Firmware Warning to anyone running Samung 980 Pro 2TB drives.

crazy^millman · April 07, 2023, 02:50 PM

I just got bit by this last week. I had my old 970 Pro 1TB untouched when I cloned it onto the 980 drive. I pulled the bricked 980 drive and running off of it until a replacement drive comes from Samsung.

Here is a link to an article talking about what the issue is and what someone should do to make sure it doesn't happen to them.

Nasty Firmware Glitch Bricking the drive

I got recovery software and was able to pull all the old data I needed from the drive. Hopefully no one else get bit by this one. IT sucked being onsite about to do a meeting and my computer was dead. Luckily the guys and Barefoot had a spear laptop they let me use.

CNCAppsJames · April 07, 2023, 09:02 PM

I've been keeping with the 1TB Pro's. Almost went with a 2TB but changed my mind.

Leehound · April 08, 2023, 05:16 AM

Quote from: crazy^millman on April 07, 2023, 02:50 PMI just got bit by this last week. I had my old 970 Pro 1TB untouched when I cloned it onto the 980 drive. I pulled the bricked 980 drive and running off of it until a replacement drive comes from Samsung.

Here is a link to an article talking about what the issue is and what someone should do to make sure it doesn't happen to them.

Nasty Firmware Glitch Bricking the drive

I got recovery software and was able to pull all the old data I needed from the drive. Hopefully no one else get bit by this one. IT sucked being onsite about to do a meeting and my computer was dead. Luckily the guys and Barefoot had a spear laptop they let me use.

Thanks for the heads up on this! It is the exact drive I am currently using. I did the firmware upgrade.

crazy^millman · April 08, 2023, 05:29 AM

Quote from: Leehound on April 08, 2023, 05:16 AMThanks for the heads up on this! It is the exact drive I am currently using. I did the firmware upgrade.

Awesome glad it helped one person

Jeff · April 10, 2023, 04:34 AM

Are the 990's safe? A buddy of mine just bought one.

gcode · April 10, 2023, 07:38 AM

I saw an article last week stating Samsung was getting out of the chip making
business because profits were down 90%
It looked like click bait BS so I didn't read it.
Has anyone else heard anything like that??

crazy^millman · April 10, 2023, 08:03 AM

Quote from: Jeff on April 10, 2023, 04:34 AMAre the 990's safe? A buddy of mine just bought one.

Everything I read said yes they are safe, but I was not using the Samsung Magician Software. Had I then I would have known well before it created the issues it created. I didn't purchase one of them because at 2X the cost of the 980 PRO 2TB I got another one of them and copied everything off the old 960 1TB Pro drive I had in the laptop and have stored it with all of that data backed up and unplugged from anything. I have 10 backups of some of these files. One day I will get less ~~paranoid and not have so many.~~ No who am I kidding can never have too many backups.

crazy^millman · April 19, 2023, 01:22 PM

Update still fighting with Samsung to get a replacement drive. I have recovered from the issue, but they still need to send me a replacement and awaiting the higher ups to approve the process to get it done. They agree they don't need the physical drive, but a higher up needs to approve the replacement. I am looking at different drives now for the future.

neurosis · April 19, 2023, 01:36 PM

Quote from: crazy^millman on April 19, 2023, 01:22 PMUpdate still fighting with Samsung to get a replacement drive.

I have those same drives but mine came with the newer firmware.

Sucks that you have to go through that.

crazy^millman · April 21, 2023, 08:41 AM

Finally got the RMA approved and sent them the sticker from the drive. They approved my request to not have to send them the drive since I have ITAR work on it. It will be another week before I get the replacement drive. I can notice a difference using the old 970 Pro 1Tb drive for the last few weeks. Once I get the replacement I am not going to clone the drive. I will all codes i need for Windows and everything, but I am going to do a fresh Windows 10 install on the drive and spend the day installing everything I need from scratch. Once that is done I will create a ISO backup to use moving forward. This laptop needs to last me 2 more years. I have gotten 3-1/2 years out of this one. By that time I think I will have got al the usefulness I am going to get. My daughter is still using my old one to do her things and it is almost 7 years old. I still have my 12 year old laptop with Windows 7 and it fires up and works, but wow only 32gb of ram and 512gb hard drive on it.

crazy^millman · April 22, 2023, 08:37 AM

Once thing am doing different is not keeping all my Vericut Machines in the Program folders like CG Tech is doing. I got away from the Version Process they have years ago and kept them all in Folder Called Library like so C:\Program Files\CGTech\library I recovered only the Customer folders and User Folders from the Recovery. I forgot to recover that specific folder. I have backups of everything for Mastercam, but hadn't backed up my machines in about a year. I have 20 machines I will need to recover from the drive. Problem is since I did it once it will have to be recovered a little different by putting into USB enclosure and doing it as a USB drive verses a Hard drive plugged into the M2 port on my laptop like I was able to do the first time around.

I have copied them over to my documents folder like we have for all Mastercam related files we need. Keeping it there if I have to do a recovery again I will not have to remember to go to that specific folder in Program Files. Now my documents is 21gb, but not all that bad compared to people I see keeping all their Mastercam programming in my documents on their computers.

CNCAppsJames · April 22, 2023, 07:44 PM

I ALWAYS move and remap those types of files to something ai know gets backed up routinely; like User\Public\... even if I have to create them.

You should consider Carbonite Backup Ron. When my laptop got stolen some years ago, I only lost maybe 2 day's worth of data... if that. Recovery was easy peasy.

crazy^millman · April 29, 2023, 06:00 AM

Update I got the replacement drive and knew I was anal about backing things up and keeping copies in different places, but never realized how much until his happened. I recovered everything glad I could. I got the Windows USB that came with the system and that will be what I use to build the new drive. I figure that take most of later today and tomorrow to make the next drive the main drive. I will do like before and keep the old 970 Pro 1TB drive untouched and installed slot 3 on the system. I will be investing in a Sabrent Rocket drive when the 2Tb becomes available again. They offer a 4TB and 8Tb and strongly recommend a heat sink on them. Since this is a laptop and drives are so cheap I will just stick to the 2Tb max and just keep 4 drives in my laptops going forward.

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