New Intel ssd firmware released - 02HD

InvisiBill said:
Use the default MS storage drivers and delete stuff
Click to expand...

Will uninstalling the Intel Matrix drivers be sufficient to roll back to the MS drivers, or would I need to reinstall Win7?

Also has anyone done a performance comparison between the MS default drivers w/TRIM vs the Intel drivers without TRIM?
 
I just got the SSD a few hours ago.. Here is what I did.

1. Dumped the raptor
2. Hooked up a fresh SSD
3. Set AHCI
4. Flashed new firmware
5. Installed Win7
6. Ran a benchmark

crystaldisk.png


Should I do anything else? This baby is blazing and no noise whatsoever.
 
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I didn't bother uninstalling IMSM, simply switched out the drivers in the device manager, easy as pie and works just fine.
 
Nice to see all of the success stories. Sounds like Intel made sure the update would truly be foolproof this time, as it appears many people are flashing with AHCI enabled and Win7 x64 users are updating fine also.

Two questions:

I thought the drive had to be set to IDE mode in order to be flashed? This doesn't appear to be the case, but it's weird how a couple of guys couldn't run the update until they changed to IDE mode and then it said the drive had already been updated. Perhaps different chipsets give different results?

I read in another thread that you should run the Toolbox before flashing to "clean the drive up" and now it seems like it doesn't really matter, or you can go ahead and flash and then run the Toolbox once to clean it up. Any suggestions on which method would be preferable? Or is it even necessary to run the Toolbox at all?
 
Just to throw in my experience. I tried to create a bootable USB stick with the method posted on page 1, but that didn't work for me. I got the text "FreeDOS", I think it was, in the top corner.

I used the HP disk utility without any problems and successfully flashed my virgin, retail Newegg 80G2 form last week. I did have to switch to IDE from AHCI on my ASUS P6TSE.

Installed Win7 Pro quite quickly after that with no problems. I have not had a chance to try to enable TRIM as directed here (http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=442158&postcount=3):
Enable TRIM

Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 0


Disable TRIM

Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior set disabledeletenotify 1


How do I know if TRIM is working in Windows 7?

Go to the Command Prompt and type:

fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

DisableDeleteNotify = 1 (Windows TRIM commands are disabled)
DisableDeleteNotify = 0 (Windows TRIM commands are enabled)
Click to expand...
 
What would be the benefit of using this firmware instead of what's already on my SSD? Would a X-25 gen 2 bought last week have the right firmware for TRIM?
 
AbsintheGuy said:
Same thing with me. Exactly the same thing. So now I am not sure if it really updated or not. My drive works normally, but I am not sure if TRIM works or if I am really getting any better performance. My reads are around 225 AVG, and writes are 105 AVG.
Click to expand...

This thread over at the Intel forums has some suggestions on how to verify if TRIM is active:
 
There should be no need to enable it. Disabledeletenotify is set to 0 by default on windows 7.
 
update went flawless for me
I never had any problems with the old firmware either

I always switch to IDE for flashing, then switch back to RAID
 
I'm terrified. Just this morning I lost my 7200.11 data drive to sudden and catastrophic mechanical failure. Now I gotta put my brand new 160GB SSD in the hands of the Intel firmware boogeyman, running under Win 7 64-bit in AHCI??

I think I'll give it another day or two ... I can't stand the thought of bricking two drives in less than 24 hours.
 
Deeky said:
I'm terrified. Just this morning I lost my 7200.11 data drive to sudden and catastrophic mechanical failure. Now I gotta put my brand new 160GB SSD in the hands of the Intel firmware boogeyman, running under Win 7 64-bit in AHCI??

I think I'll give it another day or two ... I can't stand the thought of bricking two drives in less than 24 hours.
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change to IDE for the flash, then switch back
 
Do I need to change the registry value back to 3, or can I simply make the change in BIOS back to IDE?
 
I'm running pure AHCI, not RAID. According to the install instructions that should be fine. Meh. Dunno. I'll likely play it safe and switch for the flash.
 
I switched my drives from RAID to compatible IDE and ran the tool. It successfully updated the first drive, prompted for the second, and took longer than the first and then prompted me with:

"Error reading from drive A: DOS area: general failure
(A)bored, (I)gnore, (R)etry, (F)ail?

I did a retry and got the same error. Rebooted off the CD and it reported that both drives were updated. I put them back into RAID mode and everything booted fine and I'm back to normal.

Not sure what happened with their utility and FreeDOS though.
 
I stayed in IDE, since AHCI gave me worse performance. No problems here, but I did have to put the SSD in the first SATA port and unplug all my other drives before the intel tool would see that there was an X25-m installed. This is on a Biostar TA-790GX A2+ with shitty ass SB750.
 
imyourzero said:
I thought the drive had to be set to IDE mode in order to be flashed? This doesn't appear to be the case, but it's weird how a couple of guys couldn't run the update until they changed to IDE mode and then it said the drive had already been updated. Perhaps different chipsets give different results?

I read in another thread that you should run the Toolbox before flashing to "clean the drive up" and now it seems like it doesn't really matter, or you can go ahead and flash and then run the Toolbox once to clean it up. Any suggestions on which method would be preferable? Or is it even necessary to run the Toolbox at all?
Click to expand...

