New Crucial MX500 2TB transfer failure?

defoerate · 21 May 2023 at 19:03

I installed a new Crucial 2TB MX500 drive, formatted it and checked it on CrystalDiskInfo just to confirm it's new - all good.
Started copying over about 50GB data and after a few seconds the transfer speed tanked to 0, transfer paused and eventually crashed with Windows error "A device which does not exist was specified".

To windows the drive had practically dissapeared. I had to restart the pc to get it to identify the drive again. I deleted the volume and formatted it again, tried the same transfer and this time it worked.
Should I be worried? It seems to be working alright at the moment. I've never seen a transfer fail so quick on a new drive so I'm a bit worried. CrysdiskInfo still reports a health of 100%.

Did some digging and the serial begins "20"xx which indicates it's using the newer controller SM2259. Not sure if it's TLC or QLC. Firmware is M3CR045.
I don't want to install Crucial Storage Executive (233MB bloatware just to check a drive?) is there another way to check if a newer firmware is available?

Mcnumpty2323 · 23 May 2023 at 13:43

Quite possibly a windows issue
Rather than a problem with the drive
Has happened to me before
Especially if windows 11
Fair enough I use the preview versions
So some issues to be expected
The latest one turned my hard drives into removable devices lol

Without their software to check
Just go to their website and look for firmware updates

lsg1r · 23 May 2023 at 15:53

defoerate said:
I don't want to install Crucial Storage Executive (233MB bloatware just to check a drive?) is there another way to check if a newer firmware is available?

Don't bother, it's useless, last time I tried it it didn't read any of my crucial drives with 043/045 firmwares, not even smart data.... no new firmware last I checked. Ironically Seagate seatools, which go with my nvme drives, does read the smart data lol

As for the issue, I had something similar with an WD external usb drive, it just stopped 'working', quick reboot etc and all was fine though, smart hadn't changed since first use and was the same as another identical drive which didn't have the issue.

defoerate · 23 May 2023 at 20:49

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Without their software to check
Just go to their website and look for firmware updates

I did check the crucial site but there isn't any option to download it seperately don't know what they're playing at.

lsg1r said:
Don't bother, it's useless, last time I tried it it didn't read any of my crucial drives with 043/045 firmwares, not even smart data.... no new firmware last I checked. Ironically Seagate seatools, which go with my nvme drives, does read the smart data lol

I think there may be an update to at least 046 available. I just saw a 3 month old thread on reddit where op was complaining about failures occuring under 045 and had to install Crucial Storage Executive as the update was only available through that! (thread@: https://www.reddit.com/r/unRAID/comments/110jpt2/warning_crucial_mx500_ssd_firmware_bug_can/ )

Someone later posted details about 046 update:

New Version: M3CR046
Release Date: Dec-4-2022
Release Notes: This is an optional update which repairs a hang condition occurring under corner-case workloads. Most Windows desktop and notebook users will be unaffected by this change.

I wonder if the hang condition is what I had? Probably will have to at some point install Crucial's bloatware and see if I can update the firmware.

lsg1r · 23 May 2023 at 23:27

defoerate said:
I did check the crucial site but there isn't any option to download it seperately don't know what they're playing at.

I think there may be an update to at least 046 available. I just saw a 3 month old thread on reddit where op was complaining about failures occuring under 045 and had to install Crucial Storage Executive as the update was only available through that! (thread@: https://www.reddit.com/r/unRAID/comments/110jpt2/warning_crucial_mx500_ssd_firmware_bug_can/ )

Someone later posted details about 046 update:

I wonder if the hang condition is what I had? Probably will have to at some point install Crucial's bloatware and see if I can update the firmware.

Seems like they finally updated the CSE software... it's got the 46 update on all my drives, mix of 1TB and 2TB... I really wish they listed the drives with their names or drive letters...

Oh you just got to love rubbish software like CSE.... I wanted to do a firmware update on just one drive.... nope it decides it's going to do ALL my drives.... no wonder the process was slow...

Mcnumpty2323 · 24 May 2023 at 01:30

Yeah that's not normal with most software
Should be able to pick and choose individual drives
Not just a blanket firmware update to all at once

lsg1r · 24 May 2023 at 15:32

Mcnumpty2323 said:
Yeah that's not normal with most software

Yeah seems a bit daft..

Should be able to pick and choose individual drives
Not just a blanket firmware update to all at once

That's what I thought was going to happen, it only had one listed, didn't mention it would do all of them, then when it was done CSE said all of the drives were updated.... good job there wasn't a failure or power outage etc.

Seagate on the other hand, bit more of a faf finding the updated firmware but I could manually install it per drive.

Mcnumpty2323 · 24 May 2023 at 15:36

Got 1 crucial 2.5 ssd
Think I installed the software when I put the ssd in
Then promptly forgot about it
Obviously the software didn't make a big impression on me

TheVoice · 24 May 2023 at 17:08

defoerate said:
I wonder if the hang condition is what I had? Probably will have to at some point install Crucial's bloatware and see if I can update the firmware.

It seems like the most obvious solution, you can always uninstall it again afterwards if you're so set against it. It's perfectly fine to keep installed though, it doesn't try to run in the background or install other processes/services, you just run it, do what's needed and close it again.