Intel Preps Firmware Upgrade to Address SSD 320 Bug
We have some semi-good news for Intel 320 Series solid state drive owners who might be suffering from the notorious 8MB bug. No, we don't have a fix, and neither does Intel. However, the Santa Clara chip maker is fully aware of the problem and is promising a new firmware update that will supposedly stomp out the annoying bug for good.
"Intel has been investigating the ‘Bad Context 13x Error’ as seen on select Intel® SSD 320 Series drives," Intel said in a statement. "This was previously noted in the Intel community post as 'SSD Power Loss.' To summarize the error: In certain circumstances, after an unexpected power loss, a small percentage of SSDs may experience this error on the next attempt to boot the system. In this situation, the system’s BIOS reports an SSD as an 8MB capacity drive."
Intel said it's been able to reproduce the 'Bad Context 13x Error' and said that it's fixable. As it stands, Intel is in the processing of validating the new firmware, though stopped short of announcing when it will be made available to the public.
In the meantime, Intel is continuing to ship its 320 Series and recommends performing regular backups, as users should be doing anyway. In addition, Intel says to avoid unplugging the SSD while the system is powered on, whenever possible, to reduce the risk of initiating the bug.
"Intel has been investigating the ‘Bad Context 13x Error’ as seen on select Intel® SSD 320 Series drives," Intel said in a statement. "This was previously noted in the Intel community post as 'SSD Power Loss.' To summarize the error: In certain circumstances, after an unexpected power loss, a small percentage of SSDs may experience this error on the next attempt to boot the system. In this situation, the system’s BIOS reports an SSD as an 8MB capacity drive."
Intel said it's been able to reproduce the 'Bad Context 13x Error' and said that it's fixable. As it stands, Intel is in the processing of validating the new firmware, though stopped short of announcing when it will be made available to the public.
In the meantime, Intel is continuing to ship its 320 Series and recommends performing regular backups, as users should be doing anyway. In addition, Intel says to avoid unplugging the SSD while the system is powered on, whenever possible, to reduce the risk of initiating the bug.
