Solid-State Drives (SSD)

[Swagman]

Hi All,

Thought I'd let you all know, as I have just found out from Crucial support, that new SSD's now have a small white switch on the connector end of the drive.

At first they told me it couldn't be a crucial drive, as thier drives had no switches, but with a bit of patience and a few photo's, I got the answer

I FOUND OUT WHAT THE SWITCH IS FOR..... 

anyway see below an extract from a document I got from Crucial support

Crucial M225 Switch

(For firmware upgrade only)

The sliding switch beside the SATA connector is only used for firmware upgrading.  The switch should remain in Normal position for ordinary usage and can be switched to Program position only when updating the firmware.

Steps to upgrade the firmware

1)    Turn off the power.  The switch should only be moved when power is off.

2)    Move the switch to the Program position as shown:

(This means that you slide the switch to the right (if you are looking at the conector end of the drive, so away from the connectors)

3)    Perform firmware upgrade.

4)    Move the switch to the Normal position as shown:

(This means that you slide the switch to the left (if you are looking at the conector end of the drive, so towardsthe connectors)

Sorry I couldn't get the images to post, but have just found a way.. hehe

Warning:  After completing a firmware upgrade the switch must be moved back to Normal position. Leaving the switch in Program position during normal operation can result in loss or corruption of data.

[targetbsp]

What does the switch actually achieve?  Is it like a write protect option for the firmware or something?

[Swagman]

No idea really.  I only know as much as you have read in the above note, as that's all I got.

I was just shocked to see a switch on it when it arrived, and especially as the enclosed notes said nothing about it.

At first I thought it was some kind of Master/Slave switch, but then it's a SATA drive, so has no Master/Slave switch, then I got paranoid, and needed to know what it was before I installed it.  Because as far as I knew, it could have done anything.

but I suspect as you have deduced, it must be some type of write protect

[targetbsp]

I know the ocz drives have a jumper you used to have to do to apply their older firmwares but the earliest crucial drives were released with a firmware version beyond those needing a jumper so... who knows?

[ae3265]

More importantly, what are the ramifications of upgrading firmware without the switch in the program position???

Could that cause data corruption?  Be behind some of the 1819 issues we're seeing?

Sure would be nice to have complete documentation in the shipping package!  This is not the sort of thing we should be "discovering"!

[Simon-D]

I just noticed that I have this switch on my new 256 GB drive and I am seeing the same problem in reduced write speed performance after installing the 1819 firmware upgrade  switch was in the normal position.

I did not see this switch when fitting, but I was no looking for one.

I agree with ae3265 it would have been nice to have some documentation in the shipping package, I had just the drive in a brown box.

I do not want to play with the switch just in case I  could kill the drive.

As highlighted by ae3265, what are the ramifications of upgrading firmware without the switch in the program position?

[gisenberg]

While the firmware switch is flipped, the drive reports itself under a different name.

When the switch is toggled, the drive goes from reporting itself as CRUCIAL_CT128M225 to INDILINX BAREFOOT somethingsomething.

From my experience, while this switch is set, all data is inaccessible and the drive is more or less unusable. In order to flash my drive to 1819, I had to not flip the switch, as the Crucial firmware updater tool could not locate the drive while the switch was set. The firmware updater tools look for a CRUCIAL_CT###M225 drive, and when the drive reports itself as something different, the firmware updater can't find the drive.

My guess is that this switch exists to make it easier for someone, somewhere to flash to Indilinx-provided images. I'm pretty sure we're not the intended target audience.

[rizwank]

What's weird is that I flashed my drive, but didn't change the switch. (I have the one with the switch.)

[digby]

Any news on this, my new 256gb M225 drive that arrived today has the little white switch but no mention of it in the instructions, btw it has firmware 1571 om it.

[sfaure]

I have a 256G and flashed it just fine w/o touching the switch.  As there is nothing mentioning the switch in any docs or info from crucial except that it has to do w/ firmware, and it works just fine w/o touching it, i would say chalk it up to an "internal engineering function for crucial" and flash away.

However if you're not going to try using this drive w/ trim (or indeed as you just recieved the drive) I would probably encourage you to forget the whole firmware debate/discussion for now.  There is clearly another one coming in 2-3 weeks and you are going to just endure pain that will not likely return you any value, to flash or use the firmware right now.

Given the history and environment i would project that the newer firmware will most likely be like the 18xx firmware.  It will upgrade from the 15xx non-destructively.  You might have to downgrade to 15xx if you upgrade to 18xx and the downgrad is most definately destrictive.

As you just got the drive, it will most likely not reach the degradation the 18xx firmware would help you with until the even newer version is out.  So, why endure the pain?  I'd advise run w/ 15xx for now, and if you believe the drive is degrading, run the wiper tool once or twice until the new firmware comes out.

Enjoy the drive.  It is blaxingly fast and will most likely make you love you're computer again..