3 ms·

Related, someone decompiled Samsung’s 840 EVO ssd firmware, before Samsung later started encrypting it: http://www2.futureware.at/~philipp/ssd/TheMissingManual.

Related, someone decompiled Samsung’s 840 EVO ssd firmware, before Samsung later started encrypting it: http://www2.futureware.at/~philipp/ssd/TheMissingManual.pdf http://www2.futureware.at/~philipp/ssd/TheMissingManual.pdf Came across it looking how to deal with multiple different samsung drives caught in bad states due to shitty firmware. My original salty post warning about vendor branded Samsung drives on eBay is here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37165189 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37165189

alecco 5mo ago
This deserves its own blog post and HN submission. Since SSDs have been 2x to 4x prices people are now more likely to buy used and could get burned. BTW thank you for raising this.
ornornor 5mo ago
Samsung has lost any credibility they had as a competent manufacturer years ago. Their other products are beyond junk (fridges, washing machines…), their customer service is abysmal (they managed to “repair” my mp3 player and smartphone by returning it even more broken than they got it, and I’ve seen how the company works from the inside when they bought a startup I was working at. I know many people with Samsung fridges failing after a few years (or having too little coolant in them so that they make loud popping sounds when running and Samsung saying you’re holding it wrong) From these experiences, I’m going out of my way to never buy anything made by Samsung.
- ike____________ 5mo ago
  You forget exploding devices or the decision of selling it's crap exynos thing in Europe
  - ornornor 5mo ago
    Right. And their complete contempt for user privacy on their smart TVs. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, I'll even pay extra to buy anything but a Samsung device.
- edrobap 5mo ago
  [dead]
- UltraSane 5mo ago
  The Galaxy smartphones are still some of the best.
  - tosti 5mo ago
    They don't do VoLTE when rooted. Their own stock ROM is on par with iPhone-level unworkable UI garbage. Apps that work on everything but not Samsung Galaxy. The only ROMs you can feasibly get on most models are limited to GSI builds. "The best" must be quite a low bar.
    - UltraSane 5mo ago
      "Apps that work on everything but not Samsung Galaxy." This is interesting, what are some examples?
      - tosti 5mo ago
        Telegram. When I used that, everyone would get their messages except those who had a samsung because it's continuously on a background task shooting spree. The weird thing is WhatsApp isn't affected but I'm never going to install that facebook crap. Even the mandatory work phone doesn't have it.
  - ornornor 5mo ago
    That’s your opinion. I’ll never get one and I absolutely don’t trust Samsung with my personal data.
    - UltraSane 5mo ago
      Ironic that the Secure Folder feature Galaxy phones have is one of the most secure enclaves.
      - ornornor 5mo ago
        Ironic indeed when you see the utter contempt Samsung has for its user’s data otherwise (their apps and “smart” devices are a privacy nightmare)
saagarjha 5mo ago
How do I know if I have a drive in this situation?
- Modified3019 5mo ago
  In my case, the drive suddenly only shows having 1GB of read only space available. The firmware version will be reported as “ERRORMOD” (meaning, error mode). There are no warning signs, it just happens. All data is lost the moment you see ERRORMOD, there is no recovery of data that I am aware of. It is sometimes possible to clear the drive and recover function for the now untrustworthy drive: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/pm9a3-firmware-errormod-related-to-fw-version.36822/page-8 https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/pm9a3-firm... It’s not the only way a drive can fail, but it’s the most immediately obvious one. Other ways of the firmware failing result in no drive showing up at all, or data corruption. Physical failures can also happen, like breakage of the solder balls under the chips (which fixable enough to get data off it).

alecco 5mo ago

This deserves its own blog post and HN submission. Since SSDs have been 2x to 4x prices people are now more likely to buy used and could get burned. BTW thank you for raising this.

ornornor 5mo ago

Samsung has lost any credibility they had as a competent manufacturer years ago. Their other products are beyond junk (fridges, washing machines…), their customer service is abysmal (they managed to “repair” my mp3 player and smartphone by returning it even more broken than they got it, and I’ve seen how the company works from the inside when they bought a startup I was working at. I know many people with Samsung fridges failing after a few years (or having too little coolant in them so that they make loud popping sounds when running and Samsung saying you’re holding it wrong) From these experiences, I’m going out of my way to never buy anything made by Samsung.

ike____________ 5mo ago
You forget exploding devices or the decision of selling it's crap exynos thing in Europe
- ornornor 5mo ago
  Right. And their complete contempt for user privacy on their smart TVs. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, I'll even pay extra to buy anything but a Samsung device.
edrobap 5mo ago
[dead]
UltraSane 5mo ago
The Galaxy smartphones are still some of the best.
- tosti 5mo ago
  They don't do VoLTE when rooted. Their own stock ROM is on par with iPhone-level unworkable UI garbage. Apps that work on everything but not Samsung Galaxy. The only ROMs you can feasibly get on most models are limited to GSI builds. "The best" must be quite a low bar.
  - UltraSane 5mo ago
    "Apps that work on everything but not Samsung Galaxy." This is interesting, what are some examples?
    - tosti 5mo ago
      Telegram. When I used that, everyone would get their messages except those who had a samsung because it's continuously on a background task shooting spree. The weird thing is WhatsApp isn't affected but I'm never going to install that facebook crap. Even the mandatory work phone doesn't have it.
- ornornor 5mo ago
  That’s your opinion. I’ll never get one and I absolutely don’t trust Samsung with my personal data.
  - UltraSane 5mo ago
    Ironic that the Secure Folder feature Galaxy phones have is one of the most secure enclaves.
    - ornornor 5mo ago
      Ironic indeed when you see the utter contempt Samsung has for its user’s data otherwise (their apps and “smart” devices are a privacy nightmare)

saagarjha 5mo ago

How do I know if I have a drive in this situation?

Modified3019 5mo ago
In my case, the drive suddenly only shows having 1GB of read only space available. The firmware version will be reported as “ERRORMOD” (meaning, error mode). There are no warning signs, it just happens. All data is lost the moment you see ERRORMOD, there is no recovery of data that I am aware of. It is sometimes possible to clear the drive and recover function for the now untrustworthy drive: https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/pm9a3-firmware-errormod-related-to-fw-version.36822/page-8 https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/pm9a3-firm... It’s not the only way a drive can fail, but it’s the most immediately obvious one. Other ways of the firmware failing result in no drive showing up at all, or data corruption. Physical failures can also happen, like breakage of the solder balls under the chips (which fixable enough to get data off it).