New Samsung 840 Pro FIRMWARE is out.

[Live or Die]

It's my understanding you do not want to be using the advanced SE, it may blow away parts of the drive needed for operation. I could be wrong but I just stick with the standard SE.

No Doesn't matter much, the enhanced secure erase goes by what the firmware programers set for the drive, the normal one is a validated routine, So no it want harm your SSD.

More Info
Q: What is the difference between secure erase and enhanced secure erase?

A: Secure erase overwrites all user data areas with binary zeroes. Enhanced
secure erase writes predetermined data patterns (set by the manufacturer) to
all user data areas, including sectors that are no longer in use due to
reallocation. ***NOTE: the enhanced secure erase option is not supported by
all ATA drives.

[chispy]

Ok , for the guys asking what i use to secure erase the SSDs that got brick , I used Samsung magician 3.2 secure erase software from the Samsung CD that came included with my drives. I Use one of my PCs running w7x64bit on single Samsung 830 128GB in ahci mode , from there i plug one drive at a time and did it the same way i have been doing secure erase for over a year with all my Samsung SSDs drives without a single problem. When using Samsung Magician 3.2 secure erase it will tell you that the drive is in a frozen state, please unplug the power sata conector wait a couple of seconds and plug the sata conector back in , then the drive will be secure erased following Samsung Magician 3.2 instructions thats it , after it finished it says SSD secure erase completed succesfully , i turn off the pc unplug the Samsung 840 Pro 256GB , plug my seconf 840 Pro 256GB and did it the same way. After it finished secure erased as per Samsung Magician 3.2 " Succesfully " i turn off the PC. Then went on to install both drives 840 Pros on my MVE board in Raid0 and Bam drives were completely dead an not working , recognized or seen by any of my PCs , i tried single drive ide , ahci and both drives in Raid0 mode in Z77 chipset , x58 chipset , AMD A75 chipset Motherboards and none of the 2 drives were recognized or seen by any motherboard or Samsung Magician , i tried windows 7 , vista and linux , dead as a brick. I know how to secure erase an SSD guys trust mne i have been doing this for too many years , the ugly thing is that i even use the Samsung Magician Software 3.2 included with the 840 Pro SSDs following the exact same method i used and succesfully did to secure erase this same drives one day earlier and t did work flawlessly no dead SSDs , but after a third time of secure erase the Drives died , i see no reason why a drive would die like that ??? I keep thinking its a hatdware or Firmware error on this drive nothing more nothing less , its immposible to be user error. Just a heads up guys ,no biggie the warranty service its 5 years and Samsung customer support its great , so its all good my drives are been replaced by new ones thats all

Kind Regards: Chispy

[Live or Die]

Ok , for the guys asking what i use to secure erase the SSDs that got brick , I used Samsung magician 3.2 secure erase software from the Samsung CD that came included with my drives. I Use one of my PCs running w7x64bit on single Samsung 830 128GB in ahci mode , from there i plug one drive at a time and did it the same way i have been doing secure erase for over a year with all my Samsung SSDs drives without a single problem. When using Samsung Magician 3.2 secure erase it will tell you that the drive is in a frozen state, please unplug the power sata conector wait a couple of seconds and plug the sata conector back in , then the drive will be secure erased following Samsung Magician 3.2 instructions thats it , after it finished it says SSD secure erase completed succesfully , i turn off the pc unplug the Samsung 840 Pro 256GB , plug my seconf 840 Pro 256GB and did it the same way. After it finished secure erased as per Samsung Magician 3.2 " Succesfully " i turn off the PC. Then went on to install both drives 840 Pros on my MVE board in Raid0 and Bam drives were completely dead an not working , recognized or seen by any of my PCs , i tried single drive ide , ahci and both drives in Raid0 mode in Z77 chipset , x58 chipset , AMD A75 chipset Motherboards and none of the 2 drives were recognized or seen by any motherboard or Samsung Magician , i tried windows 7 , vista and linux , dead as a brick. I know how to secure erase an SSD guys trust mne i have been doing this for too many years , the ugly thing is that i even use the Samsung Magician Software 3.2 included with the 840 Pro SSDs following the exact same method i used and succesfully did to secure erase this same drives one day earlier and t did work flawlessly no dead SSDs , but after a third time of secure erase the Drives died , i see no reason why a drive would die like that ??? I keep thinking its a hatdware or Firmware error on this drive nothing more nothing less , its immposible to be user error. Just a heads up guys ,no biggie the warranty service its 5 years and Samsung customer support its great , so its all good my drives are been replaced by new ones thats all

