OCZ Vertex 2 Firmware Update

William248:
IF you have Windows CD/DVD and enough space on your SSD you could try creating a Boot Camp partition, installing Windows, then update the firmware within the Boot Camp windows. Once you've updated the firmware, you can then re-run the Boot Camp assistant and choose the option to remove the Boot Camp partition and reclaim your space.

This should work but I haven't tried it myself. Of course you will need a Windows CD/DVD to install the full Boot Camp.

There may be other ways too of creating NTFS partitions and then deleting them non-destructively but I wouldn't like to be the one who gave advice on that one.

In your case it's probably easier to have boot camp on your SSD. I wouldn't worry about the size of the partition though if you intend removing it as soon as you've upgraded your firmware. Just create 32gb standard Boot Camp partition, get bare bones of Windows installed, download and run the firmware updater then once complete, boot back into OS X and run the Boot Camp setup again but choose the option to remove an existing Boot Camp and you should be away.

It's not ideal and it will take a good hour or so start to finish but at least it will be done. As far as best to update it as secondary drive, I'd agree but it means you would need to have a 2nd drive with Boot Camp on like I do. This is where I'm not sure how easy and reliable it is to add an NTFS partition to the primary SSD drive in Disk Utility (you can use http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ to allow you to create an NTFS partition directly in OS X) and then remove it and recover the space. It's not something I have any experience of so I'd rather not recommend it just yet. I do intend to try it though tomorrow as I'll just Carbon Copy Clone the drive first to be safe. I'll report back.

I'd still wait a week or 2 though because like I said in an earlier post, my new Vertex 2 that arrived yesterday is 1.25 and the website currently only has 1.24. I'm assuming a 1.25 will be available soon.

Right, got it all working. These are the steps I made and also how my Mac Pro is currently setup.

I have my Mac Pro with 120Gb Vertex 2 in Bay 1 and a 2Tb SATA drive in Bay 3 that has 250Gb Boot Camp Partition with Windows 7 installed on it. I also have another 120Gb Vertex 2 in Bay 2 ready for me to RAID 0 with Bay 1 but that's another story.

Important thing is, YOU MUST HAVE A WORKING WINDOWS BOOT CAMP ON YOUR MAC PRO. It's not necessary to have it on your precious SSD, just on one of your drives.

1. Run the Boot Camp Assistant and let it create a 5Gb partition (default) on your Vertex 2
2. Once it's created the Partition just click Quit and Install Later
3. You now need to format that 5Gb partition NTFS as it creates it in FAT32. You can do this 2 ways, you could boot into your current Boot Camp and format it in there OR you could install http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ and format it NTFS (uncompressed) straight in the Disk Utility.
4. Now shutdown and Boot into Boot Camp, download the firmware from OCZ and run the utility. It will find the disc first time now without any problem. Once it's updated it (it only takes seconds) it will reboot your Mac back into OS X.
5. Run the Boot Camp Assistant and select the Remove a Boot Camp partition and then select your 5Gb partition and away you go, back to your full 120Gb and new firmware.

I would make Carbon Copy Clone before you do any of this mind you just in case. Mine went like clockwork but I wouldn't bet my house on it.

Good luck.

It'a not nonsense so why don't you just go and leave your sarcastic comments somewhere else. At no point have I ever said that my way is the only way, I was simply trying to provide a way that I have successfully updated MY drive.

The fact remains that the utility is Windows only and you need an NTFS partition on your SSD for the utility to see the drive to update it. I'm well aware there are ways of creating CD boot discs and several other methods. The point is, I found my way easier for MY purposes and I'm sure it's straightforward for others too which is why I put it here. If you are using Boot Camp on one of your other drives in a Mac Pro my method here is quick, simple and works, FACT.

If you want to come accross as a smug and condicending idiot you are doing a superb job of it. For the record, if you are booting up Boot Camp on your SSD and it's your main Boot drive you doing exactly what OCZ tell you NOT to do, DO NOT UPDATE YOUR SSD if you are booting from it.

It wasn't empty no, it was my OS X Boot drive. I just backed up first because OCZ warn it may lose data. As it happened, mine didn't lose anything and it was fine. This is why if you have Boot Camp always installed on another drive, it's a 10 minute job to update the firmware again in the future.

As Mr. Smug has mentioned, there are other ways on the OCZ forum, I just found them either difficult or they just didn't work on my machine. One of the easiest ways is to have a Windows boot CD or USB stick but creating it wasn't something I could get to work and I need Boot Camp from time to time anyway.

The key is, you need a Windows partition on your SSD and if it's not NTFS, mine couldn't be seen. Although Boot Camp assistant creates a FAT32 partition, when I ran the utility, no drives were found, I had to format it NTFS before the utility recognised I had a drive.

One thing you will find if you read through all the forums on OCZ, Mac Rumors, etc is that no one method appears to work for everyone dispite there being dozens of different methods to update.