Solid State Drives

Intel has confirmed an issue with the firmware update process for 34nm (G2) Intel® X25-M SSDs (80GB and 160GB).  This predominantly affected Windows* 7 (64bit) users during or immediately after the upgrade process to 02HA firmware using the firmware update tool (version 1.3).  Intel plans to release a fix for this issue by the end of November 2009. 

Please see below to decide what you should do:

–       If you have not upgraded to 02HA but using 02G2 or 02G9 – then use new tool when available to upgrade to new firmware to get Trim support and better sequential write performance (160GB)

–       If you have successfully upgraded to 02HA - then continue using the SSD, there are no known issues.

–       If you have received a SSD with 02HA pre installed – then continue using the SSD, there are no known issues.

–       If you have unsuccessfully  upgraded to 02HA - then contact Intel Customer Support for instructions on how to recover the SSD via secure erase or return SSD to Intel for replacement or refund.

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

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 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.

·        The purpose of the SSD community is to facilitate the sharing of experiences and learnings between the people that are using Intel® Solid State Drives. Not surprisingly, there are a number of technical and 'future plans' questions being asked.  In the event that an answer is not forthcoming from this community, one resource that may be useful in getting the technical answers you are looking for is the information posted on the Intel® Corporate site; http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/index.htm?iid=prod+prod_flash.  Another source is the Intel® Support site; http://support.intel.com/support/ssdc/. If the information you are looking for is not easily found, please call or email the contact center for assistance.  Contact information is available on line.   Since there are so many platforms and various platform hardware and software configurations, it can be difficult to provide the 'correct' answer here.  We want to use this community for our SSD customers to share experiences and to help each other. If you could direct your unanswered technical questions to Intel® Support we can help you troubleshoot your issue and get your question answered more quickly.  It also helps Intel® to capture the issues that our collective customers are experiencing and getting the information posted to the web where all can benefit from the learning.  Thank you for your interest in Intel® products.