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SSD C300 128GB/256GB - New Firmware out - Upgrading

BlackZ

BlackZ

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 29, 2009
99
0
Hi all,

Crucial released a new firmware today and I would like to know if there are any other C300 users attempting the firmware upgrade, I am still awaiting for my new external disk so I can first take a backup but I was wondering which steps other people will take.

Release Date: 5/4/2010

Change Log:

* Improved Power Consumption
* Improved TRIM performance
* Enabled the Drive Activity Pin (Pin 11)
* Improved Robustness due to unexpected power loss
* Improved data management to reduce maximum write latency
* Improved Performance of SSD as it fills up with data
* Improved Data Integrity

Note: This requires a Low Level Format to the SSD which will erase any data on the drive.
Please ensure that your data is backed up prior to performing the Firmware Update. We are hopeful that future Firmware revisions/updates will not be destructive.
Click to expand...

http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx#
http://www.crucial.com/firmware/0002/C300_FW0002.zip


As far as I see there are 2 options:

  1. You format the disk and start from scratch
  2. You take a backup of your disk and put it back after the upgrade

However I have a question around the 2nd option, on a Windows machine I perfectly know how to clone a drive with Ghost etc but I was wondering if I could use Ghost as well in this case on a Macbook(pro)?

Can anyone guide a little how they would upgrade their firmware?
I read in some treads of Vertex users on this forum that they use a special program to wipe the disk first, I saw that Crucial has this program http://www.crucial.com/firmware/Crucial_Wiper.zip but don't really know if we can use it since they say it is for windows only.
 
Wow thanks for the notice, no Mac users complained yet though
 
DesmoPilot said:
That doesn't mean anything.
Click to expand...

Well when I see the complaints it looks like most of them have a Gigabyte/Asus or any other branded SataIII mobo using the drive, maybe there is something conflicting with that?

Of course no one is ready to jump to brick their drive after reading that but there are success stories too.
 
I <3 my Intel ;)

In all seriousness, Intel had these Rev A issues in the beginning too. I'm just glad we're past them now, and almost at their third generation drives.
 
Good to know about the firmware upgrade. I was getting ready to sell my C300 on eBay after reading about Lloyd Chambers' "seasoning" test where the C300 lost write performance significantly after simulating moderate use.

Maybe the firmware update will improve the performance.
 
I just put in a OWC 200gb Extreme and sold my two Crucial M225. Plus put in a seagate 500gb 7200 drive for backup stuff. So far the extremes are very good but have not ran any tests on it . The fact is I like having a 200gb OS drive now since I can process my large image files better and more efficiently. I came real close to buying the Crucial C300 but decided not to be a guinea pig.
 
Anyone with a MacBook Pro try this firmware update yet? My drive arrives tomorrow and I want to know if I should flash the firmware before installing everything. If so, I'd like to see some MAC instructions.
 
Update successful

Hey guys,

Just did the update on my C300 256GB and it went smoothly without and hiccups.

MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR STUFF

Download the firmware update from Crucial's website, burn image into a DVD/CD, hold down alt while booting up your computer and click on the CD and let it do its thing.

Time machine restore and everything is as good as new.

I'm going to put it through its paces and see if there is any difference. :D
 
trismeplz said:
Hey guys,

Just did the update on my C300 256GB and it went smoothly without and hiccups.

MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR STUFF

Download the firmware update from Crucial's website, burn image into a DVD/CD, hold down alt while booting up your computer and click on the CD and let it do its thing.

Time machine restore and everything is as good as new.

I'm going to put it through its paces and see if there is any difference. :D
Click to expand...

Great, so I just make a Time machine backup instead of a clone of my drive.
Will try it as well tonight/tomorrow.
 
trismeplz said:
Hey guys,

Just did the update on my C300 256GB and it went smoothly without and hiccups.

MAKE SURE YOU BACKUP YOUR STUFF

Download the firmware update from Crucial's website, burn image into a DVD/CD, hold down alt while booting up your computer and click on the CD and let it do its thing.

Time machine restore and everything is as good as new.

I'm going to put it through its paces and see if there is any difference. :D
Click to expand...

What kindof Mac do you have?
 
I have read several success stories on macbook now, until now no failures except you need to make sure that you remove the password in case you have put a password


Some tips in case you would like to upgrade :)

I have a 2008 8-Core MacPro and just flashed my C300 SSD without any of these issues.

Maybe it's a Mac thing :smileywink:



I have Bootcamp installed and both 64-Bit Windows 7 Enterprise and 10.6.3 running the 64-bit kernel.

Since I have 2x 2TB WD Black drives in RAID 0 for the Mac and a 1.5 TB Seagate for Windows, upgrading was realy easy.



1) Use Time Machine to get the latest backup of the boot drive - save to the RAID 0 drive (could be external drive)

2) Use WinClone to clone the Bootcamp drive to RAID 0 drive (could be external drive)

3) Burn the ISO with DiskUtility and reboot.

4) Perform the firmware update

5) Boot Snow Leopard DVD, select 'Utilities' from the menu and restore latest TM backup. Partition C300 to full 256GB on 1 partition.

6) Boot into OS-X and run Bootcamp Utility - pick 50GB or so for Windows 7 and partition

7) Run WinClone and restore previous Bootcamp partition from RAID 0 drive

8) Reboot and note that both Mac OS-X and Windows 7 work as before with new firmware.



ET
Click to expand...
 
They pulled the update today:

05-05-2010 04:59 PM

Due to unforeseen compatibility issues with the firmware update tool, we’ve pulled down the recently released Crucial RealSSD C300 firmware update from our SSD support page. We will continue to provide updates to our valued Crucial customers as they become available. We apologize for any inconvenience.
 
File is still there on their web server if you have the correct link, just checked.

Was thinking of updating mine, but hesitant at the moment.
 
Don't think I'll bother flashing it (once available again) unless benchmarks show an extraordinary increase. My C300 is amazing enough already! 150GB used, GBs rewritten daily, no slowdown, no issues.
 

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I went ahead and updated the firmware and it seems OK. Granted, this is a brand new drive, so I don't have a before and after comparison...
 
I took the risk and updated the firmware and my performance is much better compared to before now, I am satisfied now. Hope it will stay like this.

Like I said before, I did not see any failures on Macbooks yet for the firmware update on any of the forums i follow.

Diskusage on both is the same, I took a full timemachine backup before doing it.
I have like 80GB free on my 256GB disk


Firmware Version 1.0
macbookproc300.jpg



Firmware Version 2.0
screenshot20100506at441.png
 
BlackZ said:
I took the risk and updated the firmware and my performance is much better compared to before now, I am satisfied now. Hope it will stay like this.
Click to expand...

Could the extra performance be because the firmware flash effectively does a secure erase first? It'd be nice to get Xbench results between a fresh 1.0 drive and once 2.0's been flashed. (I ask because other people are saying there's not much of a performance improvement.)
 
tmiw said:
Could the extra performance be because the firmware flash effectively does a secure erase first? It'd be nice to get Xbench results between a fresh 1.0 drive and once 2.0's been flashed. (I ask because other people are saying there's not much of a performance improvement.)
Click to expand...

If the performance jump is due to the secure erase, then how do we do a secure erase in the future without a new firmware update?

Crucial only provides wipe tools for the PC people. Disk Utility on the Mac has a secure erase option, but I thought this is bad for SSDs, because it actually writes zeroes on all the cells and degrades performance.
 
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