Solved ISO CD can't see optical drives

[borate]

Marvel controller and SATA mode are both set to IDE.
The ISO firmware update was burned to two disks using different software - to be certain that they were good, and further verified for integrity.

Two optical drives are installed - a DVD RW and a CD RW. Both were tried (with the ISO the only disc in either drive at the time.)
The resultant DOS screen...

Cannot open CD-ROM device "CDROM001"
CDR cache will not stay resident
SHSUCDX can't install
Unable to find CD-ROM drive

The drive is definitely active in the system, as the W7 install disc loads perfectly. The two drives are available via the BIOS and in W7.

Where have I failed?

 

[jumanji]

I presume that you had downloaded the bootable ISO from some website and trying to update the firmware of the Marvell controller.

If the downloaded ISO itself is corrupt, burning it to any number of CDs/DVDs and verifying the burn integrity is not going to help.

1. Redownload the ISO from the manufacturer's website.

2. (Optional) Make a file hash check - CRC 32/ MD5 / SHA-1 -, if that information is available, to check the integrity of the downloaded ISO.

3. (Again optional ) Burn the bootable ISO to a CD-RW instead of CD-R and try. (Use a known-to-be good optical Media such as Verbatim/JVC/Taiyo Yuden and burn the ISO at a lower speed instead of the maximum speed.) Better still make a bootable USB pen drive and boot from USB to save on optical media.
Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

 

[borate]

Thanks for checking in, Jumanji. The download is an SSD firmware update from the OCZ-Vertex site, so it should be valid.

Per your suggestion I burned the ISO to a DVD/RW. Same result.

Then I created a bootable USB flash drive (1G) and extracted the Vertex 3.55 files to it, using 7-zip.
At boot there were two listings for this drive, one that listed "EFI" and one that did not.
The EFI choice booted straight into W7. The non-EFI item said "remove drive" and then it also booted to W7??

Comparing the CD ISO and the extracted files on the Flash drive revealed only one difference. The Flash drive has a [boot] directory; the CD does not. I assume that's normal.

I must be missing something elementary?? I have passed along this info to OCZ support.

 

[Corazon]

Is either of your CD/DVD drives connected via SATA or the old-style PATA (IDE)?
I'm not sure if this is the issue, but it might actually only work from a true IDE drive connected to a 40-pin IDE port.

 

[jumanji]

If as Corazon suspects it is an optical drive connection compatibility problem, booting from USB pendrive should circumvent that.

Make your bootable pendrive with the Universal USB Installer - the link gven by me.. This is the one which Gregrocker always suggests. I use YUMI the multiboot installer from the same website which is similar to the Universal USB Installer.

 

[borate]

If as Corazon suspects it is an optical drive connection compatibility problem, booting from USB pendrive should circumvent that.

I used DISKPART to allegedly make a bootable flash drive. No joy in simply running the OCZ file at boot. Knowing nothing of Ubuntu, I won't pursue the USB Installer option further.

Thanks for the help; all suggestions welcomed.

 

[jumanji]

......Knowing nothing of Ubuntu, I won't pursue the USB Installer option further......

You need not know anything about Linux. Neither do I.
Just install the program and follow the steps to create your bootable drive.

Even if you do not plan to do that now, just have a look at this post. http://www.sevenforums.com/software/116968-say-no-burning-bootable-cds-dvds-isos.html

It is quite an old post, which I had to dig out but the basics remain the same. It also outlines the method to create a bootable pendrive using UltraISO. It should dispel your Linux fear - the mistaken notion.

This post incidentally was instrumental into my venturing into the multiboot pendrive and till then I was also averse to that program like you.

 

[jumanji]

@borate, In another thread http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/197782-cd-iso-firmware-update-fails-load.html#post1660606 you have reported

" ***UPDATE***
OCZ support was superb, and a bootable USB method of updating the firmware has succeeded where a bootable CD could not."

My conviction that the USB bootable pendrive circumvents the many problems associated with bootable ISO CD ( the many variables associated with the optical drive, the optical media, the burning software etc., ) stands corroborated.

And I am marking this thread as solved on your behalf because there are now two disjointed threads on the same topic in two different sub-forums and the other one is marked as solved leaving this in the lurch.

 

[borate]

@borate, In another thread http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/197782-cd-iso-firmware-update-fails-load.html#post1660606 you have reported

" ***UPDATE***
OCZ support was superb, and a bootable USB method of updating the firmware has succeeded where a bootable CD could not."
<snip>
And I am marking this thread as solved on your behalf because there are now two disjointed threads on the same topic in two different sub-forums and the other one is marked as solved leaving this in the lurch.

That's fine. At times the corruption wouldn't occur for days. I was planning to close this thread in a week or so, after being convinced that the fault was indeed solved.

And thanks for the good info on EasyBCD. I happen to already have that utility on hand, but never thought of it in this context.

 

[jumanji]

Just curious to know the firmware version number you have tried to flash. Educating myself.

 

[borate]

Just curious to know the firmware version number you have tried to flash. Educating myself.

Existing firmware was 3.02, allegedly responsible for the problem. Update is 3.55, hopefully the fix. So far so good.

Corazon's comment, above, was insightful. The older IDE optical drives here are accommodated via the Marvel adapter on the MB, and cannot be booted in the conventional ISO-boot-from-CD manner.

When the OCZ tech determined that he devised a simple 1G pendrive alternative. To implement it the SSD drive had to be in IDE mode.