Solution: No drives recognized in Force firmware update utility!

Synbios · #1 12-08-2010, 08:27 PM

I've seen a lot of people struggling with this problem.

1) In case you didn't read thoroughly through the instructions: you should right click the updater tool and click run as administrator. Despite if your account on Windows has administrative attributes or not, you still need to do this.

2) There is known incompatibility with Intel RST 10.x series drivers, downgrade to Intel RST 9.x or use Microsoft AHCI drivers for the update and then re-install the latest Intel RST drivers afterward.

3) If you already tried that and it still doesn't work, I recommend trying a Live CD environment such as Hiren's Boot CD or UBCD4Win, especially if the drive you are trying to update is the one that contains your OS.

4) As a last resort if those do not work, try deleting all the partitions on the drive and doing a secure erase. Make sure you backup your contents first!

csemoses · #2 01-02-2011, 02:36 AM

THANK YOU! for posting this...

YellowBeard's sticky NEEDS this info in it.

I just upgraded my firmware cleanly, so easy... once i had this info.

I even made a trip to my parents place 25 mins away to try it earlier, as my intel motherboard apparently had issues with the storage driver and couldnt see it... that's what i inferred from YB's sticky about this update anyhow.

YB, please include this in your sticky, and also change the wording / expound upon the issue with what will happen if you're using incompatible Intel drivers.

Thanks again man!!!

Wired · #3 01-02-2011, 03:37 AM

It's already in the PDF instructions (as Synbios stated) and has been there from the beginning.

robertfranz · #4 01-18-2011, 08:07 PM

What needs to be added though is emphasis many boards don't support ahci - including those using the nforce 430 chipset and previous.

Yellowbeard · #5 01-18-2011, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robertfranz

What needs to be added though is emphasis many boards don't support ahci - including those using the nforce 430 chipset and previous.

Honestly, I don't have the time to go back and research what chipsets do and don't support AHCI. And, add to it that some boards with chipsets that DO support AHCI according to the chipset maker, have also had it disabled in the BIOS by the motherboard manufacturer and you'll quickly see that it would be an almost impossible task to compile an accurate list. I think it's reasonable that a motherboard owner can easily determine this on their own.

Swiso · #6 01-30-2011, 01:40 PM

Hello,
I would like to upgrade the firmware but my drive is not recognized.
I should try the Live CD environment, but I don't know what it is...
I have downloaded both Hiren's Boot CD and UBCD4Win.
Now, what I should do ?

Thank You very much
Best regards
AA

Synbios · #7 01-30-2011, 02:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Swiso

Hello,
I would like to upgrade the firmware but my drive is not recognized.
I should try the Live CD environment, but I don't know what it is...
I have downloaded both Hiren's Boot CD and UBCD4Win.
Now, what I should do ?

Thank You very much
Best regards
AA

Have you tried option #1 first?

Swiso · #8 01-30-2011, 05:39 PM

Yes, even as a administrator no drive recognized.

Synbios · #9 01-30-2011, 11:28 PM

You should check with Hiren's or UBCD forums to get that working, we can't help you with other products here.

Is it okay if you delete the contents on the drive? If it is, then you can try secure erasing the drive and then seeing if the drive is detected by the update utility.

Swiso · #10 01-31-2011, 05:16 AM

On the drive I have the Operating System...
I could try to reinstall everything...but it is a lot of work...
First I would prefer to see if I can do it without a total clean reinstall.

SAK47 · #11 03-06-2011, 07:58 PM

I too experienced the "No Drive Found" problem and I was indeed running the upgrade exe as administrator. I then booted the system from my Bart PE 3110 CD. The CSSD-F120GB2 was now detected and the v 2.0 firmware update completed successfully. I had previously tried to run V 2.0 from an installation of Vista X64 which resides on another HDD on this system. The CSSD was not detected under that scenario. I am wondering if there is a problem running it on a 64 bit system. Both the Win 7 (on the CSSD itself) and the Vista (on another HDD) are 64 bit. The Bart PE 3110 runs a "lite" version of 32 bit XP.

