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I just order this drive; pretty estatic!

Did you order it because of the bootcamp compatability? In that case perhaps you may want to wait. I have not seen anyone (yet) reporting they have successfully installed windows on the nvidia-based macs / X25-M with the new firmware. And it does not work for me.
 
Did you order it because of the bootcamp compatability? In that case perhaps you may want to wait. I have not seen anyone (yet) reporting they have successfully installed windows on the nvidia-based macs / X25-M with the new firmware. And it does not work for me.

In theory, only the very first 80Gb drives were affected by the bootcamp issue, so buying now should be quite safe. In any case, Intel will exchange the drive if you find you've bought a lemon.

As magamo already said, the PC Perspective article states that the new firmware does not fix the bootcamp issue and you will therefore need to return your drive to Intel for a replacement to resolve this.

I just order this drive; pretty estatic!

It's a great drive. However, sadly you'll find that you get used to the speed and will take it for granted, and only miss it when you come to use a computer without SSD!
 
This firmware does fix the boot camp issue.

If you have a rev 902 or later, than this firmware should fix the bootcamp issue.

I am installing vista on my MB right now as we speak. It seems to be going along fine.
 
Did you order it because of the bootcamp compatability? In that case perhaps you may want to wait. I have not seen anyone (yet) reporting they have successfully installed windows on the nvidia-based macs / X25-M with the new firmware. And it does not work for me.

Oh no; I removed my BootCamp a few weeks ago; very happy about that. That's also why I only need the current capacities.

It's a great drive. However, sadly you'll find that you get used to the speed and will take it for granted, and only miss it when you come to use a computer without SSD!

Well I've been using a Samsung SLC on my tablet for about a year now; quite speedy; in fact has a faster write than the Intel X25-M (but not as fast as the E). That was also why I debated whether or not to get the X25-E 64GB or the X25-M 160GB.

Anyways I decided on the M and I think it'll be good choice.
 
If you have a rev 902 or later, than this firmware should fix the bootcamp issue.

I am installing vista on my MB right now as we speak. It seems to be going along fine.

Oh that's interesting. Will be a struggle to free up enough space on an 80Gb drive for Windows too
 
what kinds of boot times is everyone getting on the new firmware?

22 seconds, same as before the update. NB: that's from pressing the power button, to the first app starting to load.

If you're slower than this you probably need to select your startup disk in system preferences.
 
I was just curious (I don't have an Intel x25-m). It's nice to see Intel fixing the early issues -- great stuff.

I have a 250GB Vertex and have the same boot time as that (however, the Vertex has higher benchmarking figures from xbench/quickbench).

I've seen a bunch of youtube videos of people booting their Macs with the X25-M in 10 seconds from power button to desktop...how are they doing that? I just assumed that was a perk of the Intel drive.
 
I've seen a bunch of youtube videos of people booting their Macs with the X25-M in 10 seconds from power button to desktop...how are they doing that? I just assumed that was a perk of the Intel drive.

Yes I've not got to the bottom of that either. The boot time hardware checks take at least 10-15 seconds, so am baffled but would like to know!
 
I've been using my system for about two months with this new drive, filled up to about 60% capacity from a fresh install and just installed the firmware. I'll post a video of its boot up time now (I don't have one from a fresh install. It was actually quite slow lol).

I did run onyx about a week or two ago.
 
Win XP Boot camp works

Anyone able to install XP on the X25-M after upgrading to the 8820 firmware?

It does not work for me. The X25-M is now detected by the XP installation, and can be chosen when asked where to install Windows. But after the part when the XP installation has finished copied files to disk and is restarting, the installation can not continue and I get the following error message:

"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows root>\system32\hal.dll
Please reinstall a copy of the above file"

The file is not missing nor corrupt however.

Tried several different versions of XP discs. I am getting the same error on them all.

I have this working now, Win XP on bootcamp. I believe the fix was deleting a hidden 200 MB partition at the start of the X25-M drive. It seems to have confused XP at various stages of the installation about which partition # XP was being installed on.
 
I had never timed how long it took to boot, but this thread made me a little curious. The booting time should be almost the same as others, so I decided to do a more personal, realistic test.

