Note from Intel NAND Solutions Group - Intel® SSD Toolbox with Intel® SSD Optimizer and latest firmware are here!

[Alan_F_Intel]

We're excited to announce the Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox, with Intel® SSD Optimizer and firmware update, designed for our 34nm Intel® X25-M Mainstream SATA SSDs. The latest tools are designed to help better manage and retain the out-of-box performance of Intel SSDs.

For 34nm X25-M & X18-M 160GB owners, the firmware update also offers a performance boost to sequential write speeds by delivering up to 100MB per second, a 40 percent performance improvement over the existing firmware version.

The Intel SSD Toolbox allows users to more effectively monitor and manage the SSD's health. The firmware upgrade and Intel SSD Optimizer use the Windows* 7 ATA Data Set Management Command (known as Trim) to help keep the Intel SSD running at continued high performance. In addition, the SSD Toolbox and Optimizer also allow the respective enhancements to work with Windows* XP and Vista* operating systems.

The Trim attribute synchs the operating system's view of deleted files with those that are deleted, but not erased on the drive. Trim tells the SSD which data blocks are no longer in use. This helps stabilize the performance and health of the SSD over time.

The Intel SSD Toolbox provides SSD management tools and information about the drive, including comparing Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) drive attributes to manufacturer threshold. It provides basic and full diagnostics, along with recommended actions. The Toolbox also features a graphical user interface that will allow end users to schedule and run the Trim command independent of the operating system. Intel recommends users install the firmware update and toolbox, and run the Trim function daily which can be scheduled automatically from the SSD Optimizer tool..

The firmware upgrade can be found at http://www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware and the Intel SSD Toolbox and Optimizer at /www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox.

We will be monitoring this blog and will try to answer questions that you may have. Enjoy the latest software!

NAND Solutions Group Marketing team

[idata]

Is the firmware upgrade necessary for the Toolbox just to connect to the drive? It tells me "Error connecting to drive". I have the new 34nm 80GB model as the boot drive (non-raid) on Windows 7.

Please can someone give me the URL for the blog that this announcement refers to?

Thanks.

[idata]

You need to use the Windows 7 driver for your storage controller, for the tool to work correctly. After i deleted the nvidia storage driver in the device manager, windows 7 installed the default driver and the intel tool could connect to my ssd.

[idata]

Thanks for the reply, igotssd. I also have 3 mechanical drives attached include 2 as raid1. Deleting the nvidia driver could do something bad such as making the raid array inaccessible to Windows. Then I'll be stuffed. 😞 As much I'd like to use the Toolbox it's probably not worth the risk to my existing, stable system.