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Intel 320 Series SSDs Affected by Firmware Bug That Causes Data Loss

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Philflow

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 7, 2008
1,276
3
Intel 320-Series SSDs Affected by Firmware Bug That Causes Data Loss
A series of consumers who have bought Intel 320-series solid state drives have reported that the units are affected by a strange firmware issue that causes these SSDs to drop in capacity to just 8MB and lose all the data that is stored on them.

320-series SSD owners who are affected by these issues started a thread on Intel's official support forums to complain about the problems, but no official response has been provided at this time.

These problems were first spotted by the PC Review publication, which wrote:

“Be wary of the new Intel SSD 320 series. Currently, there's a bug in the controller that can cause the device to revert to 8MB during a power failure. AFAIK they have not yet publicly announced it, and won't have a firmware fix ready for release until the end of July.”

According to an Intel representative, these issues can be triggered by power failures as the SSD tries to reconnect with the SATA port instead of starting a proper shutdown.

So far, there is still no clear solution for this problem, but some users have reported that drive space can be restored by performing a secure erase with the help of Intel's SSD Toolbox utility.

A new firmware that is supposed to resolve these issues is expected by the end of the month, but Intel hasn't made any official statements in this regard.

Intel's 320 SSD Series is comprised of six models with capacities ranging from 40GB to 600GB and all these drives use the SATA 3Gbps interface.

Their performance varies according to drive capacity, but the fastest SSDs are able to reach sequential read and write speeds of 270MB/s and 220MB/s, respectively, as well as 39,500 input/output operations per second (IOPS) random reads and 23,000 IOPS random writes.

Since the second half of May, the drives are backed up by one of the largest warranties in the industry which spans over no less than five years.
Click to expand...
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Inte...rmware-Bug-that-Causes-Data-Loss-210809.shtml
 
bozz2006

bozz2006

macrumors 68030
Aug 24, 2007
2,530
0
Minnesota
This is me. I actually had two drives that were affected in this way before I had had enough and got a Vertex 3. Mine weren't caused by a power failure though, I don't believe. Both failures happened after opening my laptop from a sleep state. The system would then hang, freeze, and icons would start disappearing from the desktop.
 
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iAppleONE

macrumors member
Sep 14, 2008
68
0
Is this problem related to a particular way of treating the SSD (ie. power-cycling)? And, how susceptible will normal usage be affected by this bug (regular bootup, sleep, proper shutdown etc.)?
 
dmarch

dmarch

macrumors regular
Nov 14, 2007
122
0
Big Sky, MT
I have a 120GB 320 Series that suffered this failure in my 2010 mbp. I had left the computer plugged in and turned on overnight to perform a Time Machine back up after upgrading to 10.7. I'm not really sure if I will use the replacement or not.
 
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riptideMBP

macrumors 6502
May 29, 2011
260
0
That's an interesting issue. At least with an optibay, internal backup takes less than 2 minutes
 
Fiesta

Fiesta

macrumors newbie
Jun 5, 2011
28
0
Scotland
Is there a way of finding out what firmware version you have on your mac? I can't see anything obvious in system profiler.
 
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blunti

macrumors 6502a
Mar 15, 2011
541
21
wow... i thought these are the most reliable ssd's out there... guess not anymore. or at least until the fw update


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
L

Locodice

macrumors regular
Mar 6, 2011
231
0
This thread just made my day!

All those Intel fanboys who love bragging on here about how "reliable" and "reputable" intel are with SSD's

roflmao
 
P

Philflow

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 7, 2008
1,276
3
^ I do agree, many people claimed that this was the most reliable SSD without having real evidence.

Intel acknowledges the problem now:
Intel is aware of the customer sightings on Intel SSD 320 Series. If you experience any issue with your Intel SSD, please contact your Intel representative or Intel customer support (via web: Laptop, Notebook, Desktop, Server and Embedded Processor Technology - Intel or phone: Phone Support) . We will provide an update when we have more information.

Alan
Intel's NVM Solutions Group
Click to expand...
SSD power loss report updates: Intel Communities
 
E

eC1990ho

macrumors member
Mar 1, 2011
81
0
Philflow said:
It's only Intel 320 that's affected.

Kingston V+ 100, Samsung 470, Crucial M4 (firmware 2) still run fantastic on MBP.

So does Seagate XT by the way...
Click to expand...

Is the M4 stable if put in the optical bay?
I can only find articles where they test it in the main bay
 
P

Philflow

macrumors 65816
Original poster
May 7, 2008
1,276
3
Too bad this thread got moved. Many MBP owners have or are considering this SSD and would like to be aware of what's going on.
eC1990ho said:
Is the M4 stable if put in the optical bay?
I can only find articles where they test it in the main bay
Click to expand...

The Crucial M4 is fully stable in MBP 2011.

I don't how the optibay would affect that.
 
dmarch

dmarch

macrumors regular
Nov 14, 2007
122
0
Big Sky, MT
My replacement arrives from Intel tomorrow. I think it will stay in the box until a new firmware version is released.
 
benthewraith

benthewraith

macrumors 68040
May 27, 2006
3,140
143
Fort Lauderdale, FL
Philflow said:
You had rather find out after you bought the SSD? :)
Click to expand...

I know, I found out just today, a week after I ordered it from Best Buy. I wonder if this is the reason the order hasn't shipped yet?

Looks like Intel isn't the only one having issues.

A few days ago, we reported that solid state drives based on the SandForce SF-2000 controllers are facing some severe problems that may range from Windows blue screens to the BIOS' inability to detect the SSD and recently OCZ has confirmed that Vertex 3 and Agility 3 models are affected by these issues.

This information was posted on the company's official forums by Eric Ryder, forum support manager at OCZ.

“OCZ is aware of firmware issues that have been reported in the field that are potentially causing bluescreens on all SF2000 based drives, this issue affects a very small percentage of Vertex 3 and Agility 3 SSDs, and currently less than 1% of all our customers are affected,” said Ryder.

However, he was quick to point out that OCZ doesn't suffer from the same problems that made Corsair recall its 120GB Force 3 SSDs, and that these issues can be fixed with a simple firmware update.

“This hard to replicate issue is a completely different issue than what some other drive manufacturers are experiencing, which may have similar symptoms but is caused by a hardware issue.

“Unlike other brands OCZ does not use a reference design, and we design and manufacture our SSDs in-house, and are NOT affected by the hardware problems which are unique to other drive vendors.”

OCZ is currently working with SandForce to develop a new firmware version that could solve these problems, but nobody knows at this point in time how long it will take until this arrives.

As a result, users who are facing any blue screen issues with their Vertex 3 and Agility 3 SSDs are encouraged to contact the company's customer service team for immediate support (link here).

The 120GB Corsair Force 3 SSDs which were recalled earlier this week suffered not only from firmware issues, but also had a defective PCB design.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Heilage

Heilage

macrumors 68030
May 1, 2009
2,592
0
I really hope people took backups...

A very unsettling bug though. And in light of Intel having a far more thorough quality control and testing on their new units, you can wonder what kind of issues the other manufacturers have.
 
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