How do I prevent further damage after flashing the firmware?

[idata]

Hi,

I flashed the new firmware to my 80GB G2 drive in AHCI mode. Did the reboot after Windows 7 Final (x64) installed new driver (Intel Matrix Storage Manager is present). Installed SSD Toolbox and ran optimization once. And, no, I did not get the error so far. Everything still works fine after a few reboots.

Now, here is my question:

Since the bug seems to be very common, is there a special action which is causing the error - such as changing some special BIOS settings - which I should avoid? E.g., I suspect that the reason why everything still works is that I had installed the IMSM before, which does not pass TRIM to the drive. Thus, the drive didn't get corrupted so far simply because no TRIM commands have yet been passed to it by the Microsoft driver. However, the SSD Toolbox optimization feature seems to work correctly, as I ran it and the drive is still alive.

Before I heard about the severe problems associated with the recent firmware update, I considered uninstalling IMSM and replacing the Intel drivers with the Microsoft alternatives in order to enable TRIM. However, I now have a feeling that this might turn out to be a quite bad idea.

Is there any statement by Intel Officials about what to do if you flashed the erraneous firmware but your drive is still working? Going back to the earlier firmware is not an option, as the firmware flashing tool rejects doing so. I could live with the way it works now, but it would be an interesting information whether I can safely replace the IMSM driver with the Microsoft one without a risk of bricking the drive and losing all data stored on it as well.

BTW, I am severely disappointed in Intel right now, even though I am not affected by the bug (yet?). I spent 300 USD for this drive not because of the performance (which is great but not worth the additional cost compared to the similarly well performing Indilinx drives), but rather because I had more confidence in Intel regarding data integrity, safety and testing prior to releasing the hardware. The ATA password bug was one thing I could live with (well, we all make mistakes, and ATA passwords are not a commonly used feature), but after many months with TRIM-enabled firmwares already being available from the competitors, Intel should have had the time to test this update thoroughly.

[Charles_F_Intel]

fabio008 and derkurt,

Is this the "E1 - Host Writes" attribute you are reading the data written information from? What is the "E9 - Media Wearout Indicator" attribute showing for the normalized value?

Regards,

Brady

[idata]

That is correct Brady, 1.46 TB for Raw (200 Normalized and 0 Threshold) in Host Writes.

The Media Wearout Indicator is showing 99 for the Normalized value (and zero for Raw and Threshold).

Edited.

[idata]

@Brady:

Yes, it is this attribute "E1 - Host Writes". I have to correct myself, it does not show 3 TB but rather 1,67 TB in the "Raw" column, which still seems inplausibly high a value to me (especially since I turned off the swapfile immediately after installation!). "Normalized" is at 200 and "Threshold" is 0.

"E9 - Media Wearout Indicator" displays 99 for "Normalized". "Raw" and "Threshold" are zero.

[Charles_F_Intel]

fabio008 and derkurt,

Media Wearout Indicator looks fine. Are you using verision 1.1 of the toolbox? Also monitor the host writes for a few days and see if it is increasing too quickly from what you would expect. If you can, try leaving sytem idle(minimal data being written) and see if host write counts increase more than expected.

Regards,

Brady

[idata]

@ Brady:

Sorry for interrupting this thread, but this is the first time I actually see someone from Intel answering questions. I recently crashed my SSD with the latest firmware (see thread /thread/7737?tstart=0 here). My quick question is: Could you please release a firmware update which allows downgrading to the working (02G9) firmware? I can only access the SSD for a few minutes after rebooting and then it's gone again and I don't want to wait 6 weeks or even longer for Intel support

Thank you!

Regards,

Alex