In the past, several SSD manufacturers had bugs in their firmwares. So to be sure that I can fix such issues with a newly bought SSD, I need some secure (and somewhat easy) way of updating the firmware.
I don’t need to do the update on my own Linux installation. A bootable ISO would be fine, too.
Which manufacturer has some well supported way of updating SSD firmware, even if I don’t have any Windows installations left?
Have a ready Qemu image of a Windows install. Have a live distro that has (or can install to RAM) Qemu. Boot Windows using Qemu in the live environment, and VFIO-passthrough your NVME as a PCI device. Install and run the official Windows-based update tool, which now has raw access to the SSD.
At least that’s what I’m doing for my WD.
Thanks. Nice to know. So I’ll not get a WD, then.
To each their own.
I thought that the trick with exposing the raw hardware to a VM was the coolest thing ever, since it negates this entire “do their special tools support Linux” issue. And you do it once every 6 months, maybe 4 times in total, until releases taper off.
But I don’t want to deal with Windows at all. Something like this may be acceptable for existing “pre Linux” hardware to have a solution after migration.
But I need new hardware in an environment where no Windows is left.
I’ll never buy Western Digital. I’ve given them too many chances and owned many over the last 20 years and they consistently fail. Even the more expensive ones I’ve owned had something stop working in them.
I’m aware I’m jinxing myself when I suggest that I’ve had very different experience. We’re mostly WDReds though.