As most of you know that have this drive the Firmware updater will only check for the drive on the IDE bus, it will not allow you to check USb or Firewire. I have found a simple solution.

1. Go to www.emprex.com and download the USB 5232UI driver.
2. Go to www.drvupdate.com and download the Live Updater.
3. Run the LiveUpdater. It should find the 1008i (even on USB/Firewire) and download the updated firmware.
4. Go to: c:\[windir]\temp\PACx.TMP.DIR (where x is the latest number). The directory should have an executable called "IDEFLASH.exe". You will need to copy IDSTRING.txt, LOADER.BIN and the .hex file to the location that you wish to store the firmware update software.
5. Run the downloaded driver for USB 5232UI (downloaded from emprex.com) and copy "BTCTOOL11.EXE" from the directory that it makes (same format as the other firmware: c:\[windir]\temp\PACx.TMP.DIR) to the same location as the other files that you copied. This is the external drive updater.
6. Run BTCTOOL11.EXE - it should now see your drive and allow you to run the firmware update.
7. Reboot

You should save those files for future use.

Now you can use the Live Update to check for firmware updates and using the method above update your drive using the USB updater and the most current firmware from Live Update.

Good Hunting,

email me if you have any questions:
howardholton@hotmail.com