New SSD - firmware update before format and partition, or after?

[dalemccl1]

I have a new Kingston HyperX 120 GB SSD scheduled to be delivered later today. I intend it to be my Win 7 boot drive, formatted as one NTFS partition. I plan to do a fresh installation of Windows. This is my first SSD so I am not all that familiar with any differences in procedures used for SSD vs. conventional spinning drives. (I have downloaded and read three SSD installation guides but they did not answer my question.)

My question is:

Kingston has a recent firmware update (the firmware file is dated 10/12/2011 and is labeled v332, so hopefully it is the SandForce fix for the BSOD's).

Should I apply the firmware update to the SSD before formatting and partitioning it? Or after? Or does it matter?

Thanks.

 

[dmoney1980]

yes, always update firmware before installing an OS

 

[biostud]

doesn't matter if you do it before or after partitioning

 

[Burner27]

I have a new Kingston HyperX 120 GB SSD scheduled to be delivered later today. I intend it to be my Win 7 boot drive, formatted as one NTFS partition. I plan to do a fresh installation of Windows. This is my first SSD so I am not all that familiar with any differences in procedures used for SSD vs. conventional spinning drives. (I have downloaded and read three SSD installation guides but they did not answer my question.)

My question is:

Kingston has a recent firmware update (the firmware file is dated 10/12/2011 and is labeled v332, so hopefully it is the SandForce fix for the BSOD's).

Should I apply the firmware update to the SSD before formatting and partitioning it? Or after? Or does it matter?

Thanks.

Could you link me to their FW page please? I have one of these coming soon too.

Thx

 

[dalemccl1]

Thanks. I do it in this order:

1. update firmware
2. format and partition
3. install the OS

Another question: in one of the SSD guides it suggested only partitioning 75% of the capacity and leaving the other 25% unallocated. Is that right?

 

[dalemccl1]

Could you link me to their FW page please? I have one of these coming soon too.

Thx

I e-mailed Kingston tech support and they replied within a day with an FTP link, user name, and password. I am not sure they would want me to give that info out (and it may have been a one-time set up for me.) If you e-mail them they should send you the link.

As an alternative, it is only a 5 MB zip file, so I can e-mail it to you if you want, as long as your e-mail provider allows attachments of 5 MB.

 

[dalemccl1]

yes, always update firmware before installing an OS

I had sent the same question to Kingston support. I also posted it here because I thought I would get a quicker answer. Kingston responded faster than I thought. They said:

You need to have Windows installed first. Then do the upgrade. Please be sure to select the F6 drivers when prompt to do so when installing Windows.

So now I am confused about the correct sequence of actions. Edit - now that I think about it, I think probably what dmoney1980 meant is that I should update the firmware in Windows using the current Win installation that is installed on the old hard drive. Then format and partition the SSD and install Windows to it. I initially misinterpreted what dmoney1980 said when I had posted that I was confused.

In addition, when they said to "select the F6 drivers when prompted to do so", what would I do then? I would think at that point I would install a driver for the SSD, but I don't have a driver. Edit: I questioned this in a reply to Kingston and the Kingston support person replied that he may be wrong about the need to do F6 for Win 7, and that F6 might only apply to Win XP. He said it is to allow installation of ACHI drivers, but Win 7 already has them. I just need to be sure BIOS is set to ACHI.

 

[MustangSVT]

1. update firmware
2. install win7 (partition and format using the installer)
3. enjoy faster access!
4. post benchmark scores on atot

 

[tweakboy]

Do it any time you want. before or after OS install. gl

 

[Burner27]

What was the FW that came with the drive? Did you do benchmarks before and after the upgrade? Mine should be arriving today.

 

[dalemccl1]

What was the FW that came with the drive? Did you do benchmarks before and after the upgrade? Mine should be arriving today.

I didn't notice what the firmware version was on the drive before the upgrade, other than I did notice when I did the update that the version changed to 322. It had been a different version but I don't recall what it version that was.

I didn't do any benchmarks.

 

[dalemccl1]

I just wanted to mention something that may be important to anyone who might want to use the firmware I referenced in my original post. I neglected to mention (and had forgotten about until today) that when Kingston support gave me the link to the firmware, they said it is "Beta".

So this is not a final release. I might not have updated the firmware if I had remembered they said it is Beta. I was in too much of a hurry to get the drive updated and installed in my system to reap the benefits of an SSD, and didn't think about the implications of the beta aspect. I applied the firmware update last night, but have not used the drive enough yet to comment on how stable it is.

 

[LucianS]

I e-mailed Kingston tech support and they replied within a day with an FTP link, user name, and password. I am not sure they would want me to give that info out (and it may have been a one-time set up for me.) If you e-mail them they should send you the link.

As an alternative, it is only a 5 MB zip file, so I can e-mail it to you if you want, as long as your e-mail provider allows attachments of 5 MB.

I was looking to buy a Kingston SSD but was put off by the announcement by Sandforth on 18th October that there was a known bug that would only be fixed by the v332 firmware.

Please could you also e-mail me the Kingston beta firmware.

Many Thanks!

 

[LucianS]

I was looking to buy a Kingston SSD but was put off by the announcement by Sandforth on 18th October that there was a known bug that would only be fixed by the v332 firmware.

Please could you also e-mail me the Kingston beta firmware.

Many Thanks!

Ok, no problem. Kingston have officially released the fix:

http://www.kingston.com/support/ssdnow/SH100S3_firmware.asp