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Which SSD is the most mac friendly?

C

chupacabra31

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 6, 2011
58
0
I just returned an OCZ Agility 2 that I had installed in an opti-bay. Unfortunately I could not update the firmware.

When you take the optical drive out and put it in a USB enclosure the optical drive behaves differently and is no longer a bootable device (restarting and holding option or C).

You also can't seem to be able to use a USB flash drive as well.

Just wondering if there is a manufacturer out there that offers an OSX firmware updater that does not require windows and bootcamp (I just cant afford another operating system just to update firmware).

I was thinking OWC, but apparently there solutions require you to boot into windows using bootcamp. Funny, because they offer the data doubler. I guess the only solace with them is that they say they haven't needed to update the firmware of the Mercury Extreme pro 3g for over a year.

The whole reason I had to return the OCZ is that I was using it as a scratch disk in CS5 and it was giving me a pinwheel doing the simplest of tasks (working with low resolution images, never happened before with the traditional hdd).
 
To some extent they all require Windows. I know with Intel, however, you can update the firmware by burning a DVD/CD and booting. But in order to do a secure erase of the SSD you would need to have Windows.

Also, if you get an Intel 320 series SSD, make sure to run the firmware update like as soon as possible. Recovering from a Bad Context 13x error is a pain in the ass, as it requires a secure erase from a Windows computer.
 
treestar said:
I believe he/she meant he/she could not use their SuperDrive in an external enclosure to run the OCZ firmware update disc.
Click to expand...

Ah, okay. Well, I did update the firmware on my Intel 320 SSD today and hopefully things will continue well. Trying to decide if I want to put in another SSD or just remain traditional with the 7200 RPM Seagate. Decisions, decisions...
 
sapporobaby said:
Ah, okay. Well, I did update the firmware on my Intel 320 SSD today and hopefully things will continue well. Trying to decide if I want to put in another SSD or just remain traditional with the 7200 RPM Seagate. Decisions, decisions...
Click to expand...

Well I would probably not hesitate if you run bootcamp and windows, but if not, well...might want to wait apparently.
 
sapporobaby said:
Funny how my english is perfect but I took what you said literally. I tend not to infer. You know what they say about what happens when you assume. Do I need the finish it or can you figure out the rest?
Click to expand...

I hope your not offended by my comment. I was trying to point out in a humble way that I may not have presented my problem very clearly.
 
chupacabra31 said:
I hope your not offended by my comment. I was trying to point out in a humble way that I may not have presented my problem very clearly.
Click to expand...

My bad mate. Was having a bad day and took it out on you. It's all good.

In relation to your first post, had the same thing using a Corsair SSD. The problem might be the controller. Dumped it and went to Intel. No problems.
 
sapporobaby said:
My bad mate. Was having a bad day and took it out on you. It's all good.

In relation to your first post, had the same thing using a Corsair SSD. The problem might be the controller. Dumped it and went to Intel. No problems.
Click to expand...

No worries.

Yeah, I currently have the Intel 320 120gb as my main drive, seriously thinking about getting another, but I wish I could get it with the newest firmware somehow or get someone else to update the firmware for me.
 
Okay so the way the intel updater works is through a bootable ISO. What if I were to clone my current OS onto the new drive, before I install it, then take out the current intel drive, finally place the new drive back where the old intel drive was, then viola, I can use the bootable ISO CD to update the new drive.

When all done I can just reinstall the old hdd, place the new hdd in the hdd caddy, then use disk utility to erase it.

Would that work? Can I clone the drive using disk utility and have it be effective enough for this purpose?

Thanks!
 
The firmware updater doesn't affect your data in any way. It will all still be there. Nothing ever touches the file system. I updated my 320 firmware with a USB optical drive. I don't understand why you are bothering with backing up your OS and data.
 
treestar said:
The firmware updater doesn't affect your data in any way. It will all still be there. Nothing ever touches the file system. I updated my 320 firmware with a USB optical drive. I don't understand why you are bothering with backing up your OS and data.
Click to expand...

Because I could not boot an iso via the apple superdrive in an external enclosure that is USB powered from maxupgrades.

Which USB optical drive do you have? Maybe that is just the ticket. Thanks.
 
chupacabra31 said:
Because I could not boot an iso via the apple superdrive in an external enclosure that is USB powered from maxupgrades.

Which USB optical drive do you have? Maybe that is just the ticket. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Darn, I forgot to mention this as well. I have a non-Apple external optical drive that I use to "archive" DVD's and it will also function as a boot drive. I think it is a Samsung. Only cost 20 dollars or so. Maybe you can try this.
 
Turns out the OEM Apple optical drive in an external USB enclosure can read ISOs! Not sure what I did before, but I was able to update my Intel SSD using their firmware from a bootable ISO no problem.
 
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