After following this thread for a while I decided to post my experiences as well.
First of all I never had the 8MB bug, but as Intel stated, even users without the 8MB bug were encouraged to install the firmware update.
The update itself went quite well, the SSD (it’s an 320 160GB) was immediately recognized and soon I was greeted with the firmware complete message. Like the included readme stated, I turned off my system for 10 seconds (actually I turned it off for 30 seconds, just to be sure) and then the problems began. The SSD wasn’t recognized anymore and the HD-LED was blinking like a Christmas tree. A couple of reboots and power-off cycles didn’t solve my issue. It turned out I had to detach my SSD from my system, boot my system without the SSD, attach the SSD again, and boot up again. Although the operating system (win7 64 bit) now did boot up correctly and seemed to work fine, I noticed the SMART 09 attribute (the power on hours) didn’t function anymore. SSD Toolbox stated the power on hours was reset to 0 and CrystalDiskInfo (SSD Utility software) stated the power on feature wasn’t supported on my SSD.
I decided to reinstall windows to see if it would solve my issue. It indeed solved it partial. The power on hours seemed to work again, but for the last two days it states, it’s only been powered on for one (1) hour. I will continue to monitor it off course, though I think it is a bit strange.
SMART 09h Power On Hours is a bit misleading in that it does not track to the time the "system" is powered on. Power on hours only increments based on the amount of time the SSD is in active state which is a very small percentage of time your system is in use. A majority of the time the SSD is in low power DIPM mode where Power On Hours does not increment. One hour of SSD active time for two days of system use sounds about correct.
Ah ok, I didn't knew that. By the way, the Power on Hours just raised to 2, so I guess it's just working fine now.
Still leaves me with the strange Christmas Tree HD-LED flickering and the drive not being recognized after flashing and off course the Power on Hours which only worked after a re-install of the operating system.
Like I said, the SSD seems to work just fine now, so I guess I shouldn't be worrying that much at the moment.
Power on hours are a feature carried over from hard disks who have been more studied over defects.
No moving parts in SSD so once the logic is good, it should be durable
Solved, Power On Hours is ok now.
What are the instructions to put the ISO on an usb thumb drive? I don't have an optical drive. I have tried Unetbootin but it won't boot.
here is the link I used
http://goebelmeier.de/bootstick/
Just use 7zip to open the ".iso" from Intel and then copy it across to the stick... 
Please take a look at this link: http://communities.intel.com/thread/8906
In this day and age we have to update the SSD's using flashdrives, where supposedly are to make our lives easier they made it a lot harder and full of grief.
The way I see it it's easier to make espresso with our computers than it is to make these goddam drives work.
There is a very easy way to make a bootable freedos usb stick for the firmware update. It worked for me.
So alllow me to drop in and post my own experience with this thing. I was using a factory 320 300GB drive for a couple of months without issue and then I decided to apply the firmware update after hearing about the dreaded 8MB bug. I made an image with Acronis and then went through with the firmware update without incident. Yesterday while I was working the system locked up ******* me, there was no way to get out of the OS so I shut it down. Upon the next boot I was greeted with no OS found etc. Extracted the drive and confirmed that it shows up as 8 MB. I have a couple more of these drives...I had a backup from 5 days ago but that is a lifetime for what I do. I think I should have taken my chances and never applied the update..."It was all good just a week ago"
Trying to figure out why the word hard was blocked out of my post? SMH.
I still urge daily backups if you use your rig for work.
I have a server so I use it for dynamic backups using LIve Mesh, this way its transparent.
I hear you and have dozens of servers. I have yet to find a solution that handles my PST on the fly well but have not tried Live Mesh for this yet.
Yes I have a PST file as I manage a few companies with a few exchange servers so I have a few identities. Live Mesh huh..if it can os the PST file while outlook is running I am sold.
Mozy works for your PST file. It takes a while the first backup (my PST is 7-8GB). But once it has it backed up, it will make backups daily of only the changes in your PST. Takes about 1-2 minutes per day to backup depending on how many emails I get.
I use Mozy for my PST and I use sugarsync for everything else. Mozy is not very user friendly as far as access from my phone, tablet, etc.. But that PST file is my business. I have contracts and legal documents in and out all day. The loss of even a day is quite a mess.