Kind Regards: Chispy

What firmware come installed on your SSD's? Also you probably know if a secure erase doesn't execute correctly it can brick you SSD i put this down to ether your drives being ones that come with the bugged firmware or Samsung Magician Software 3.2 didn't execute the command right there for bricked your drives.

[Fernando]

@ chispy:
Thanks for your detaild report.

After it finished secure erased as per Samsung Magician 3.2 " Succesfully " i turn off the PC. Then went on to install both drives 840 Pros on my MVE board in Raid0 and Bam drives were completely dead an not working ..... i see no reason why a drive would die like that ??? I keep thinking its a hatdware or Firmware error on this drive nothing more nothing less , its immposible to be user error.

It is hard to believe, that a hardware or a firmware problem has caused the total loss of your 2 SSDs:

1. The RMA quote of Samsung's 840 PRO SSDs is very, very low (0% at my favorite German Computer hardware dealer, who has already sold more than 1.000 SSDs of this type, look >here< and >here<).
2. There are only very few reports from other Samsung 840 PRO SSD owners, who ran into problems after having tried to flash the new firmware 4B0Q, but you have lost at least 2 SSD's at once this way.

[Brahmzy]

Yes, it does seem isolated, yet his methods were sound. I've done 30+ SE's on my Pros using his same methods with no issues.

Or could it be that the firmware didn't take correctly?

[hoax]

Been following the thread, sorry to hear about your drives chispy.

Unlike you guys, this is my very first SSD drive. So forgive me if this sounds extremelly stupid.

Considering my drive is still unused, I assume there is no need to SE it. But with all the reports of problems with booting from USB/CD, I am wondering how I should update the firmware.

My old rig (sig) had some issues on the sata ports, so I don't really think its a good idea to hook the ssd on this old mobo.

Installing win7 on the ssd just to access Samsung's software sounds silly. (assuming I would then have to SE the drive to update firmware)

Should I install the OS on another HDD, hook up the unused SSD and simply flash it? Then format the HDD, and re-install the OS on the SSD.

On a new system, isn't there a way to flash it without having to install win7 first? Anyone had luck booting from USB/CD yet?

Obviously I am as lost as one can be, step by step instructions would be much appreciated! If needed feel free to PM me to avoid messing up the thread, I promise not to bug anyone with a zillion questions.

[canthearu]

The firmware update isn't destructive and there is no need to secure erase afterwards.

So just install windows and run the firmware update.

[hoax]

thank you very much for the help canthearu, I really appreciate it.

will report back once I get it running.

[Live or Die]

The firmware update isn't destructive and there is no need to secure erase afterwards.

So just install windows and run the firmware update.

It be more better to update your firmware before installing windows, Also i live in Perth to HAHA .

[hoax]

It be more better to update your firmware before installing windows, Also i live in Perth to HAHA .

but how can I update before installing windows if everyone is complaining booting from USB/CD isn't working?

[Live or Die]

Plug your SSD into another system do the update then do your install.

[hoax]

thank you for your help.

unfortunately not an option, AFAIK there is only one working sata port on this mobo. I had to remove my backup drives from the system a few months back, system wouldn't even post with the second drive hooked, there is no chance I would risk testing the ssd on this old mobo. I rather not update the firmware for now if that was the only option. but considering the price tag we get to pay to import such goodies, I believe I have plenty of reasons to be absolutely pissed off right now.


edit:
way too frustrated to sleep, called samsung support, they say a new version of magician will be out by the end of the month, and it will hopefully fix the issues people are having with booting with usb/cd.

he also said basically the firmware is only needed to address some issues with TRIM, and that worst case scenario, one could wait a few more days for the new version of magician, and hopefully sort it out.

anyway, just reporting what I was told.

[Brahmzy]

Thanks for the update on the new Magician software! Can get here soon enough!

