128GB Crucial M225.

It's fine, it isn't about to die anytime soon - it actually still has 4.5 years design life left; but when Samsung changed their NAND flash, the new firmware was updated to reflect this. The problem is that update cannot read the original NAND accurately, and this results in bogus life expectancy and drive health reports.

Crucial have also decided that, since the M225 is now EOL, they aren't going to bother with any more firmware updates; or even a fix for the glitch. PPP on their part.

I can get an accurate life cycle read if I revert to the older 1916 firmware, but the newer one is actually more efficient.

Sucks.

Check it out:

Before


After

Hm, I've an M225, can't say I've looked at it since I slapped 1916 on it.

They would probably see a lot more sales for SSDs if they worked harder to reduce peoples' fears about life expectancy, Windows thrashing it etc, the above wouldn't help

Let me be clear, I still maintain that this is the best upgrade I have ever bought (two years later).

I know how long they're expected to last and, while I fully expect it to last beyond it's 5 year warranty, I know it has a finite lifespan. I'm just a bit pissed off at Crucial for abandoning the firmware updates when the most recent one has an annoying glitch - it hasn't damaged the drive, but is a fix really too much to ask?

As far as sales go, SSDs are not value products; they're premium items, bought purely for performance.

BTW Windows doesn't really thrash them, you're supposed to turn off disk paging on XP. Although when I installed Windows 7, paging was turned off automagically.

Does this count as a fail or not?

I can't decide...

You and me know that (I remember asking JJ all about SSDs, personally), but I'd wager there's an awful lot of them gathering dust in warehouses because of consumer wariness. Just my speculation of course

Took me a moment to spot that Foggy. 'there is a "no error" error' lol. How uniquely iTunes

+1 wouldn't do without it. Thinking about an M4 now that they're about £1/Gb.


I'll have to double check now, I think mine may be 1819, not 1916. Is it the 2030 that's borked?

Yeah, the M4 is very tempting. Although, I'd have to buy a SATA6 card to make it worthwhile.


1916 is a worthwhile update from 1819 and, yes, the lifespan glitch is limited to 2030; but 2030 does have improved wear levelling, so it should improve the lifespan of the drive whilst telling you its nearly dead.

Yesterday I forgot to bring my gym kit but remembered my pre-gym snack. Today, I remembered the kit but forgot the bloody snack!

Can't go running when I'm already hungry. Think I'll buy some food and keep it at work as snack food for pre-run refuelling.

Been without internet at work most of today, thanks to this...

BT suffers major broadband outage

Spent an hour on hold to BT to be told that, yes, they're aware of a problem but can't tell me when it will be fixed - could be today, could be tomorrow, can't say. WFT, we're trying to run a business here - I've got clients wanting important files emailing to them and ads uploading to publications.

Had to laugh when the recorded message came up telling me to try the online help pages... oh, the irony! The guy said apparently it's affected between 30% to 40% of BT customers nationwide. Now, I'm no expert, but you'd think they'd have some sort of backup power for occasions like this. Or is that just wishful thinking?

If it's that critical, then obviously you must have a back-up system in place? After all, it would be blind stupidity not to.

I'm sure they were working on the problem, and spending millions on extra staff to answer the phone and say "we're working on it" wouldn't fix it faster - it would just put the price up. As for backup power, they generally have batteries and diesel generators. However, if there's an electrical fire for example then they're useless because they're shut down.

It bugs me when people pay peanuts for a service with no SLA and then act like it's the end of the world when it goes off for a few days. You get what you pay for - if you need guaranteed up-time then you need to pay for a service with a guaranteed SLA.

I went out and bought a PAYG 3G dongle after we had an extended outage.

Epic Fail

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