SSD Drive Toolkit

Recently we reported on problems with the Intel firmware update for its SSD. New version of firmware  was supposed to speed up disk and activate the special control command (TRIM) in Windows 7. But with these improvements some users have received an addtitional surprise – their computers became unable to boot the operating system. After pour of complaints started to rush on Intel, the company quickly removed updated firmware from public access.

But now, after a month passed, Intel is ready to give the consumers of its SSD new advantages of TRIM and accelerate their device. New firmware version 02HD together with the updating tool v1.5 should finally give the holders of a 160 GB SSD promised 40% sequential write boost. In the first reviews of users, everything works as it supposed to be , so if you own a Solid State Drive from Intel, you’d better get latest update.
That’s what Intel wrote about the release:

This firmware update tool provides the latest firmware for the following Intel SSDs in all capacities:
-  Intel® X25-M/X18-M SATA SSD on 50nm (black case)  - updates to FW version 8820
-  Intel® X25-E SATA SSD on 50nm (black case)             - updates to FW version 8850
-  Intel® X25-M/X18-M SATA SSD on 34nm (silver case)  – updates to FW version 02HD
This firmware will enable your SSD to deliver the best performance in your PC. Use this update tool to get the latest production firmware.

Once Intel has released a new version firmware for the X25-M solid state drives, she began to receive complaints from consumers, to Score stated that new dress broke their device.
The representative of Intel’s NAND Solutions Group at the customer support forum said the company plans to release fixed firmware by the end of  November.

Firmware upgrade was also designed to expedite the work speed of X25-M SSD. It is necessary part for of Intel SSD Toolbox, which monitors and manages the X25-M on operating systems Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. New firmware and the Intel SSD Optimizer enable using of special command from the Windows 7 ATA Data Set Management (known as TRIM), which helps sustain good performance of solid state disk. TRIM physically removes files from the disk, which were previously marked for removal. For owners of the 160GB SSDs updated firmware will also increase thesequential write speed to 100 MB/s, it is 40% higher than current values.

The Intel Company has released special software called SSD Toolbox, which includes updated firmware for it’s advanced solid-state drives X25-M series and SSD Optimizer, which will improve performance of the SSD. New firmware in conjunction with SSD Optimizer and SSD Toolbox allows you to use a special ATA-command  to ensure continued high performance. This command, called Trim, synchronize list of actually deleted files with list of files, which are deleted but still physically exist on drive. Trim command tells SSD what exactly blocks became available. In other operating systems new tools for optimization are not yet available because the Trim command is part of Windows ATA Data Set Management Command and is only implemented in Windows 7. So Intel SSD will work faster only in Windows 7 for now.

Drives X25-M series are relatively new and are manufactured by the most modern 34 nanometer technology. Despite the novelty, these drives are affected of the general SSD problem – “degradation” after rewriting a large amount of data. According to the developers, the gain in speed from the new firmware and optimizing utility can be different. For 160 Gb Solid State Disk write speed is increased from 70 Mb/s to 100 Mb/s.

Intel SSD Toolbox Screenshot

It should be noted that experts from WindowsITPro reported that the Trim improves drive performance not in all cases, but only after complete removal of files. If you just  rewrites existing files, the level of degradation of the drive remains the same as before the using Trim command.

In any event, if you are using Intel X25-M SATA drives, you should be sure to download and install updated firmware and a set of utilities SSD Optimizer and SSD Toolkit to optimize the placement of files on the SSD-drive. You can use this link: http://www.intel.com/go/ssdtoolbox/