I grabbed a stop watch and timed how long it took to boot OS and manually open Mail, i.e., click the icon on my Dock by using my mighty mouse. I started timing as soon as I hit the power button and stopped it when Mail opened. All usual login items such as Growl, QuickSilver, DesktopLyrics and whatnot were to loaded. I'm using a theme to change the look of the Menu Bar, so this might have added a little extra time.

The result is 30 seconds for my clumsy hand to open Mail so I could see the Inbox preview. I think I saw my desktop at around 27 seconds and took about 3 seconds to locate and click the Mail icon, and then Mail instantly opened. If I disabled some login items and was dexterous, it would have been a little quicker.
 
What are the requirements for Intel to take back the drive then?

If I bought my drive off of Ebay is Intel going to support it?

Do you get the same drive back with new firmware that supports Bootcamp?

Ah, thanks for the heads up!
 
well ain't that a bees wax

I don't own a machine that will take the x25 besides my macbook. I tried the update in my machine and it failed.

Do I have to contact Intel?
 
What are the requirements for Intel to take back the drive then?

If I bought my drive off of Ebay is Intel going to support it?

Do you get the same drive back with new firmware that supports Bootcamp?


Asking the seller on eBay could be tricky, but I think, no matter where you bought your drive, it's better to hear what Intel's support says:

"Please contact the retailer you purchased your product from to process your warranty claim. In the event that you are unable to process your claim through your retailer, you may contact Intel."

If I remember correctly, the OP has called Intel and got a replacement. You can search this forum for his posts. I think it's highly unlikely that you get the exact same drive because the Bootcamp issue can't be addressed by simply updating your firmware; see here for more details.

Also AnandTech suggests you ask Intel if you bought an earlier X25-M:

"If you have an earlier X25-M and one of these Apple machines and are experiencing Bootcamp compatibility problems Intel wants you to contact its support staff for a fix: http://www.intel.com/support/"
 
"If you have an earlier X25-M and one of these Apple machines and are experiencing Bootcamp compatibility problems Intel wants you to contact its support staff for a fix: http://www.intel.com/support/"

[EDIT and removed, Intel shut me up and walked me through a lengthy process]

I am really disappointed with both Intel and to some extent my Macbook experience. "It just works....sorta"




Application Temporarily Unavailable
This application is currently unavailable. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please try again later.
 
I feel sorry for you, ux4all. Intel shouldn't have spoiled your MacBook experience...
 
I feel sorry for you, ux4all. Intel shouldn't have spoiled your MacBook experience...

Let me remove my foot from my mouth. I dialed into Intel and they walked me through hacking my old computer to flash the firmware.

I stand corrected and humbled.

--matt aka ux4all
 
What did said hacking entail?

Let me remove my foot from my mouth. I dialed into Intel and they walked me through hacking my old computer to flash the firmware.

I stand corrected and humbled.

--matt aka ux4all
 
What did said hacking entail?

1. RAID
The PC I was using was aligned in a RAID 0. I had to disconnect BOTH drives and disable BOTH drives in the BIOS. I was just unplugging one of them and connecting the X25 to it.

2. I'm dumb (just not as educated on these things despite google's best).
Even though the BIOS would boot from CD before the hard drive, the boot sequence setting was visa versa.

I have surprisingly never had interest in learning this stuff.

Javier (from Intel) hung on the phone with me while I went through it. I'm not a pro-Intel dude so I feel like a real douche.
 
I just updated the firmware and haven't been successful in installing Windows through Boot Camp.

I get the same error as before..
"Press any key to boot from the cd...
Disk Error
Press any key to Restart"
 
This firmware is not suppose to address the Bootcamp issue as it doesn't change the boot loader. That's only possible by sending your drive back to Intel from what most people are saying.

I just updated the firmware and haven't been successful in installing Windows through Boot Camp.

I get the same error as before..
"Press any key to boot from the cd...
Disk Error
Press any key to Restart"
 
The PC Perspective article says the new firmware is to fix the fragmentation problem that could have caused writing speed degradation in a certain situation. According to this page, Intel has already fixed the Bootcamp issue with a revised bootloader ROM so the current X25-M can use Bootcamp, but if you have the older version, this new firmware won't fix it because the incompatibility can't be addressed by a firmware because of the nature of the problem.

Here is an interesting article that talks about the firmware from the standpoint of fixing the degradation issue: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=691

Check out the section "Firmware Can't Fix Everything" that talks about the new firmware not fixing degradation with some earlier drives.

Hopefully this helps.
 
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