Crucial RealSSD C300 Series Firmware Update - 0006

Flanno · 2 Dec 2010 at 11:16

It's not a bug. That's the way it's supposed to be after a win7 install. It's caused by the 100meg hidden system partition windows 7 creates during a fresh install and is perfectly normal. HDTune reports the drive is 1024k aligned anyway and if it wasn't AS SSD would report your alignment in red and say it was bad. Forcing it to 1024k alignment by recreating the partitions manually should have no impact on performance as it's aligned correctly to begin with.

Flanno · 2 Dec 2010 at 11:28

Coolasmoo said:
I tried running Sanitary Erase but it just didnt seem to do anything to wipe the contents of the drive,

I formated in Windows 7 x64 and imaged the backup on, but i too have a small performance hit,

Sanitary Erase only works on Indilinx controllers according to the OCZ Forums. After much reading around HDDErase is the one to use. Going to try it now and report back.

Edit : Followed these instructions and used HDD Erase on both C300 256GB 256gb drives.
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?74093-How-to-use-HDDErase

Slight improvements on both drives for Sequential Read and Writes but random 4k reads is still hovering around 19MB/s and read access time is closer to 0.2. This is with the Intel RST running off the Intel controller and the AHCI driver running off the Marvel controller. Both drives prior to the 006 firmware update were seeing high 20's/early 30's in random 4k performance from both controllers. And read access time was around 0.13 on the Intel and 0.17 on the Marvel.

I can only conclude this firmware is complete suckage for me, and I've asked Crucial if there is a way to flash back to 002.

Coolasmoo · 2 Dec 2010 at 18:31

Thanks Flanno,

I did download HDDErase 3.3 as i read that was more compatable than 4.0 but i have not tried it yet,

May try at the weekend, but by the sound of it, there is not much point.

Flanno · 2 Dec 2010 at 19:15

I tried 3.3 and 4.0. No difference at all. What a balls. :mad:

reygjabla · 8 Dec 2010 at 11:29

The Center for Magnetic Recording Research no longer has HDDErase 3.3 on their website which is needed to secure erase the Intel X18-M, X25-M and X25-E. HDDErase 4.0 is not compatible with the Intel SSDs but should be used for all other hard drives. HDDErase 3.3 is available below:

Download HDDErase 3.3 (Intel SSD Compatible) here.

Link: http://www.iishacks.com/2009/06/30/how-to-secure-erase-reset-an-intel-solid-state-drive-ssd/

jrodga2k5 · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:48

Coolasmoo said:
Thanks Flanno,

I did download HDDErase 3.3 as i read that was more compatable than 4.0 but i have not tried it yet,

May try at the weekend, but by the sound of it, there is not much point.

Used HDDErase 4.0 to restore my C300 to factory settings and get my speed back.

To have it working make sure it's in a Sata 2 instead of 3 port and also set as IDE and compatability, should be fine to use there. Usually have to do a hard reboot when using the utility to remove the lock and then it should work.

Things back to normal with my SSD and the new firmware seems the same

Coolasmoo · 9 Jan 2011 at 23:23

To remove the lock i booted up without the Sata cable attached to the SSD and once into HDDErase i plugged it back in :eek:

It seemed to work

jrodga2k5 · 10 Jan 2011 at 11:39

Coolasmoo said:
To remove the lock i booted up without the Sata cable attached to the SSD and once into HDDErase i plugged it back in

It seemed to work

Haha Nice one Collasmoo

Not something I can say I would have thought of or tried

Firmware is fine and thank god I have my SSD speed back, just realised the need to erase every now and again and how to do so *lesson learned*

Garmin · 10 Jan 2011 at 14:12

Purchased this Drive on Christmas Day and updates firmware to 006

Marvel 1.0.0.1036 Drivers

Poor score so I tried MSAHCI Drivers

So then I saw an update for the Marvel Drivers to 1.0.0.1051

I feel that I should be getting better results than that.

Never got to run with 0002 firmware for the As SSD bench.

BloodyL · 17 Jan 2011 at 09:12

I have tried updating the firmware for a 256Gb C300 using the linux bootdisk from the site, yet even after flashing the device still shows as 0002. :/

Gigabyte X58A-UD3R, all devices are on AHCI, and the C300 is connected to the SATA3 interface.

Any ideas?

Garmin · 17 Jan 2011 at 17:07

You have to flash the drive in ide mode and I had to put mine on the Sata II Controller.

Hope that Helps

BloodyL · 17 Jan 2011 at 17:53

Excellent, thanks for your help.

I've just finished reading the thread linked at the top of the post, seems like it's a lucky break that the firmware didn't flash after all, too many people having stuttering issues after flashing for my liking, I think I'll stick with 0002 for now.

Cheers anyways Garmin.

shadow_boxer · 18 Jan 2011 at 11:22

Thinking about picking one of these SSDs up for a boot drive. Just wondering if anyone is running it through an Asus U3S6 and if so on what motherboard?

Got a Foxconn Bloodrage GTI (only Sata 2). From reading around appears that the controller card works on other motherboards too other than Asus?

Cheers.

Moron · 18 Jan 2011 at 18:57

BloodyL said:
Excellent, thanks for your help.
I've just finished reading the thread linked at the top of the post, seems like it's a lucky break that the firmware didn't flash after all, too many people having stuttering issues after flashing for my liking, I think I'll stick with 0002 for now.

Cheers anyways Garmin.

I thought about upgrading the firmware with my new C300 but decided against it. For slightly better Trim performance the risk of having regular stuttering problems is far worse.

mr griffin · 22 Jan 2011 at 13:26

Thinking about picking one of these SSDs up for a boot drive. Just wondering if anyone is running it through an Asus U3S6 and if so on what motherboard?

Got a Foxconn Bloodrage GTI (only Sata 2). From reading around appears that the controller card works on other motherboards too other than Asus?

Cheers.

I just got one of these drives and a U3S6 and it seems to work fine. Was able to load windows 7 from it which was handy - not sure I'm getting the best speeds in the world but I'm pretty sure they are better than they would be under sata2 plus it gives you usb3 support and importantly for me an extra 2 sata ports.

Managed to get some reasonable speeds out of it now with the u3s6 and still supporting trim as far as I can tell. not bad for a £26 add in card.

shadow_boxer · 25 Jan 2011 at 23:52

mr griffin said:
I just got one of these drives and a U3S6 and it seems to work fine. Was able to load windows 7 from it which was handy - not sure I'm getting the best speeds in the world but I'm pretty sure they are better than they would be under sata2 plus it gives you usb3 support and importantly for me an extra 2 sata ports.

Managed to get some reasonable speeds out of it now with the u3s6 and still supporting trim as far as I can tell. not bad for a £26 add in card.

Thanks. What motherboard were you using?

Sylver123 · 27 Apr 2011 at 15:15

Crucial RealSSD C300 Series Firmware Update 0007 is now out.

Release Date: 04/26/2011
Change Log:
•Improved product reliability.
•Resolved performance anomaly which resulted in brief, intermittent pause in drive response time for some users.

Note: This is firmware from Revision 0006 to Revision 0007. It will not work for updating between any other versions. If your drive has Revision 0001 firmware, then you MUST first perform the intermediate step of updating to Revision 0002. If your drive has Revision 0002 firmware, then you MUST first perform the intermediate step of updating to Revision 0006.

http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx

Sumanji · 29 Apr 2012 at 13:43

Anniversary bump

I finally got round to updating my C300 from 0002 to 0007 - can't really notice the difference, but it's still nice and super-quick

Are people still using their drives?