Synbios · #12 03-07-2011, 01:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SAK47

I too experienced the "No Drive Found" problem and I was indeed running the upgrade exe as administrator. I then booted the system from my Bart PE 3110 CD. The CSSD-F120GB2 was now detected and the v 2.0 firmware update completed successfully. I had previously tried to run V 2.0 from an installation of Vista X64 which resides on another HDD on this system. The CSSD was not detected under that scenario. I am wondering if there is a problem running it on a 64 bit system. Both the Win 7 (on the CSSD itself) and the Vista (on another HDD) are 64 bit. The Bart PE 3110 runs a "lite" version of 32 bit XP.

No there is no compatibility problems with 64 bit. Most likely there was a problem with AHCI or IDE mode.

GeneralEclectic · #13 06-04-2011, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yellowbeard

Honestly, I don't have the time to go back and research what chipsets do and don't support AHCI. And, add to it that some boards with chipsets that DO support AHCI according to the chipset maker, have also had it disabled in the BIOS by the motherboard manufacturer and you'll quickly see that it would be an almost impossible task to compile an accurate list. I think it's reasonable that a motherboard owner can easily determine this on their own.

With all due respect, here's the problem I have with this approach: Does the Corsair Force drive work with chipsets that don't include AHCI capability? Yes it does. There are quite a few of them, actually. So why does Corsair Support think it's okay to require that users find a particular configuration of an AHCI-supporting chipset to perform a firmware update? Let me put it another way: If the drive works in a particular hardware environment then the firmware update process bloody well should too! Anything else is customer-hostile. Other SSD manufacturers have figured this out. Why can't Corsair/Sandforce? Brand I offers firmware updates that run anywhere the drives do, and without any drama from my experience.

IMO, in the future, they, if they intend to remain viable in this business, should offer a complete package for firmware update that consists of an ISO with its own operating environment and the update applet all rolled into one. User downloads the ISO, burns it, boots off it, and FW is updated. On any platform. I can't think of a single reason why a user should be required to remove a drive that requires update from a working machine and temporarily install it in some other (AHCI-equipped) machine simply to update FW.

Synbios · #14 06-04-2011, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeneralEclectic

With all due respect, here's the problem I have with this approach: Does the Corsair Force drive work with chipsets that don't include AHCI capability? Yes it does. There are quite a few of them, actually. So why does Corsair Support think it's okay to require that users find a particular configuration of an AHCI-supporting chipset to perform a firmware update? Let me put it another way: If the drive works in a particular hardware environment then the firmware update process bloody well should too! Anything else is customer-hostile. Other SSD manufacturers have figured this out. Why can't Corsair/Sandforce? Brand I offers firmware updates that run anywhere the drives do, and without any drama from my experience.

IMO, in the future, they, if they intend to remain viable in this business, should offer a complete package for firmware update that consists of an ISO with its own operating environment and the update applet all rolled into one. User downloads the ISO, burns it, boots off it, and FW is updated. On any platform. I can't think of a single reason why a user should be required to remove a drive that requires update from a working machine and temporarily install it in some other (AHCI-equipped) machine simply to update FW.

Where did you read in this thread that AHCI is required to update the firmware? I think it was reported someplace that the firmware was updated using an AHCI system but compatibility on IDE systems is "try at your own risk" per se.

It works fine on IDE.

But with all due respect, AHCI is de facto standard for SATA controllers. IDE is for IDE ribbon cables or PATA. There's only a handful of <lousy> nForce boards that don't have AHCI and maybe a few others.

GeneralEclectic · #15 06-04-2011, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synbios

Where did you read in this thread that AHCI is required to update the firmware? I think it was reported someplace that the firmware was updated using an AHCI system but compatibility on IDE systems is "try at your own risk" per se.

It works fine on IDE.

But with all due respect, AHCI is de facto standard for SATA controllers. IDE is for IDE ribbon cables or PATA. There's only a handful of <lousy> nForce boards that don't have AHCI and maybe a few others.

Are you serious? WHERE? How about HERE:

http://forum.corsair.com/forums/showthread.php?t=90759

Fifth paragraph.