(Need Help) Updating SSD Intel G2 in mac pro

[phildog33]

I have 2 Intel 80gb G2 ssds in my 2008 mac pro
they are both in the lower optical bay.. and striped in Raid 0.. connected to sata ports 1,2 on the MB

it works great, speed is phenomenal and backup every night to avoid Raid0 problems

so.... im trying to update the Intel Firmware that just came out for these drives
i made the ISO disc bootable and can boot into it.. the DOS screen opens and then says

"initdiskerror partition table 00"

i dont understand.. ive tried different cd readers.. with the boot disk in it.. each one will let me get into the dos prompt then it runs, and then the same error.. and wont continue

----

the same disc with the same SSDs, stripped in Raid0 in my macbook pro caused no problems.. updated firmware fine.. and speed went up definitely

p

 

[VirtualRain]

I recall when I updated the firmware in my G1 Intel drives, it could not update the firmware unless the drive was installed in bay 2-4. It would not work with a drive in Bay 1. Perhaps this is similar for the other on-board SATA connectors? Not sure if this is your issue or not, but it may be worthwhile trying to install one drive at a time in the machine in main drive bay 2.

 

[phildog33]

yeah ive got 4 1TBs internal and 8 more external all coming off an Areca Raid5 card.. so its a lot of moving stuff around... hoping not to.. if possible
p

 

[nanofrog]

yeah ive got 4 1TBs internal and 8 more external all coming off an Areca Raid5 card.. so its a lot of moving stuff around... hoping not to.. if possible
p

What about using an Express/34 SATA card with your laptop?

No need to touch the array that way.

 

[phildog33]

i can uninstall the HDs and move them into the laptop just for the firmware flash... but trying to avoid that
lots of unscrewing everything

ive got two perfect SSDs working in Raid0 in my macpro off the sata MB ports
if i cant update the firmware. i may just keep them as is

im getting

145mb write/ 389mb read

 

[VirtualRain]

i can uninstall the HDs and move them into the laptop just for the firmware flash... but trying to avoid that
lots of unscrewing everything

ive got two perfect SSDs working in Raid0 in my macpro off the sata MB ports
if i cant update the firmware. i may just keep them as is

im getting

145mb write/ 389mb read

I don't think there's much to gain from the FW update for the 80GB drives. The 160GB drives gained added sequential write speeds, but this wasn't trickled down to the 80GB drives. TRIM is the other featured added with the latest firmware but it's of no use in RAID and unsupported in OSX, so again, no point to update really.

 

[phildog33]

ok cool im not going to update then

i have 80gbs in my mac pro
and
160gbs in my macbook pro

i noticed a big speed boost from the 160gbs with updated firmware, in the laptop

the tower is gonna take a break then
p

 

[gugucom]

I got my Intel SSD update done as well. The first 160 GB G2 went without a hitch. It took a bit of time because I made a Winclone image before the update.

The Arc1210 array was a bit more work because I had to extract the SSDs physically from the ODD bay and fit them into HDD ports. Of course I lost the array and had to clone the image back from a HDD. I finally also upped the 160 GB G2 in the uMBP.

All together quite a bit of work but the next update to 10.6.2 went without a hitch.

 

[Transporteur]

I guess I will update my 160GB this weekend too. Haven't heard of drive failures due to the update yet, seems as if the update doesn't have any issues.

 

[gugucom]

If they are in an array on a RAID card all data will be erased. After the firmware update the array could not be rebuild. So it is vital to do a backup or a clone.

I don't know what happens when you have a SW array but I would make a guess it will also kill the array.

 

[Shazaam!]

I have a software array, one 80GB in the lower optical bay, one in the Drive 1 slot. I booted from the CD with no error message, and updated each Intel G2 SSD without loosing the array.

 

[gugucom]

Hm, one of the disadvantages of RAID cards then.