Re:Upgrading a Toshiba NAS HDD Firmware on Linux
by Dalewyn on Monday September 02, 2024 @10:05AM
(#41425476)
>Some time ago Samsung rolled out SSDs that were self-destructing after very short period of time and fixed this in firmware.
If it broke, fix it.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The latter became a rule of life because many people decided to fix what ain't broke and got burned for their troubles.
Re:Upgrading a Toshiba NAS HDD Firmware on Linux
by lhamil64 on Monday September 02, 2024 @11:28AM
(#41426263)
But how would you know it's broken unless you proactively check for updates?
Re:Upgrading a Toshiba NAS HDD Firmware on Linux
by numpad0 on Monday September 02, 2024 @02:44PM
(#41427830)
Just checking for updates is fine, actually installing every single firmware versions is bad.
This is because embedded firmware are less moving parts more tightly packed, which makes their failure modes inevitably catastrophic; they're incapable of progressively degrading like Electron apps, but the whole system always spontaneously crash into the wall and die from just one typo, and you don't want that.
Re:Upgrading a Toshiba NAS HDD Firmware on Linux
by M95D on Monday September 02, 2024 @01:26PM
(#41427209)
Stop encouraging the manufacturers to ship bad firmware that "will fix later".
Re:Upgrading a Toshiba NAS HDD Firmware on Linux
by syntheticnature on Monday September 02, 2024 @02:33PM
(#41427746)
I think the manufacturers needed no encouragement, and at this point it would take multi-national intervention to get the genie back in the bottle. The poster you replied to simply recognized the situation for what it is: Samsung is still a going concern after releasing SSDs with firmware that would brick them after a relatively short service lifespan.
Re:Upgrading a Toshiba NAS HDD Firmware on Linux
by userbinator on Monday September 02, 2024 @03:58PM
(#41428318)
That wasn't an actual "fix", it was just a workaround --- the flash they were using was far too leaky and lost its charge very quickly, so they decided to have the firmware constantly rewrite in the background. Even the updated firmware won't help for machines that are powered off for months at a time.
It is important to check if there is an update and what has been fixed. Like with any software, it may introduce new bugs, but blindly suggesting to "not touch, if it's not broken" is harmful too. Some time ago Samsung rolled out SSDs that were self-destructing after very short period of time and fixed this in firmware. If your SSD breaks or start having problems it is already too late to update, you have to be proactive. And hardware vendors doesn't release firmware updates for nothing, in most cases there is very good reason for that.