[canthearu]

It be more better to update your firmware before installing windows, Also i live in Perth to HAHA .

Not really. It isn't going to make any realistic difference (if any difference at all, the difference in performance between new/old firmware can be measured in the noise margin)

Just install windows, update firmware, and be happy.

[hoax]

Thanks again for your help canthearu! Got the system running, installed windows, updated the firmware, no issues so far

Ran magician's performance benchmark and crystaldiskmark:




not sure why my results look so different from chispy's drives.

I ran magician's OS Optimization and Performance Optimization. Do I need to tweak other settings?

I also can't figure out why the drive only has 142GB available, checked manually and it seems like it should be closer to 160gb available of the total 238gb, any ideas?

cheers

[Live or Die]

No theres a chance updating your SSD will corrupt your data which you get warned about when doing the update mate so its better to no take the risk and update it before.

[canthearu]

There is a chance the drive will die tomorrow as well.

But it is a negligible chance.

[canthearu]

Regarding lack of disk space, Do you have a lot of memory in your computer.

Windows will by default reserve the same amount in diskspace as you have memory for the page file, as well as the hibernation file. These are normally hidden, so it is easy to miss their usage

[canthearu]

The difference in performance is likely down to having power saving enabled on your computer hoax

[hoax]

Regarding lack of disk space, Do you have a lot of memory in your computer.

heh... correct!

The difference in performance is likely down to having power saving enabled on your computer hoax

surprise surprise...correct!

changed from balanced to high-performance, new results:



I really cannot thank you enough for all your help and patience canthearu, cheers!!

[Live or Die]

There is a chance the drive will die tomorrow as well.

But it is a negligible chance.

Nope if your drive died tomorrow your just out of luck, if you flashed your drive knowing you could lose your files and didn't back them up you shouldn't be flashing at all.

[canthearu]

Nope if your drive died tomorrow your just out of luck, if you flashed your drive knowing you could lose your files and didn't back them up you shouldn't be flashing at all.

Who has flashed their drive and lost all their data BTW? These particular case is generally pretty well tested by the manufacturer and if there were any doubts, the manufacturer would release the update as a destructive (as OCZ does for many of their indilinx based drives)

I've never seen or heard of anyone having drive issues after a firmware update that would have been resolved with a secure erase post firmware update .... I've put the new update on the 840 i'm endurance testing and proceeded to write another 100 TiB to the drive without a hiccup. I've also done many many other SSD firmware updates without wiping and not once had a single problem.

You should still always have a backup, but wiping your drive after a firmware update is generally a waste of time and a waste of drive writes. I only thought people here were doing it to obtain best benchmarks post update.

[Live or Die]

Who has flashed their drive and lost all their data BTW? These particular case is generally pretty well tested by the manufacturer and if there were any doubts, the manufacturer would release the update as a destructive (as OCZ does for many of their indilinx based drives)

I've never seen or heard of anyone having drive issues after a firmware update that would have been resolved with a secure erase post firmware update .... I've put the new update on the 840 i'm endurance testing and proceeded to write another 100 TiB to the drive without a hiccup. I've also done many many other SSD firmware updates without wiping and not once had a single problem.

You should still always have a backup, but wiping your drive after a firmware update is generally a waste of time and a waste of drive writes. I only thought people here were doing it to obtain best benchmarks post update.

Theres only a small chance one of my drives array broke when updating my firmware.

[chispy]

Happy , earlier today the Brown truck pulled over and left me a Box , My brand new RMAs , 2 Samsungs 840 Pro 256GB are here. The came with the old firmware and this time i will not flash the SSDs with the new firmware , last i heard from Samsung there will be another firmware Update as well as a new Samsung magician soon. Lets see how this plays out , i will let others be the guinea pigs this time around . Happy mood: Santa Claus came early for me. Merry Cristmas Guys.

Kind Regards: Angelo

[Skully]

Hey guys, just picked up 2X Samsung 840 Pro 256GB drives today. Hooked them up to a spare drive.
Flashed to newest FW, DXMO4B0Q.enc dated 1/3/2013, All went quite well. Set drives up for RAID-O.
Then installed W-8, again all went well.