FW Update FAIL! 1517 > 1916 > 2030

[craypold]

After a dozen or so repeated attempts upgrade the fw on my falcon I drive i have finally decided to start a new thread as the previous posts on the forum were little to no help whatsoever.

My problem: Cannot upgrade to FW 1916.

What I've done so far as per the .pdf instructions supplied with the FW 1916 update:
steps 1 and 2 are self explanatory:

Step 3: plug supplied jumper into the SSD and "install the ssd as main drive" (not sure what this means since it is already my main drive and plugged in to SATA port 0 on my MoBo) and boot computer. STOP, FAIL, CRASH and BURN!

My computer WILL NOT BOOT. loading into bios the drive identifies as YATAPDONG BAREFOOT-ROM (presumably, this tells me that the jumper is working as intended)

Questions:

1) if this update erases all data on the SSD how am i supposed to boot into windows on the SSD and run the update tool?

2) I have an XFX Force 780i MoBo. Can you provided detailed instructions on what setting(s) I need to complete this upgrade?

Cheers

System details are in my signature line.

[G.SKILL]

Hi craypold,

You have to backup all of DATA on another drive.
Upgrade to 1916 will erase all of DATA.
So you have to use another drive to boot into windows OS.
You can't boot windows from this SSD when you try to upgrade.
I know it is inconvenient.
I am sorry.

[metamorphoses]

i managed to update my 128GB Falcon I from v1819 straight to v2030 with no loss of data.

1). Create USB bootable stick with HP format utility and win98 files.

2). Copy all 6 files from FW2030.rar onto USB bootable disk.

3). Reboot PC/notebook

4). Enter Bios and set mode to IDE. ALso change boot order so that the USB stick is top of the list. Save and exit changes.

5). At the DOS prompt. Type in "DIR" without quotations. This will now list all files on the USB stick. At this point, you should only see the 6 files you previously copied over.

6). Type in relevant fw update command line at prompt eg. 128GB-1.exe (dont forget the .exe part)

7). The rest is rather self-explantory. The update process will prompt you where necessary.

[craypold]

Disaster! (Perhaps)

Hi Meta,

Alas, I have already attempted and failed with your suggestion. Although I am glad it worked for you.

Based on the last post from the Gskill crew I have:

1) purchased a separate HDD from a local store.

2) attempted to clone the SSD to the new spinner disk unsuccessfully. I have used the OEM Version of Acronis Disk whatzit and several others all without success.

3) currently I'm running a fresh install of windows on the new spinner hard disk, why? Well... let me tell you!

I installed a fresh copy of windows on a new disk because a) I had and extra copy of windows vista lying around after purchasing it for boot-camp on my macbook pro; which I never used. b) I though it would be faster than a full system restore from WHS. After setting up a dual boot configuration I booted to the new conventional HDD and attempted to update the FW and this is what happened.

I downloaded the FW 1916 update from Gskill and ran the utility from my 2nd windows install. The utility ran, then failed on the first option, I refreshed and ran it on the 2nd and 3rd options without success even though I followed the official Gskill instructions VERBATIM. Afterwards, I tried to use the clean function, the first option did nothing at all. The second, flashed a bunch of info on the cmd window then after what seemed like an eternity a popup window informed me that it failed like the first attempt. The third clean attempt was the same as the first. After all this screwing around I decided that all of this wasn't worth the hassle and I was just going to run original firmware and leave it alone. I shut down the system, removed the jumper from the disk and reboted the system. The SSD now is permanently in limp mode showing "YATAPDONG BAREFOOT-ROM" in the bios and my system will not boot at all from the SSD. I also cannot update the firmware using the newer 2030 update via the bootable USB and now I believe I have a dead disk on my hands. Thank god I backup regularly!

So, based on that, are there any more suggestions?

[metamorphoses]

damn I empathize with you.

it seems like the failed flash has corrupted the original firmware on your SSD. As such, it's stuck in limbo - unable to operate properly as no intact firmware remains and unable to update as the upgrade process most likely relies on the fact that it needs to recognize some sort of firmware on the SSD to update from in the first place.

i can only suggest you try my method again. I did not use the jumper at all (as per the g.skill official instructions). My Falcon is my primary OS boot drive; i didnt even bother cloning disks/installing windows on my 2ndary HDD/swapping out my OS boot drive etc.

I just made sure that my USB bootable stick (with the update files on it) was top of the BIOS startup list. My notebook booted straight into a Win98 DOS command, at which point i typed in the appropriate commands to start the upgrade process.

failing that, some guy made a youtube vid on the upgrade process....he did it all within Windows!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fl9ppwW3urI

[G.SKILL]

Hi craypold

We have released a new a way to replace windows system allows you to complete the firmware update .
http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=7171
With this tool, you also can updata firmware or clean the Falcon SSD.

[craypold]

Success, Sort of

Finally had some luck with the last method/post from Gskill.

1) Booted from CDROM and cleaned the disk as per post here:

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=7171.

As usual, I had to play around with it until I got it to work because of the broken english and ambiguous instructions from the gskill crew. What I ended up doing is running the "diskpart" utility which is listed under the "For Mac or not Windows files system user" in the post. This does not apply to me but it worked, so I'm not complaining. After the disc successfully cleaned I rebooted to windows on my spinner disk and....

2) ran the 1916 u/d utility. Success finally! Option 2 for 128GB drive.

(note: there was no jumper in the drive when I completed this since the drive was already permanently in limp mode from my previous failures)

the procedure is located here: http://gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=5171

I followed steps 1-8 located in the .pdf that accompanies the download.

3) rebooted a third time to USB drive and successfully flashed to 2030 with 128GB-2
option.

The link for this procedure: http://gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=6257

This is how I created the usb boot disk since gskill is not in the habbit of providing this information.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...ve-create.html

Now comes the daunting task of restoring all my files back onto the SSD.