Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

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CA_Steve
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Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:40 pm

Samsung released their firmware fix and restoration tool for the bug that caused slow reads for older data. You can read about it at Anandtech, Techreport and others. I updated my 240GB Evo this afternoon. The firmware update was a quick push-the-button-now-done-and-restart. The restoration process took about 45 minutes.

I benchmarked the before and after results with AS SSD and SSD Read Speed Tester.

Before:
as-ssd-bench Samsung SSD 840 EVO b4.png
2014-10-16 14.03.37 Results for C b4.png
After:
as-ssd-bench Samsung SSD 840 EVO after.png
2014-10-16 15.08.22 Results for C after.png
AS SSD doesn't report much in the way of read improvements, but it does show a big bump in write speeds. The SSD Read Speed Tester does a deep dive into the files and does show an immense difference in before and after results.

For comparison, here's the MX100 256GB in the same system.
as-ssd-bench Crucial_CT256MX1 10.16.2014 1-48-46 PM.png
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xan_user
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by xan_user » Thu Oct 16, 2014 6:45 pm

thanks Steve!

did anyone even notice a hit in performance, with this bug, or just in benchmark results?

CA_Steve
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:37 pm

My boot time had been slowly degrading - I figured it was the usual Windows cruft building up. Now, I'm back to 11-12 sec from pushing the button to Windows password screen. Those are mostly aged files being read. So, the fix had a noticable impact.

xan_user
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by xan_user » Thu Oct 16, 2014 7:42 pm

CA_Steve wrote:My boot time had been slowly degrading - I figured it was the usual Windows cruft building up. Now, I'm back to 11-12 sec from pushing the button to Windows password screen. Those are mostly aged files being read. So, the fix had a noticable impact.
I will have to agree. after updating firmware, windows starts like I forgot it could! (Probably because I mostly use sleep, and only reboot occasionally..)
:mrgreen:

Abula
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by Abula » Thu Oct 16, 2014 9:18 pm

I'm wondering what do i have to do.... 2x msata 840 Evo in raid 0.

1) Break the array and format with windows fresh install and run the firmware.

2) Get an msata adapter and run it on a desktop, i can secure erase on my asus, and then just install both ssds again and re do the raid, reformart fresh, but i have my doubts as it seems its not just the firmware but a process after that takes some time.

I'm still not sure what route would end up better.. or if there another one better.

CA_Steve
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Oct 17, 2014 10:23 am

You have to break the array to do the update / restoration process and I think it's limited to Windows atm. What about:
- backup the data and erase the disks.
- pull the SSDs and use the mSATA adapter to run the update/restoration process. The restoration process took me 40min with 110GB on the drive. Maybe it'll be shorter with empty drives. <shrug>
- Rebuild the raid and restore the data.

yakuman
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by yakuman » Fri Oct 17, 2014 11:45 am

CA_Steve wrote:The restoration process took me 40min with 110GB on the drive. Maybe it'll be shorter with empty drives. <shrug>
That's probably correct because I have about 20GB and it took me 20 min on my Samsung 840 EVO 120GB. The latter part of the restoration seemed like the software just re-writing over the existing data.

bastiaan
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by bastiaan » Wed Oct 22, 2014 5:29 am

Does the new firmware actually solve the problem in the long run?

xan_user
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by xan_user » Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:21 am

bastiaan wrote:Does the new firmware actually solve the problem in the long run?
I guess we will know in about 6 months. (but considering i didn't notice the first time, i probably wont a 2nd time...)

CA_Steve
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Wed Oct 22, 2014 6:39 am

Techreport:
Given how the bug manifests, we won't know if the EVO is truly fixed until at least a month from now, when freshly written data will be old enough to exhibit slower read performance. Samsung is confident that the problem has been addressed, though, and the company has updated its validation procedures to look for similar issues in future products.

Abula
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by Abula » Wed Jan 28, 2015 7:24 am

Seems the bug is not fully fixed =(

Some 840 EVOs still vulnerable to read speed slowdowns

quest_for_silence
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by quest_for_silence » Thu Jan 29, 2015 3:09 am

Any serious info about the (Toshiba-made?) OCZ Arc 100 reliability? It could be a worthwhile competitor of those EVOs, price-wise.

CA_Steve
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:30 pm

Second attempt coming in March.

bastiaan
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by bastiaan » Fri Feb 20, 2015 4:37 pm

While we continue to look into the issue, Samsung will release an updated version of the Samsung SSD Magician software in March that will include a performance restoration tool.
That does't make sense with me. Why issue an update while you're still debugging the issue? Maybe that's just the language barrier talking.

CA_Steve
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Fri Feb 20, 2015 9:48 pm

My take is that they don't know of a permanent fix, yet. But, the restoration tool works in the short term. So, they're including in the Magician Toolbox so we can push the button whenever things get slow.

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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by Eunos » Tue May 05, 2015 2:19 am

Has anyone had a chance to play around with the latest fix?

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9196/sams ... 40-evo-fix

CA_Steve
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Tue May 05, 2015 5:59 am

Not yet.

xan_user
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by xan_user » Tue May 05, 2015 6:07 am

saw it when it dropped. downloaded it and updated magician, but didnt have time to run the iso yet...

lm
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by lm » Tue May 05, 2015 9:18 am

Will be doing that soon-ish, maybe this week or next.

CA_Steve
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by CA_Steve » Sun May 10, 2015 11:55 am

Here's my before and after for the new restoration tool.
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Eunos
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by Eunos » Sun May 10, 2015 3:58 pm

Very impressive! And should be permanent this time. Thanks for posting.

xan_user
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Re: Samsung 840 EVO Restoration tool

Post by xan_user » Sun May 10, 2015 5:07 pm

Eunos wrote:Very impressive! And should be permanent this time. Thanks for posting.
well not exactly permanent, but it now has an auto rerun in the background. not really a fix per say, but more of a work around.

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