Crucial RealSSD C300 Series SSDs Get Firmware Update

[Apoptosis]

WARNING: The firmware update process is done entirely at your own risk. Before initiating the update process be sure to backup or make copies of all important files. If the firmware process is interrupted your solid-state drive may not function properly.

Grab the new firmware here - http://www.crucial.com/eu/support/firmware.aspx#

Be sure to read the instructions as some people are bricking their drive if they do it wrong.

I think you need to disable Native SATA mode and be sure IDE mode is enabled. This means that the drive can't be updated on the Marvel SATA controller and needs to be placed on the chipset... For example the Intel ICH9 or ICH10 SATA headers...

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.

[Apoptosis]

update from Crucial as to why this update was pulled yesterday:

As you know, we pulled the v0002 firmware update from the Crucial.com support site on Wednesday, May 5th. We did this to allow our product engineering team time to evaluate reported issues. We have identified a compatibility issue between the update tool and certain motherboards. There are no known issues with the firmware itself. We are revising the update tool to eliminate the known compatibility issues. We plan to begin testing and validating the new update tool early next week (week of May 10th), and we’ll continue to keep you updated. Although the majority of customers that downloaded the firmware have seen no issues with the update, our goal is to protect customers that may encounter issues.

[Apoptosis]

Crucial says they have fixed the firmware update:

We wanted to give you a heads up that the newly revised Crucial RealSSD C300 firmware update tool is now available for download. To implement the firmware update, please click on the following link: http://www.crucial.com/support/firmware.aspx. The Crucial Performance Lab, in conjunction with the Micron Compatibility Lab, has performed extensive testing of the new update tool functionality, and we’ve confirmed it works properly across multiple platforms.

Before implementing our revised C300 firmware update, please take the following items into consideration and under advisement:

o The upgrade 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.
o The upgrade needs to be implemented using a native 3.0Gb/s SATA port. It will not work in a 6.0Gb/s SATA port. However, once the upgrade is complete, the SSD will run as a 6.0Gb/s drive in a 6.0Gb/s port.

o The upgrade needs to be done directly in the motherboard, not via Host Bus Adapters (HBA). Again, once the upgrade has been completed, the C300 drive can be utilized in an HBA.

Also note that this is a destructive firmware update:

Release Date: 5/20/2010

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.

[sbohdan]

I just purchased a 64GB C300 and there is no firmware I can find (new or old) on the crucial website . windows (win7 64bit ultimate) recognized it and it's working. do I need to update the driver or the microsoft one is OK? (Microsoft, date: 2006.06.21. - in the device manager).
also: do I need to implement any tweaks in order to optimize drive prformance? (asking because it's read performance is only 205-218MB/s according to HDtach and HDtune on a SATA2 - I read reviews saying that even a 3GB/s SATA2 should have about 275MB/s read speed...)
I would appreciate any help on this.