Camera Labs

I did the firmware update on the m4 yesterday. That went easily and smoothly. Download the CD image, burn, boot, flash, reboot, done. Everything still works and hopefully I won't have any problems in 7 months time.

I also finally got around to putting the Vertex 3 in my laptop today. Before that, I had to put the latest firmware on. I opened up my spare AMD box, added it in place of CD drive to save me finding another cable set, ran the (windows) updater and... nothing. Error downloading. Is it a net connection thing? Tried my backup mobile connection instead. Same thing. Maybe they're having server problems? No, there is a big download taking place when I run it. Thinking back, this AMD box has never worked with anything other than Windows. I can't boot linux off the HD no matter what settings I try. Fine, I'll use my other (Intel) spare box buried under my reptile table. Dug that out, drive in. Firmware update when no problem 1st time. Sorted.

Spent ages cleaning out the unnecessary stuff to make more space. If it was a clean install it would be no problem, but as an OEM install, there is a ~10GB recovery partition eating into my storage budget too. Out went many games as well as duplicate photo backups made when travelling. When I got it low enough, I used the transfer kit again, which I can now confirm is able to resize down as well as up, and understands recovery partitions. All done, I now have 32GB free out of 101GB total visible in Windows.

Windows Experience Index hard disk score went from 5.9 for the old Hitachi 320GB model to 7.5 for the Vertex 3. The same Vertex 3 has scored 7.9 in my desktop while it was there. I think the laptop doesn't support 6 Gbps SATA which might hold it back a bit.

It does feel a bit nippier although I didn't do any other formal speed tests on it. Best of all, the hard disk vibration is gone! And it's so quiet now...

_________________
Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.