Update from Intel's NAND Solutions Group - Toolbox issue

[Alan_F_Intel]

To 34nm (G2) Intel® X25-M Solid-State Drive consumers,

• Microsoft* alerted Intel to an issue with the Intel® SSD Optimizer tool and Intel is working on a fix to the issue. After the SSD Optimizer is run, the SSD Optimizer renders all previously set Windows* system restore points unusable. However, user data is not affected . The SSD Optimizer tool is part of the Intel® SSD Toolbox (ver 1.1).

• This applies only to users who meet all four criteria below:

• Use Windows*7 or Vista and

• Use the System Protection feature which sets system restore points (enabled by default in Windows*7 and Vista*) and

• Have installed 02HA firmware and

• Have used Intel SSD Optimizer (which was available from intel.com from 10/26 to 11/4).

• A workaround for this issue and additional details are available http://support.intel.com/support/ssdc/hpssd/sb/CS-031073.htm here . Intel will give regular updates on this issue. Please note this issue is not related to the Intel SSD firmware update process covered in a separate announcement (Intel® Solid-State Drive Firmware Update).

*Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

Alan

NAND Solutions Group

Intel Corporation

[idata]

the link to the PDF from the given link is broken or not found. Please fix.

[idata]

I can open the file now, i think it is fixed.

[idata]

I don't get it: Which restore points exactly are being rendered useless by the manual TRIM feature of the SSD Toolbox? Only the ones which were created before TRIMming the first time, or also the ones created subsequently after that?

So all my restore points are trashed now. OK, great, but at least Intel is telling me before I really need them. I delete all of them according to Intel's instructions, turn off scheduled TRIMming, then create a new restore point manually. This restore point will work, according to the whitepaper.

So far, so good. But what about the restore points which Windows creates automatically, e.g. when installing new drivers? Are these also rendered unusable next time I run the manual TRIM? Or, are they rendered useless exactly if, and only if, they are being created while, at the same time, the SSD Toolbox is doing a scheduled TRIM pass?

Intel isn't clear on this: Do I have to turn off scheduled TRIMming entirely to ensure that future restore points will work? Or do I only have to ensure that they are not being created while the SSD Toolbox is TRIMming the drive? Will each future TRIM pass destroy all restore points or just the one which is created during the very same TRIM pass (if that happens)?

What I mean is this: Is there some kind of inconsistency created when switching to a TRIMmed drive the first time which is responsible for killing the restore points - or, is the TRIM function of the SSD toolbox damaging all restore points on each run, regardless of whether they were created before or after having TRIMmed before? If the latter holds, we have to manually recreate a restore point every time the SSD Toolbox has run TRIM (be it manually or scheduled).

[idata]

To derkurt: I think Intel made it very clear:

"After the SSD Optimizer is run, the SSD Optimizer renders all previously set Windows* system restore points unusable."

So it means that whenever you run the optimizer, you lose all your restore points. You have to manually recreate a restore point every time after you have ran the SSD Optimizer. Of course this pretty much ruins the idea of restore points, so better not to run the optimizer at all if you care for restore points.