image onto a CD-R via Disk Utility.
Where I'm running into problems is that my system simply won't into the ISO image on the CD-R, no matter what I try. I simply get a white screen. I have tried to boot into the CD-R by: a) changing the start up drive in Sys Pref to the CD-R, b) keeping "C"" pressed down as I re-start, or c) keeping CMD-Shift-Option-Del pressed down as I re-start. Nothing happens. I do not get an Intel dialogue box.
My only thoughts on possible problems:
a) the Intel instructions said that Disk Utility would take about 5 minutes to burn the ISO image. However, it took me maybe 30 seconds. The image is only 3,000k or so, so it shouldn't take long at all. Could I possibly be doing something wrong here? (I doubt it).
b) The MacPro orignally came with an optical drive attached via ATA/ATAPI. I replaced it with a SATA optical drive. I've had no problems with that latter SATA drive - it reads and writes just fine. But might there be a problem with using a SATA optical drive as a boot drive?
c) could my mirrored RAID configuration, even if its on two non-SSD drives, be somehow impacting this?
That's all that I can think of. I anyone has any other ideas on what the possible problem might be, I'm all ears.
If the issue is #b, above, I'd also appreciate your thoughts if the following solution might work:
-I also have a 2007 MBP.
-I could buy a SATA to USB connector.
-Remove SSD drive from MP, connect it to USB Port on MBP via the connector
-Download ISO disk image from Intel; burn it to CD-R on MBP
-Boot from CD-R on MBP; update SSD firmware.
Thanks for your help!
-Intel X25-M 80 80 gb SSD drive in optical bay 1, connected via SATA port on motherboard: used exclusively for OSX (currently 10.6.1) and Apps
-Pioneer SATA optical drive in optical bay 1, connected via 2nd SATA port on motherboard
-HD Bays 1 & 2: two 1 TB drives, configured in a software striped RAID via Disk Utility
-HD Bay 3: 1.5 TB drive used for Time Machine
-HD Bay 4: clone of OSX & Apps for backup boot
My Intel SSD currently has firmware 8610. In reality, since it's primarily a read drive instead of a write drive, I haven't experienced any performance degradation. However, I still would like to update the f/w to 8820.
Following Intel's exact instructions, I downloaded the ISO image via Firefox instead of Safari. I then burned the ISO image onto a CD-R via Disk Utility.
Where I'm running into problems is that my system simply won't into the ISO image on the CD-R, no matter what I try. I simply get a white screen. I have tried to boot into the CD-R by: a) changing the start up drive in Sys Pref to the CD-R, b) keeping "C"" pressed down as I re-start, or c) keeping CMD-Shift-Option-Del pressed down as I re-start. Nothing happens. I do not get an Intel dialogue box.
My only thoughts on possible problems:
a) the Intel instructions said that Disk Utility would take about 5 minutes to burn the ISO image. However, it took me maybe 30 seconds. The image is only 3,000k or so, so it shouldn't take long at all. Could I possibly be doing something wrong here? (I doubt it).
b) The MacPro orignally came with an optical drive attached via ATA/ATAPI. I replaced it with a SATA optical drive. I've had no problems with that latter SATA drive - it reads and writes just fine. But might there be a problem with using a SATA optical drive as a boot drive?
c) could my mirrored RAID configuration, even if its on two non-SSD drives, be somehow impacting this?
That's all that I can think of. I anyone has any other ideas on what the possible problem might be, I'm all ears.
If the issue is #b, above, I'd also appreciate your thoughts if the following solution might work:
-I also have a 2007 MBP.
-I could buy a SATA to USB connector.
-Remove SSD drive from MP, connect it to USB Port on MBP via the connector
-Download ISO disk image from Intel; burn it to CD-R on MBP
-Boot from CD-R on MBP; update SSD firmware.
Thanks for your help!
