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Sometimes, an OS may have some compatibility issues with the drive's controller. I did read at first that the SK Hynix Gold P31 M.2 NVMe SSD initially had compatibility issues with Mac OS; I think this was fixed with a firmware update.
It wouldn't typically be with the OS, so to speak. It'd be a compatibility issue between the drive's firmware and the controller (drivers) the OS is using whether it was an add-on type or onboard.
So, either the controller drivers need to be updated or the drive's firmware. Updating drive's firmware would be the logical approach as the issue was specific to that drive only.
It wouldn't typically be with the OS, so to speak. It'd be a compatibility issue between the drive's firmware and the controller (drivers) the OS is using whether it was an add-on type or onboard.
So, either the controller drivers need to be updated or the drive's firmware. Updating drive's firmware would be the logical approach as the issue was specific to that drive only.
Updates to drives are 99.99% firmware. The OS doesn't necessarily talk directly to a drive - it's running over the system board interface, which either uses the AHCI or raid driver. Easy way to tell is to look in device manager and see if you see Intel RST or whatever AMD's equivalent is (I can't remember off the top of my head), or if you see a NVMe driver.
NVMe means you're using AHCI. Nothing wrong with it. RST means you're using the RAID setup (yes, even on a single drive, you can run over the RAID controller. It's all software anyway on consumer gear).
Intel updates RST every now and then. I don't think MS has updated the NVMe driver in...forever. It just works. The massive, monster downside to using RAID/RST/whatever is when you go to install your OS, if the driver isn't in the preboot environment, you won't see a drive at all. You have to load the drivers manually before you can move forward with the install.
Updates to drives are 99.99% firmware. The OS doesn't necessarily talk directly to a drive - it's running over the system board interface, which either uses the AHCI or raid driver. Easy way to tell is to look in device manager and see if you see Intel RST or whatever AMD's equivalent is (I can't remember off the top of my head), or if you see a NVMe driver.
That is right, drive manufacturer's typically only update their own device firmware (especially with the NVMe M.2 drives where firmware is very important as it controls much more that other drive types. I kind of see them like a motherboard BIOS where unlike previous drives, they can be updated and sometimes even need one for various reasons. That is why I said if the issue was drive specific, the firmware update would be the logical thing as it is often the culprit.
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NVMe means you're using AHCI. Nothing wrong with it. RST means you're using the RAID setup (yes, even on a single drive, you can run over the RAID controller. It's all software anyway on consumer gear).
If you meant SATA M.2 drive then I am OK with it as the RAID/AHCI channel configuration only affects drives that are connected to the SATA ports on the motherboard.
AHCI/RAID setting would not be utilized by the NVMe M.2 drives as they use their own channel which is why the port are directly on the motherboard where the NVMe drives are inserted.
I've only had one or two of the M.2 drives and have had no problems with them.
We pretty much went exclusively with SanDisk when I upgraded drives at the office.. Meh. I think we've had something like 4 out of about 25 fail. So, that's too high for me. I've started sprinkling in other manufacturers.
Of the 4 failed Sandisks, the plus I will give.. They all gave warning. That's.. Actually kinda rare for an SSD. Old spinnies would almost always do things where you'd know they were going out and you could move data before they were dead. SSDs, not so much.
I don't remember the non-Sandisk failure drive type.. I think it was really an off brand. It died. Just dead. I wound up pulling it and checking it out and it was a cold solder joint. I touched it up and it worked long enough for me to duplicate the drive.
But.. Honestly.. Storage is so cheap now.. Just buy 2 drives, and about once a month, clone your drive to the second drive, or run some kind of RAID-1 (I'm out of date on my RAID levels, think that's right) setup. You WILL get bit in the ass if you don't on SSDs.
We use InnoDisk on our POS terminals. Small ones. 8G drives. We run a DOS application, technically RTOS, but, it's DOS based.. Yes, I know, it's 2023. But it still works, and no one remembers that crap to try to hack it and we've never had a credit card issue where data has been stolen. The problem is.. We have a pretty fair amount of corruption from crosslinked files. I mean, yes, it's FAT-32 and you have to expect that, but.. I kinda figured those drives read and write so fast that you would have fewer problems like that. It seems the opposite.
InnoDisk is top-freaking notch so far as reliability. Out of.. I'd say we've got close to 10,000 of them out there.. I've seen, legit failures.. Less than 20 over the course of about 13 years now. You WILL pay out the nose for them. But, they're industrial drives, designed for.. Harsh conditions. I'm actually retiring the oldest drives which.. Are at or approaching 10 years of run time. Not 10 years old. 10 years of run time. Mission critical application and all.
