How to update samsung's SSD firmware?

Question

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?)

Solution 1

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!

Solution 2

I ran into the exact same issues. Setting my BIOS "Boot mode" option to "Legacy" allowed my machine to boot the Samsung SSD firmware updater successfully. I changed the setting back after updating the firmware without any issues.

Comments

[Ramhound]

I actually have a Samsung 850 Pro in one of my machines, and I am able to use Samsung Magician, to update the firmware. Are you positive you have a compatible version of the software installed? Can you provide links? I would rather not have to go searching for links.

[Guerlando OCs]

Could you verify that your drive is Samsung MZVLW(512|256|128)? I'm on windows 10 and my magician is 5.2.0. I also tried to install the 850 driver, which installed correctly. Here is the manual for the firmware tool: downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/FM/201710/201710301108190‌​64/… and I downloaded everything from here: samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/consumer

[Guerlando OCs]

@Ramhound I think I've mistaken. Here: samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/… says that magician supports a lot of SSDs, but not mine (I thought it were a 850 pro, but mine is MZVLW512)

[Ramhound]

I know what SSD I have.

[Ramhound]

downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/SW/201801/201801231306368‌​06/…

[Ramhound]

downloadcenter.samsung.com/content/SW/201801/201801231306368‌​06/…

[Guerlando OCs]

@Ramhound I don't know how you got this 2018 link, because in samsung's website there's only the 2017. Anyway, are OEM SSDs updateable? Because mine is one

[Ramhound]

I searched for 850 Pro Samsung Magician it was one of the first results.

[Guerlando OCs]

@Ramhound installed. Still not supported. I guess there's no way to update OEM firmwares

[Tetsujin]

Never done this from nix, but had to do it on a Mac. Had to reformat the SSD to NTFS before the updater would work [on a PC]... then back to HFS afterwards & copy all my data back.

[Guerlando OCs]

@Tetsujin in my case it's a Windows so it's NTFS. But the problem is that the pen drive won't boot. Is it possible to update firmware on OEM SSD or not?

[Tetsujin]

I did it by mounting it as a 'spare' blank internal drive on the PC & just ran the whole thing from Windows running off another drive. I don't remember any more detail than that, I'm afraid, it was some time ago.

[Royi]

Can it be done on Linux?

[Admin]

This worked for me although changing the BIOS setting resulted in warnings about the possibility of not being able to boot the OS afterwards. And even after I got the ISO to boot it didn't find my 870 EVO drives for some reason (or they didn't need an update?) Not a big fan of the Samsung software.