TRIM update hosed my Windows 7 install

[idata]

Just did the firmware update and it hosed my Windows 7 installation. The updater showed a successful firware update. Initially the computer booted just fine, but once I was within Windows it installed some drivers and asked for a reboot. That's when the trouble started. Now the drive won't boot Windows 7 anymore. I don't know if it's a Dell problem or Intel problem. The Dell BIOS claims a SMART error. I have a Dell XPS 8000.

[idata]

Hmm ... interesting.

The Intel SSD Toolbox now will not even run ; tells me there is no disk in the drive \device\harddisk6\DR8.

Given, yesterday, it found both the SSD and my 3 SATA drives, not a good sign.

[idata]

Hey guys, I just finished reading through the thread and I think the discussion is very interesting! Many people have made great points regarding what might actually be causing these issues! Now that its been a while since the firmware was released there is enough date points to start to make sense of all this. From everything I've read (both here and on many other forums) I think dbm hit the nail on the head. His explanation makes the most sense in my opinion given what we all know so far (in regards to the issue being some mix of Intels new firmware, our chipset drivers, our OS's, etc...). I don't think there is enough evidence to support full blame on anyone (including Intel), whatever the case I hope we'll learn more soon! With that all said I hope people continue to post their experiences and thoughts because the more we learn the better chance we'll have to work this all out!

[idata]

I suspect I have an idea of what's going on....

For those that have bricked drives post firmware update, do you know if your partition alignment was correct? A bunch of us are thinking that if the alignment is not right and TRIM is enabled on the OS, that the drive will start to corrupt itself. Maybe a long shot, maybe not?

[idata]

Alignment? I formatted the SSD in Vista and did the update in Windows 7 with no problem. When doing the Windows install, I imagine it does partition the drive as required.

[idata]

ambizytl wrote:

Alignment? I formatted the SSD in Vista and did the update in Windows 7 with no problem. When doing the Windows install, I imagine it does partition the drive as required.

A fresh Win 7 format and install does the alignment correctly. I don't know if Vista does the same, XP definately doesn't. If you installed Vista and updated to Win 7, your alignment wouldn't change whether it was correct or not. To check alignment (courtesy of another forum):

To check that your partition is aligned correctly, go to your start menu and in the run box type msinfo32 and run it. Click on components => storage => disks and check what the partition starting offset is for your SSD. If it isn't divisible by 4096, then it's not aligned correctly (ie if you get any number that isn't a whole number, then it's not aligned).