How I brought a 160gb G2 back to life from TRIM firmware update

[idata]

System specs:

Motherboard : Asus DSEB-D16/SAS Bios Revision: 1005

Memory : 16gb Operating System: Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 (same as Windows 7 R2 x64 Kernel)Disk Configuration: SATA Port 1: 160GB Intel G2 SSDSATA Port 2: Seagate ST370330AS 750GB HDDSATA Port 3: Seagate ST3750640AS 750GB HDDSATA Port 4: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-215D ATA DeviceSATA Port 5: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-215D ATA Device

SSD Content Info:

The drive holds a Server 2008 R2 installation upgraded from Server 2008, cloned from a mechanical hard disk. The drive is in AHCI mode using the Microsoft AHCI driver.

BIOS IDE Modes:

* Enhanced AHCI

* IDE * Compatiblity Mode - In this mode system only sees up to 4 drives, emulating a 4 drive master/slave setup. In this mode has several sub modes to show SATA only, PATA Only, SATA first PATA second, or PATA first and SATA second. These sub modes determine which SATA ports to occupy the 4 ports available in compatibility mode. When in this mode I chose SATA only so my 3 drives from SATA port 1, 2, 3 were accessable, but the optical drives on port 4 and 5 containing the optical drives were not visible/accessible.

Firmware update procedure:

1.) I made a full disk Symantec Ghost 11.5 Corporate Edition backup of the drive before the update. 2.) Flashed in AHCI mode, flash completed fine. 3.) Server 2008 R2 loads fine and detects new hardware (the SSD), Server 2008 R2 installs drivers for the SSD and asks for a reboot.4.) On reboot, the drive corrupts, symptoms include black screen/unbootable device on startup and a complaint from SMART about the drive being bad, specifically end to end errors exceeding limits.

Fix it attempt 1:

1.) Set BIOS to compatiblity mode beause that's the only mode HDDErase will run in on this motherboard.2.) Ran HDDErase 4.1 enhanced secure erase on the SSD.3.) Set BIOS to AHCI mode. 4.) Did a from drive Ghost 11.5 restore from repair boot cd.5.) Server 2008 R2 loads fine and detects new hardware (the SSD), Server 2008 R2 installs drivers for the SSD and asks for a reboot.6.) On reboot, the drive corrupts, symptoms include black screen/unbootable device on startup and a complaint from SMART about the drive being bad, specifically end to end errors exceeding limits.

Fix it attempt 2:

1.) Set BIOS to compatiblity mode.2.) Ran HDDErase 4.1 enhanced secure erase on the SSD.3.) Did a from drive Ghost 11.5 restore from repair boot cd.4.) Set BIOS to IDE mode. 5.) Server 2008 R2 loads fine and detects new hardware (the SSD), Server 2008 R2 installs drivers for the SSD and asks for a reboot.6.) On reboot, the drive corrupts, symptoms include black screen/unbootable device on startup and a complaint from SMART about the drive being bad, specifically end to end errors exceeding limits.

Work around 1:

1.) Set BIOS to compatiblity mode.2.) Ran HDDErase 4.1 enhanced secure erase on the SSD.3.) Did a from drive Ghost 11.5 restore from repair boot cd.4.) Left BIOS to compatibility mode. 5.) Server 2008 R2 loads fine and detects new hardware (the SSD), Server 2008 R2 installs drivers for the SSD and asks for a reboot.

With this work around Server 2008 R2 works fine (and tested for several days working with multiple reboots fine in this mode), but in comaptibility mode I have no access to my optical drives, and since it's not in AHCI mode I also don't have working TRIM support and the SSD still reports SMART errors.

Work around 2:

1.) Set BIOS to compatiblity mode.2.) Ran HDDErase 4.1 enhanced secure erase on the SSD.3.) Set BIOS to AHCI Mode4.) Aligned the SSD parition to 64kb (in hindsight I should probably have used a 128kb offset) using the guide here:http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?p=325221# post3252215.) Did a from partition to parition restore (as to not destroy the aligned parition created in the previous step) with Ghost 11.5 from repair boot cd.

With this work around Server 2008 R2 works fine, with multiple reboots tested, optical drives visible, TRIM supported, the only thing that persists is the following SMART error reported by the Toolbox:

ID: B8

Description: End to End Error Detection Count Raw: 4Normalized: 96Threshold: 99Recommended Action: Contact your reseller or local Intel representative for assitance.

So it looks like partition alignment has something to do with the TRIM bricking SSDs, hope this info helps Intel/others.

[idata]

I had problems using the HDDERASE ISO and ended up putting that on a bootable SD card along with the Intel flash application (which also didn't work from ISO for different reasons).

The ISO for HDDERASE 4.0 tried to create a RAM Disk in extended memory, unzip the HDDERASE app onto the RAM disk, & run it from there. The problem in my case is that the extended memory drivers fail on my system because I have 6GB, and they don't know how to handle that coming up with a negative # for the amount of system RAM it thinks I have.

It ends up more convenient to have HDDERASE and the flashers all on an SD card instead of separate CDs anyway.

I recommend this app for creating the bootable USB stick or flash card

[idata]

I use HDDErase 3.3, 4 does not work with my configuration.

read on the internet that version 3.3 seem to work the best with the Intel SSD's?

I used a old fashioned floppy disc, tried version 4 just an hour ago made a iso cd rom,

but I also was not able to use this version.

since having problems with my Ssd 80gb postville / Windows 7 64bits, i re-installed the evalution

W7version 32bits build 7100.

waiting anxiously for the Intel new firmware.

[idata]

I just loaded both the hdderase 4.0 .exe and flash firmware updater files onto a bootable USB flash drive (took out the auto startup from autoexec.bat) using the procedure from here:

http://communities.intel.com/thread/7705?tstart=0

[idata]

I'd followed your hyperlink and tried to repair my brand new 80GB G2 (flashed with the new firmware) by using the Windows Vista Recovery Disc. After setting the correct alignment and create a new partition, Win7 x86 could be installed without any problem. Afterwards I'd installed the SSD toolbox v1.1 and examined the status of the SSD, no smart error and dead block could be found. However, the HDD score of Windows Experience Index is only 5.7 (shall be something 7.x or above?), is it necessary to update the AHCI driver (curruently using the driver bundled with Win7)? Anyway, I'd like to say thank you for your valuable information, and I hope that Intel can provide us the "respond" shortly.

The spec. of my PC:

HP Compaq Presario CQ20-130TU Notebook PC

CPU: Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz

RAM: 4GB DDR2-800 (2GB x 2)

CHIPSET: Intel GM45, ICH9M

[idata]

Did some more expirments:

1.) Wiped drive with HDDErase 4.0

2.) Used the diskpar.exe to create / align partition at 2048 sectors (1 megabyte)

3.) Restored form Symantec Ghost 11.5 corporate using a image to parition restore option (to maintain drive geometry)

4.) Drive immedietly bricked became raw/unreadable on reboot (couldn't even boot up to OS once)

Tried the above procedure twice, same result.

However in step # 2 if I align to 1024 sectors (512 kb) then all, except for SMART error, works fine. 1MB is the default partition alignment value of a new partition made with Vista/Windows 7/Server 2008 R2, yet it caused my drive to brick......