looks like TRIM-enabled firmware for X25-M is out today

Xilikon

Xilikon

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Here is a Intel press release I found : http://www.intel.com/cd/corporate/pressroom/emea/fra/index.htm

It's in french but it basically stated that the new firmware and SSD Toolbox will be released today from Intel to enable support for TRIM on Postville drives. I didn't find the corresponding english article yet.

As a new owner of a X25-M Postville 80 Gb and W7 HP x64, this is a exciting day if it's coming true.
 
:) Good deal. I had even already checked the US site this morning to see if new firmware had been released yet too. lol Still just 1.3 as of about an hour ago.
 
Some other interesting info there, they have vastly improved the write speed of the larger 160GB drive (I think google flipped the GB and nm in the translation) :

"For owners of a unit SSD X25-M 34 GB of 160 nm, the upgrade firmware also boosts the speed of sequential writing by bringing it to 100 MB maximum performance is up 40% compared to the current firmware version."

Links to the firmware and toolbox when they become available:
http://www.intel.com/go/ssdfirmware
http://www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox
 
....and what about drivers?

also, one note from the release.

"Intel recommends daily execution of the TRIM command."

so... it will have (or can) be manually run, like wiper??


Still don't see the firmware.
 
MixManSC said:
That's the same firmware that has been out since August. Version 1.3 which we already have.
Click to expand...

Maybe clear your browser cache.


English: 100902HA88208850.ISO Download

Ver:v1.4 Date:10/23/2009 Size:2832 (KB) Time @56Kbps:6.56 min
OS:OS Independent
 
At this time Trim is a manual process, however within the "Tool Box" it can be put on a schedule. My 4k writes are up but the rest is about normal, though my drive was in pretty good shape as I've moved my browser cache off to another disk.

edit: Doh! Xilikon beat me to it.

edit2: I have an 80GB
 
Yup - I was just getting a cached copy. :D


VDiesel said:
Maybe clear your browser cache.


English: 100902HA88208850.ISO Download

Ver:v1.4 Date:10/23/2009 Size:2832 (KB) Time @56Kbps:6.56 min
OS:OS Independent
Click to expand...
 
Can't seem to find the SSD toolbox on the Intel site despite the links in the Legit Reviews article above... anyone have better luck?

Going to update the firmware now, though :)
 
So they confirmed that us, G1 owners are screwed... Well, thanks Intel, welcome to the world of the evil companies.
 
and owners of the 160GB G2 version are laughing because of the performance boost from the new firmware.
 
Just to confirm we can update the firmware with out losing the data on the drive right?

I'm pretty sure that is the case, but wanted to confirm 100% before I flash later on today. (when I get home)
 
Wells its good that they finally increased their seq write speeds, but it still looks artificially capped at 100 MB/s
 
C-rizzle said:
Just to confirm we can update the firmware with out losing the data on the drive right?

I'm pretty sure that is the case, but wanted to confirm 100% before I flash later on today. (when I get home)
Click to expand...

Your backup solution should help you out if you have problems. Oh wait, you do have a backup solution, right?!

The firmware update is non-destructive. But as always, back up your data first.
 
I just ran the firmware update and it seems to have semi-bricked my 160 gb G2 drive. EDIT: Make that a full brick, RMA in progress.

Retracing steps:
Changed to IDE mode as the readme suggests. Ran firmware disk, which confirmed the update was successful. Restarted, changed to AHCI mode in BIOS, Rebooted once, and got to the Win7 desktop. The OS requested that I mmediately restart -- I assume after reloading the driver for the SSD. When I restarted again it reloaded the driver again then explorer.exe crashed. Third reboot, same thing. Fourth reboot, now can't even get the Starting Windows screen -- just hangs. Using WHS restore or Win7 install CD now results in hangs and endless disk access.

The firmware updater would not "re-flash".

Thanks intel!
 
Last edited:
It's only manual trim still?? I expected a lot more from Intel. OCZ has had manual trim for some time now, and they are tiny in comparison.
 