I've only had one or two of the M.2 drives and have had no problems with them.
We pretty much went exclusively with SanDisk when I upgraded drives at the office.. Meh. I think we've had something like 4 out of about 25 fail. So, that's too high for me. I've started sprinkling in other manufacturers.
Same here, seen too many to recommend SanDisk SSDs even though they are great with MP3/Flash/SD memory.
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Of the 4 failed Sandisks, the plus I will give.. They all gave warning. That's.. Actually kinda rare for an SSD. Old spinnies would almost always do things where you'd know they were going out and you could move data before they were dead. SSDs, not so much.
SSDs/M.2s are indeed scary if you are not making regular data backups. Since they are using memory chips, in order to prevent that same cells being used over and over, the drive controller deliberately moves data chunks to different locations on the drive randomly to somewhat ensure the equal usage of all cells but this operation almost like a RAID from hell, if the controller is toast, even if you can access the data somehow, consolidating all the relevant chunks together would require almost magical powers.
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But.. Honestly.. Storage is so cheap now.. Just buy 2 drives, and about once a month, clone your drive to the second drive, or run some kind of RAID-1 (I'm out of date on my RAID levels, think that's right) setup. You WILL get bit in the ass if you don't on SSDs.
Yes, RAID-1 aka Mirroring would work as long as both didn't fail due to some batch level drive defect or high voltage that fried everything inside the PC. RAID is good because it provides redundancy of operation not just data but I still think people should have another backup method either an external drive or preferably cloud, free or otherwise.
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We use InnoDisk on our POS terminals. Small ones. 8G drives. We run a DOS application, technically RTOS, but, it's DOS based.. Yes, I know, it's 2023. But it still works, and no one remembers that crap to try to hack it and we've never had a credit card issue where data has been stolen. The problem is.. We have a pretty fair amount of corruption from crosslinked files. I mean, yes, it's FAT-32 and you have to expect that, but.. I kinda figured those drives read and write so fast that you would have fewer problems like that. It seems the opposite.
Cross-linking is a filesystem problem aka OS problem. What is the actual OS you guys are running on the host? Are you not able to run some sort of a CheckDisk utility to fix cross-linked files?
I got flashbacks from my first IT job which was, supporting proprietary POS systems that were built by the same company I was working for. The software was running on Windows 95/NT or SCO Unix hosts connected to dumb POS terminals like Wyse 50 and one other brand I can't recall now.
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InnoDisk is top-freaking notch so far as reliability. Out of.. I'd say we've got close to 10,000 of them out there.. I've seen, legit failures.. Less than 20 over the course of about 13 years now. You WILL pay out the nose for them. But, they're industrial drives, designed for.. Harsh conditions. I'm actually retiring the oldest drives which.. Are at or approaching 10 years of run time. Not 10 years old. 10 years of run time. Mission critical application and all.
I don't have much experience with that brand but someone else here mentioned it. I might have seen 1 or 2 machines with that brand but I don't recall if the drives were OK or not.
My shop use Inland (SSD - Premium) which is Micro Center's own brand (if I am not mistaken). I'd not consider it top notch but oddly enough, it has been very reliable considering they are fairly inexpensive.
Have 3 980 EVO Pros and a 990 EVO Pro in the M.2 slot on my motherboard. Great disks and the software to manage them is very easy to use as well.
I think you meant PRO not EVO PRO since they are different.
I paid over $300 for my 2TB 980 PRO like 3 years ago, now the 990 PRO that is 50% faster cost around $150!
It cracked me up that the drive by itself is $156 on Amazon but if you buy it with a heatsink, it costs $149!
That is right, drive manufacturer's typically only update their own device firmware (especially with the NVMe M.2 drives where firmware is very important as it controls much more that other drive types. I kind of see them like a motherboard BIOS where unlike previous drives, they can be updated and sometimes even need one for various reasons. That is why I said if the issue was drive specific, the firmware update would be the logical thing as it is often the culprit.
If you meant SATA M.2 drive then I am OK with it as the RAID/AHCI channel configuration only affects drives that are connected to the SATA ports on the motherboard.
AHCI/RAID setting would not be utilized by the NVMe M.2 drives as they use their own channel which is why the port are directly on the motherboard where the NVMe drives are inserted.
You can absolutely use RST/RAID with NVMe drives - it's the default setting on almost every computer you buy off the shelf. Even my Asus board I bought for my new tower came with RST enabled by default. I flipped it to AHCI.
Hell, every Dell we buy for work comes with NVMe drives and RST enabled. Pain in the a$$ if the wizards haven't updated the RST driver in preboot for new models. Won't see the drive at all.
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