Firmware Necessary Before Installing OS on SSD?

[DrDoctor]

Noob here! :huh:

I just got a new Dell XPS 8300. I will be placing a Crucial M4 ssd in it to be my main drive. I've been reading up on what to do, and my main concern so far is the firmware update. It sounds slightly more complicated than I'd like, and I am trying to decide if it's definitely something I need to do before installing Windows7 on the ssd.

Would I be a fool to just install it as-is, with whatever firmware comes on the drive?

I will be installing Windows7 Home Premium on it, but then will be paying for the upgrade to unlock it to Professional.

Thanks!

 

[DrDoctor]

Might be worth it add.... The primary use for this PC is audio recording, using programs like Cubase and Reason.

 

[bobkn]

In my opinion, the time to update the firmware on an SSD is before it's used.

The method used by Crucial is to do it from a bootable CD. That should be one of the more reliable ways to update, much better than from a Windows utility.

That said, it may fix problems that would never affect you. Also, do you know what firmware is already installed on the SSD? (I recently bought a Corsair Force GT drive, which shipped wi the latest firmware.)

Just out of curiosity, why the upgrade to Win7 Pro? It supports joining a domain (useful in corporate environments, but not so much at home), 192GB of RAM in X64(vs. 16GB for Home Premium), and two CPU sockets on the motherboard (Home Premium, one). You can also download and install XP Mode for free. If you'll never need any of those, it'll be mostly a waste of $100.

 

[DrDoctor]

Perhaps the Crucial SSD will come with the latest firmware. I'll have to check. ::crosses fingers::

As for the Professional update... with the audio world always changing and more and more companies supporting x64bit, there's always the chance I could want more than 16RAM in the future. At the moment, I probably won't utilize Professional much, so perhaps I should just wait until I actually need it and then unlock it? Sidenote... is there any advantage to installing a clean version of Professional, rather than upgrading to it from Home Premium?

 

[bobkn]

Perhaps the Crucial SSD will come with the latest firmware. I'll have to check. ::crosses fingers::

As for the Professional update... with the audio world always changing and more and more companies supporting x64bit, there's always the chance I could want more than 16RAM in the future. At the moment, I probably won't utilize Professional much, so perhaps I should just wait until I actually need it and then unlock it? Sidenote... is there any advantage to installing a clean version of Professional, rather than upgrading to it from Home Premium?

I've never done an Anytime Upgrade, but it's supposed to be painless. Reportedly all of the features are already present in a Home Premium installation. The "upgrade" makes them available. The Win7 DVD apparently isn't needed.

I believe that the disadvantage to the Anytime Upgrade would involve maintenance: if you ever needed to repair the Pro installation, I don't know how well that would work. No personal experience.

My choice for OS on the new PC I'm posting from was a system builder copy of Pro. I may want to go over 16GB myself someday. The OEM copy was inexpensive enough (www.newegg.com) that I'll live with the inability to transfer it to another PC in the future. (I doubt that I'll want to do that before Windows 8. That supposes that Windows 8 will be a sane choice for a desktop PC without a touchscreen.)

 

[Raillex]

You can upgrade the M4's firmware after installing an OS on it, as I was forced to do after Crucial discovered a bug that causes your system to repeatedly reboot after 5184 hours of power on time. Crucial.com Product Downloads - Firmware Updates

Upgrading firmware versions from 0009 to 0309 was a snap, although I think I might have had to temporarily set the M4 to IDE mode in bios in order to get the firmware update routine to work.

 

[TBoyd]

You can upgrade the M4's firmware after installing an OS on it, as I was forced to do after Crucial discovered a bug that causes your system to repeatedly reboot after 5184 hours of power on time. Crucial.com Product Downloads - Firmware Updates

Upgrading firmware versions from 0009 to 0309 was a snap, although I think I might have had to temporarily set the M4 to IDE mode in bios in order to get the firmware update routine to work.

I just bought a Crucial M4 128Gb & updated the firmware prior to cloning. It was easy. You should have no problem doing the update after installing Win 7. If this were a problem, I'm sure Crucial would have included a warning with their firmware update instructions.

 

[profdlp]

I upgraded the firmware on three M4 drives with the Win7 installations sailing safely through it intact. I did make sure my drive image backups were up to date, though.