Initio Firmware Update

There have been reports of problems with Initio-bridge equipped FireWire drives on newer Mac OS X systems. Although this does not affect older DigiDrive FW80 drives which use Oxford bridge chips, this will affect the Avid model rs80 and model rs250 drives which use Initio bridge chips. The update solves problems with mounting drives with Mac OS X 10.3.6

The firmware is available at the following location on the Initio website:

To determine if your Avid FireWire drive needs updating, do the following:

  1. Select "About This Mac" from the Apple menu
  2. Click "more info" button
  3. Select "FireWire" from the left-hand column

Note the model of your drive:

  • If it says rs80 FireWire (v 1.0 firmware) it is an older DigiDrive and does not need to be updated
  • If it says rs80 or rs250 with a higher version of firmware (4.x for instance), please follow the instructions below for the download.

From the Initio read me:

Initio 1430 firmware v4.70 for Mac OS 10.3.6 Read Me

You will need to download the 4.70 firmware file and one of the 3 different flash utilities. Online are:

  1. Initio V4.70 firmware to fix Apple Mac OS 10.3.6 issue
  2. FireWireUpdater.app.sit – Mac OS X Flash Utility for Initio 1430
  3. 2000_XP.zip – Windows 2000 and above 1430 Flash Utility
  4. 98MEFlsh.zip – Windows 98SE/ME 1430 flash utility

You won't be able to update on 10.3.6 or 10.3.7, so you will have to do it on an earlier Mac OS version or on a PC because we need a mounted volume to flash update.


Digidesign Compatibility Documents Index