Samsung SSD – How to Update Firmware

firmwarehard drivelinuxssdwindows

I'm having problems with my SSD (samsung 850 PRO) on linux so I wanted to update the firmware. I reinstalled windows and downloaded the magician software. It recognizes my SSD, I can run some benchmarks, but there's a message saying "this drive is not supported".

I've then gone into the samsung's website to download the firmware updater. It gives me an ISO file that I should burn using uNetBooting onto a pen drive (it says that this is a firmware update through windows, but it actually is a linux image that will run in the pen drive and do the update, I guess).

Anyways, I've burned the ISO into the pen drive and it didn't boot. I tried UEFI and non UEFI, but nothing happens.

I also tried to burn using dd, and it also didn't work (I didn't mess with the USB's partitions, filesystems etc though. Is there a needed one?)

Best Answer

Go to https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools. Go to the "Samsung SSD Firmware" section. The links there to go to standalone ISO images which you can either burn to a CD/DVD, or convert into a bootable USB drive (by following the Samsung firmware install guide or using unetbootin). Make sure to choose the link that matches your drive!

Related Solutions

Macos – How to install Intel SSD Firmware from a USB flash drive on a Mac

You should be able to do the following turn a USB drive into a bootable ISO:

Insert the USB drive you want to use. You’ll be erasing the whole thing, so don’t use one that has anything you care about on it.
Use diskutil list on the command line to see what the disk identifier for that USB drive is. Let’s say it’s disk12 for the sake of this discussion.
Use diskutil unmountDisk disk12 to unmount all partitions on the USB drive.
Use sudo dd if=whatever.iso of=/dev/rdisk12 to replace the entire contents of the USB drive with the contents of whatever.iso — use the path to the ISO here.
Retsart your Mac with the option key down. The USB drive should be labeled “Windows” in the boot picker.

Your Mac should now boot from the USB drive.

Linux – Installing firmware with samsung magician dc

Using the instructions here, the solution to this problem (which I had as well) is to create the folder structure FW/DXM06B0Q and move the DXM06B0Q.enc file in there. As explained in the link I mentioned, the structure should look like this:

.../dsrdenc/DSRD.enc
.../dsrdenc/FW/FIRMWARE_NAME/FIRMWARE_NAME.enc

Why Samsung doesn't prepare the zip directly with the correct structure for their own tool is beyond me.

In any case, this will probably not get you much further, since it does seems the firmware update cannot be performed if your system is booted from the SSD, or at least that's what my best guess is seeing the (new) error message:

================================================================================================
Samsung(R) SSD Magician DC Version 1.0
Copyright (c) 2014 Samsung Corporation
================================================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WARNING :Please Note that Firmware Upgrade may format the disk and you will loose your data.
Please Ensure that data backup is taken before proceeding to Firmware Upgrade.
if you are sure then only proceed, otherwise restart the application after taking a backup.
Continue Firmware Upgrade ? [ yes ]:yes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disk Number:  *0 | Model Name: Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series | Firmware Version: DXM05B0Q
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
F/W Update:  [ERROR] Firmware Update Failed Due to a failure in device interaction.  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update: in fact it seems that the firmware update is successful, despite the error message.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Macos – How to install Intel SSD Firmware from a USB flash drive on a Mac

Linux – Installing firmware with samsung magician dc

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