OCZ has been working closely with SandForce and they have provided us with a new firmware drop (2.08) that addresses a number of the outstanding issues. We are recommending that all customers update to this latest firmware. We encourage any customers that are experiencing any issues to please come directly to us, and if you have any issues updating also come to us and we will be happy to support you. We can also continue to confirm that the OCZ SSD proprietary hardware design does not exhibit any of the hardware issues observed on other competitor drives and we thank all our valuable customers and are committed to providing timely updates and continuing to address this and any issues head on.
FW 2.08:
New version of Toolbox as well:http://www.ocztechnology.com/files/s…lbox_v2_37.zip
I recommend you reboot after flashing the firmware and you now also have to reboot after doing a Secure erase.
This is VERY important.
We look to have found a bug with secure erase with 2.06 and 2.08, its simple to work around but you need to be specific when you run an SE.
When you SE a drive, it needs to complete a cycle to properly complete the SE. That cycle can either be a power off then power on, or a reboot of the machine you SE’d on. The important part here is that it is on the same machine, you don’t want to SE, then power off, then move the drive.
So, if you boot into Windows or Linux and SE, once the SE is done, simply reboot back to that same OS before you start installing Windows or moving the drive to another machine (if you had to switch machines).
so windows..:
1 run SE on the drive as spare with toolbox
2 once complete, reboot back to the same boot drive with the ssd still connected as a spare
3 check SE has wiped the drive
4 if drive is clean, power off, remove OS drive and install to SSD normally (although my method is fool proof as everything gets loaded in the correct order) make sure to run WEI after all drivers and power options in windows are set, this is most important.
DO NOT:
Run SE then unplug and attach to another platform
You do this, you will password lock the drives and there is no way back without an RMA
Within Linux:
1 boot to live CD
2 Run HDparm secure erase
3 once confirmed, close HDparm, reboot back to the same linux CD
4 check HDparm sees the ssd BUT it should not show as a drive on the desktop as its not partitioned
5 if all is ok power off, remove Linux live CD and install OS normally
These are my recommendations to ensure things are clean. You do not HAVE to follow any of this, this is just how I insure a level playing field on my installs and SE’s.
If you just want to update the drive and not reinstall:
Boot into Windows with the SSD as a secondary (if you are using the Toolbox).
Open toolbox and update the drive.
Close toolbox
Go to Start > restart the computer
Boot back into the same Windows install (do not boot to the SSD).
After you get to desktop, you can then shutdown and boot back to the SSD.
If you want to go fresh after this update:
Boot into Windows with the SSD as a secondary (if you are using the Toolbox)
Open Toolbox and SE the drive
Close toolbox
Restart the computer back into the same Windows install.
Open Toolbox and update the Firmware
Close Toolbox
Restart the computer back into OS.
After desktop, you can shutdown and then begin OS install to SSD.