HP tells users to patch SSDs to prevent failure after 32,768 hours of operation

LASER_oneXM

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HPE SAS SSD users need to install a critical firmware patch or they'll lose their SSDs, including their data.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) warned customers last week to install a critical firmware patch to prevent SAS SSDs (Serial-Attached SCSI solid-state drives) from permanently failing after 32,768 hours of operation -- which is 3 years, 270 days, and 8 hours. "After the SSD failure occurs, neither the SSD nor the data can be recovered," HPE said, clearly suggesting that device owners need to install the firmware patch if they want to keep using their devices past the 32,768-hour deadline.
Users who keep data backups on different drives will be able to recover their data, but the HPE SSD will be unrecoverable, according to HPE. Impacted SAS SSD models are listed in the table at the bottom of this article.
 

TairikuOkami

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Very specific time. The secret kill switch put into devices, so they break after a certain period of time, someone messed it up and set it too low. :ROFLMAO:

I was lucky once and I managed to break the kill switch on my washing machine. After 2 years, it stopped working, the red light went on, signalling to call the technician. I pulled the plug out, put it in, etc, restarted it many times over a week and it came back to life and worked for another 10 years.
 

Fusseldieb

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Mar 29, 2020
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Very specific time. The secret kill switch put into devices, so they break after a certain period of time, someone messed it up and set it too low. :ROFLMAO:

Just registered here to inform you and others that this isn't part of a kill switch or anything like that. 32,768 is exactly the limit of a positive 16bit int data type. The developer who has chosen this type was not the brightest, as it seems. The reason hours of operation is programmed in is because it's part of S.M.A.R.T, which evaluates various parts of the drive, letting you know if and when you should replace your drive, but it doesn't trash itself. That would be just ridiculous.

The reason why the drive bricks itself is because the it probably goes into negative and on bootup it only allows positive count hours (makes sense?), refusing to boot up, or it overwrites data in front of the bit when the number overflows, ...
 
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TairikuOkami

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That would be just ridiculous.
That is called business. Many repairmen reported, that kill switches indeed exist. When you buy an extended warranty, they merely push it further.
In the past, you could use the fridge for 30 years, these days you are lucky, if it lasts for 5. So did the technology actually got worse? When Hubble Space Telescope broke, they replaced 386 CPU with 486. The more expensive something is, the more likely something will break. Thus the reason I buy the cheapest, but quality products. iPhone itself is a good example, they intentionally slowed down the old version to force users to buy the new one. Or a soundcard, it lasts "forever", you only need drivers and Creative got caught cheating claiming, that their old products do not support new features.
 

Stopspying

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I've only just sen this, 4 months after originally posted here on MT. I sure hope that a lot of HP SSD owners saw this earlier. Especially in situations where the tech teams are now locked out of their businesses due to Corvid-19, or else, if and when they can return to their business premises there might be lot of dead drives to deal with.
 
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