It will depend on the chipset. It's supposed to work in AHCI, but you may need to drop back to IDE.

I'm not sure what sort of "cleanup" they meant, but the Optimizer can't do the TRIM cleanup stuff until the new firmware is on it. There are other tools included in it, but the Optimizer/TRIM is the first thing that comes to mind when they say "clean the drive up".
 
I updated my brand new drive and installed Windows 7 Ultimate (x64). Here are my results (no before and after)

---------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 Beta1 (C) 2007-2009 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
---------------------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 249.859 MB/s
Sequential Write : 87.515 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 198.568 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 87.120 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 17.203 MB/s [ 4200.0 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 34.860 MB/s [ 8510.6 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 123.982 MB/s [ 30269.1 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 84.581 MB/s [ 20649.6 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [C: Used 55.6% (22.3/40.0 GB)]
Date : 2009/12/03 0:25:10
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)


Edit: wanted to add that I flashed in AHCI and haven't put this drive in IDE.
 
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Just updated from a successful 02HA to 02HD. Seems absolutely identical.
 
Flashed in ACHI. Received an error during the process ("please enable SMART, legacy IDE, etc), restarted the PC, booted from CD (didn't change anything) and I'm told the firmware is up-to-date. Double-checked in CrystalDiskInfo, confirmed. TRIM enabled. It flashed, but returned an error message. Meh.

The difference is night and day for me. My SSD was 3/4 full and sluggish as hell in Win 7 64-bit. Moving between folders resulted in a slight hitch/delay each time. I was ready to reinstall. Now it's FLIES. I click Control Panel, it's up before I've released the button. Prior to the flash ... no comparison. I'm not talking enthusiast level "every little improvement is major!" Even the most PC-inept individual would immediately notice the difference I'm experiencing.

Despite the insignificant hiccup during the flash ... nice work, Intel. :D

EDIT: I meant to record a CrystalDisk "before" reading prior the flash, but I was dealing with some unrelated CMOS issues and ended up flashing before I could run the bench (just convenient). Regardless, based on the readings I took last night (from memory), I can tell you that the Read speeds are basically identical (if not a hair slower), but the Write speeds are substantially improved. Beyond that, as I've said, the "feel" of the OS is improved beyond all expectation, by an order of magnitude.
 
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I flashed mine last night with no problems. I played it safe and put the controller into Legacy IDE mode first though. Also, I was upgrading from the factory firmware (02G9 or something like that) in case that makes a difference.

My CrystalDisk scores went up very slightly for 4K and sequential, but actually went down about 5% for 512K. This is a new drive though and hasn't had time to become fragmented yet, so my 512K scores may have been unrealistically high. When Intel re-releases the toolbox I'll try the optimizer and see what happens.
 
Just re-ran the Windows Experience Index, for giggles. HDD score rose from 7.3 to 7.6 after the flash.

EDIT: Major improvement to re-boot speed. I'm talking 5-10 seconds, if not more.
 
I installed this on my laptop, with a 945GM chipset. I didn't have to change BIOS modes (there aren't any SATA options in my BIOS anyways). I had previously had Win7 x64 installed on my machine, and it continues to function.

Because there is disagreement over whether partially used blocks, created prior to the firmware update (and hence TRIM) are erased by TRIM, I created a large file and deleted it. In order to do this I used TrueCrypt which enables you to create files (containers) of arbitrary size.
 
Just want to confirm, AHCI is necessary if you want to enable TRIM, correct? That's the only reason I made the change from IDE in the first place, paving the way for the new TRIM firmware. Have I been misinformed?
 
As long as you're using the native windows IDE drivers TRIM should work. AHCI is not required.
 
Ah well. It's working great with AHCI, I won't mess with a good thing.
 
AHCI should theoretically be faster anyway, although I doubt you'll feel any difference in anything but benchmarks, this is [H] after all.
 
Working great so far. Mobo doesn't support AHCI, so I didn't have to worry about that- took me awhile to find a working guide for making a bootable usb flash drive. Sequential read speeds are up 20mb/s.
 
Went for it on my Dell Precision 690...... I did not change a thing (just rebooted with the CD in) and it went perfect with it still in AHCI mode. This thing has a funky chipset too - Intel 5000X along side an SAS RAID controller. I'll be running it on my home box shortly.
 
Deeky said:
Just re-ran the Windows Experience Index, for giggles. HDD score rose from 7.3 to 7.6 after the flash.

EDIT: Major improvement to re-boot speed. I'm talking 5-10 seconds, if not more.
Click to expand...

My 80GB G2 on factory firmware scores a 7.7......

I haven't flashed yet, I don't have any CD-Rs and keep forgetting to buy one.
 
:D Just re-ran it again, having cleaned off some junk and ran CCleaner. 7.7 now. I seem to recall my factory firmware originally scored a 7.6, but I guess lacking TRIM and being 3/4 full really did some damage to the numbers.
 
How can one tell if they are using the Windows native drivers?

I also haven't found a definitive answer as to know if the TRIM command is working or not.

AHCI required or not for TRIM?

Thanks!
 
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