That's not encouraging. Does safe mode work? How about switching back to legacy/IDE mode in your BIOS?

I agree that the manual TRIM is disappointing.
 
Wingdings said:
I wonder what's keeping Intel from releasing TRIM on the G1. I'm feeling let down here.
Click to expand...

They announced quite some time ago that they would not be enabling TRIM on G1 drives. Most speculation has assumed they are just being evil.

Cheer up, at least you won't be tempted to upgrade and brick your drive like me.:p
 
Well, one thing is for sure - they alienated me as a customer and they can be sure that there won't be any buy of Intel SSD in future in my case. Except if they will take my G1 and give me a G2 for free :).
 
According to the Anandtech article, the windows7 TRIM does work. When you delete a file, it TRIMs the drive. So why would we need to schedule their manual "SSD optimizer" utility? I don't understand. I can see running it once, when you upgrade the firmware, but it shouldn't be required after that.
 
Has anyone had any trouble getting the SSD toolbox to work? I upgraded the firmware just fine, but when I launch the toobox, it just shows "Error Connecting to Drive" in the drive selection window, and I can't do anything else with it.

running the 80gb G2 drive and win7 pro
 
schizo said:
According to the Anandtech article, the windows7 TRIM does work. When you delete a file, it TRIMs the drive. So why would we need to schedule their manual "SSD optimizer" utility? I don't understand. I can see running it once, when you upgrade the firmware, but it shouldn't be required after that.
Click to expand...
Windows 7 only supports TRIM with the default Microsoft SATA controller driver. If you install any other driver -- such as the Intel Matrix Storage drivers or a RAID driver -- then the TRIM support in Windows 7 ceases to function. That's when you need the utility.
 
schizo said:
According to the Anandtech article, the windows7 TRIM does work. When you delete a file, it TRIMs the drive. So why would we need to schedule their manual "SSD optimizer" utility? I don't understand. I can see running it once, when you upgrade the firmware, but it shouldn't be required after that.
Click to expand...

For people without Windows 7 I assume.
 
Good points. So if you're running windows7 without RAID using the default drivers, you don't need to schedule the periodic wipes.
 
KenF said:
Windows 7 only supports TRIM with the default Microsoft SATA controller driver. If you install any other driver -- such as the Intel Matrix Storage drivers or a RAID driver -- then the TRIM support in Windows 7 ceases to function. That's when you need the utility.
Click to expand...

I'm confused. I downloaded the user manual for the new toolkit, and it says this:

As part of its normal processing, the Intel SSD Toolbox checks whether the selected drive has a RAID configuration. If so, the program highlights the row in red and displays following error message: Cannot run the Intel SSD Optimizer on RAID configurations.
Click to expand...

Is the toolkit not what runs the TRIM command?
 
KenF said:
Windows 7 only supports TRIM with the default Microsoft SATA controller driver. If you install any other driver -- such as the Intel Matrix Storage drivers or a RAID driver -- then the TRIM support in Windows 7 ceases to function. That's when you need the utility.
Click to expand...

Yeah, wish Intel would have included a new Intel Matrix Storage Manager driver today with TRIM support. :(
 
No, TRIM is from the OS.

The toolkit is a manual clean up.

They need to make TRIM of this toolkit to work with their own RAID chip. Right now its pretty silly that using an Intel drive on Intel drivers in raid using Intel's chip, you can't TRIM.
 
Pyrolistical said:
No, TRIM is from the OS.

The toolkit is a manual clean up.

They need to make TRIM of this toolkit to work with their own RAID chip. Right now its pretty silly that using an Intel drive on Intel drivers in raid using Intel's chip, you can't TRIM.
Click to expand...

What is a "manual clean up", if not a TRIM? I thought that the TRIM command would go and free up all of the unused sections of memory, and I was thinking the toolkit was a way to manually execute that command. If that is not the case, does the OS run the TRIM command on its own? And if so, what is the purpose of doing it manually?
 
TRIM is only useful at the time of delete or format. This manual clean up will catch all the deleted data on the drive before you upgraded to TRIM.
 
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