topic Re: SSD power loss report updates in Archive

SSD power loss report updates

Alan_F_Intel — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 22:39:12 GMT

Intel is aware of the customer sightings on Intel SSD 320 Series. If you experience any issue with your Intel SSD, please contact your Intel representative or Intel customer support (via web: http://www.intel.com/ www.intel.com or phone: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contact/phone www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contact/phone) . We will provide an update when we have more information.

Alan

Intel's NVM Solutions Group

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:18:23 GMT

I just wanted to mention that this issue is best referred to as the "8MB bug". Hopefully those keywords in this thread will help people searching for information on this problem.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:26:20 GMT

Hello, I was going to buy 120Gb model of 320 series than I saw that issue can you tell me is it a hardware issue or firmware and it'll be fixed? If it'll be fixed I'm going to buy this drive and update firmware.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 12:08:08 GMT

Were these reports the reason for the warranty extension for the 320 line?

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:47:01 GMT

Great. My drive in a macbook pro (320 series, 120GB) died today. The Intel support line in Germany does not pick up the phone and I am stuck with a dead drive on a machine I am supposed to work with instead of taking apart and reassembling dozens of time.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:07:17 GMT

I have this problem too. I was able to reformat the drive and start from scratch (losing all my data) using HDDErase, but I'd like to know SOON if there will be a firmware fix for this problem or not. IF NOT, I will be sending the drive back for a refund. I can't risk losing everything again from a simple power loss. PLEASE give some kind of hint as to whether this problem is fixable with a firmware update or not.

Thanks.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:59:16 GMT

How can I get a replacement drive now? My drive is about 50 days old and died today, I cannot find _any_ information on intel's website where I can check my warranty status nor can I request a RMA number.

This is not what I am used from a premium product, I have made much better experience with customer service of other hard drive procuding companies, unfortunately 😕

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:00:10 GMT

I have to add that I live in Europe / Austria, there is not even a phone number to call Intel from Austria.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 23:10:08 GMT

Same here. My drive lasted 15 hours or so. Then I read this thread. Tried many things and couldn't revive it.

What finally worked was Parted Magic -> Erase Disk -> Secure Erase

Since I intended to use it only for my operating systems I'm now having a good backup solution in place which enables me to restore the system pretty fast. After all, it's only 160 GB so just enough for OS and programs. 😉

PS: Mine was down to 6MB, though. But I guess it's close enough to call it the "8MB bug". SMART attributes could not be read etc.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:00:14 GMT

Hi! SSD test!

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 08:27:18 GMT

Is there a possibility to recover the data after the problem occurs?

To me it seems that the disc switches to some kind of "out of order" state when this happens.

Intel, is there a way to get the disc to a "disaster recovery" read-only state subsequently?

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:38:02 GMT

just some suggestion

people that got issue with intel SSD should post more information

like SSD batch/version# , OS + System information, power setting (as it seems related to power cycle)

in computer world we know there is bad batch that die early compared to other batch

so maybe there is bad batch in 320 series

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:23:53 GMT

just got my 600GB SSD, which would be for my new laptop. but currently i dont know, if i should setup my new system, just to find out, that my SSD dies with the 8MB bug. i saw now on severaly websites, including intel, that this bug is reality and that there is no firmware update or even a timeline, when intel will release one to fix that problem.

so stay on the old laptop (so i dont know, why i updated the whole system) or use the laptop with the new SSD and before i shutdown the latop, make a complete backup. with working vmware images, that will take some time. i even dont know, if that bug will happen, if put the laptop into energy saving mode or if i go to a costumer, power down my laptop, to just find out, that now my data is lost, since i cant do a full backup everywhere.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 23:25:07 GMT

Please update us on whether a firmware will be able to fix this potential problem. I bought a 120GB 320 series for a friend and his died exactly 1 month into use (8MB problem). I have the same drive but have yet to experience problems...... am hoping not to. I bought an Intel because of its reputation for reliability (I used to have a Corsair SSD that kept on dying; worst experience ever). Would like to not be disappointed.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:27:36 GMT

Fritz, I would advise you to wait - My 120 GB intel died when I closed the lid of my mbp and drove to a client - hard drive was dead when I tried to wake the macbook there. Very unpleasing.. Hopefully Intel will come out with a fix soon. Waited on the phone yesterday for over 20 mins before I readched support, they stated out that officially there is no bug (they know about single users having problems but it is not a bug [yet?]) and they sent me instructions of how to test the drive in another machine, but did not help (8 MB there, too).

Guess we will have to wait..

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:27:37 GMT

Alan,

Could you provide any indication on your progress on this issue?

Are you able to reproduce it?

If yes, have you been able to recover data from the drive?

Presuming the problem is fixable with a firmware update, do you have any estimates on when the new firmware might be released?

Any idea if it will be days, weeks or months?

Just trying to figure out if it makes sense to wait, or I should go out and get a new drive now.

I did write to customer support but have yet to hear back.

I experienced the problem while working on my computer - suddenly the programs started to freeze up, one by one.

Eventually the computer was completely unusable, I rebooted, but was then unable to get past the BIOS screen.

Connecting the SSD to another computer running Acronis True Image shows the drive now reports a size of 8 MB.

This is on a two months old 600 GB SSD 320 Series.

Model: SSDSA2CW600G3

ISN: CVPR11630357600FGN (have no idea what these numbers mean...)

SA: G17909-505

PBA: E75496-505

LBA: 1,172,123,568

WWN: 500151795954737A

FW: 0302

Best regards,

Carsten

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:44:31 GMT

if you need your drive back soon, why dont you just RMA your drive ?

and you should include batch# so intel can track down the issue faster

as for version# ... it seems the SA you wrote on your post = version#

so if you rma the drive, request to exchange with different batch / newer version which maybe didnt effected with the bug

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:49:36 GMT

slyphnier,

Appreciate the suggestion, but it is now Friday evening and I do need a working computer again by Monday morning, one way or the other.

That is why I would appreciate some sort of indication as to whether Intel expects it will take "days, weeks or months" to come up with a fix.

I also have some files on the drive that I'd like to recover, if possible.

Nothing essential, just data I would like to be able to restore if and when a fix is made available.

So, if Intel already knows that recovering data from drives suffering from this issue is going to be impossible, that would be useful information.

Then I could go ahead and do a secure erase now (as that seems to be one way of resurrecting the drive), and rebuild my working environment.

If on the other hand there is a chance that my data might still be intact I'd rather just get a new hard drive this weekend, and then later when Intel comes out with a firmware update retrieve the data from my old drive.

Likewise, if Intel has determined that it's a hardware issue, that would be another good reason to buy a new drive instead of erasing my current drive and likely run into the same problem again.

I guess this goes to say that I would appreciate any information Intel might be able to provide at this point, as it might help myself and others that are affected by this issue making a decision on how to proceed.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 18:48:01 GMT

MazaFaka! It is HPA problem! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Protected_Area http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Protected_Area No intel problem.

Re: SSD power loss report updates

idata — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 21:31:15 GMT

How does that make it not intel's problem? If bios is issuing HPA commands (set max address etc) to the SSD and the SSD isn't complying properly, doesn't that make it intel's problem? Also... can you tell us how you determined that it's related to HPA? The only relevant link I found is: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=679011 http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=679011

but all that indicates is that you can restore the size by removing HPA, which doesn't address the fact that it was erroneously created for some reason. If SSD alone is responsible for setting the wrong size, then it means this could happen with retail motherboard with no HPA features. (utilities like HDAT would then report it having HPA because afaik they only compare the native size and the reported size)