OCZ Synapse 64Gb OP hacking?

[Farmfield]

So, I got an old OCZ Synapse 64Gb cachedrive that I've been using as a system disk on a HTPC, and so far I managed with the 30Gb's usable space in this firmware locked 50% over provisioning setup that is built into this disk. Today I migrated that HTPC box to a 120Gb SSD and with that I once again are looking into the possibility to somehow access the full disk space of the Synapse disk and I just have a hard time accepting there's no way to either hack the controller (Sandforce 2281) or force flashing it as a Vertex 3 - which as I've understood it is the same disk, though using another firmware...

So, is this possible or am I just gotta settle for only being able to access 1/2 the space of this thing?

[HaQue]

regardless of what some sites say they can do with Sandforce, I've never seen any evidence of doing a single firmware hack or any actual fix of a bricked one. These things are often not simply firmware, sometimes actual chips are missing, discreets missing or in different places etc. I think it would be a fruitless endeavour.

[Farmfield]

regardless of what some sites say they can do with Sandforce, I've never seen any evidence of doing a single firmware hack or any actual fix of a bricked one. These things are often not simply firmware, sometimes actual chips are missing, discreets missing or in different places etc. I think it would be a fruitless endeavour.

Much appreciated. And yeah, this is what I expected - if you can't find sh!t about something, googling it, it's usually not out there.

Follow up question though, the firmware overprovisioning on a disk like this, is that an automated thing from the controller side or is that something that needs a companion software like Dataplex for it to be used?

[HaQue]

it is written into the firmware. Controllers can have many different configurations of NAND chips, and you will find firmware does most of the heavy lifting.
Edit - this explains it ok: http://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/overprovisioning

[Farmfield]

Thanks for the info. I'm gonna slop this into my workstation and do some health- and performance tests and if it holds up, I'll use it for either application caching or the Windows page file... I'm a compositor and FX artist, so I already have a mix of SSD's and mechanical disks set up to handle slow- and fast caching of simulation data, renders, footage, view port caching, etc. and I'm sure I can fit this into that, somewhere.

Well, once again thanks for the info, much appreciated, and I'll set the OP title to solved.

Edit: Oh, replied-to posts aren't editable, so this is not the way they do things here? Or is there another way to mark a thread as solved?

[HaQue]

we don't worry about a solved moniker, often a thread will get extra stuff added or taken up again years later.. pretty laid back. I think posts are editable for a short time after you submit, then go to read only. cheers

[fzabkar]

Edit - this explains it ok: http://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/overprovisioning

% Over-Provisioning = (Physical Capacity - User Capacity) / User Capacity

Code:

Physical capacity   User capacity   % Over-Provisioning   Application class
64 GB   60 GB   7%   Client
96 GB   90 GB   7%   Client
128 GB   120 GB   7%   Client
128 GB   100 GB   28%   Enterprise
256 GB   240 GB   7%   Client
256 GB   200 GB   28%   Enterprise
512 GB   480 GB   7%   Client
512 GB   400GB   28%   Enterprise

Figure 2 Over-provisioning based on capacity and application class

ISTM that all those numbers are wrong. AFAICS, the author has confused GB with GiB.

For example, Intel's 240GB SSD 530 has 16 x 16GiB NAND flash chips, giving it a total physical capacity of 256GiB.

http://www.storagereview.com/intel_ssd_530_review
http://www.storagereview.com/images/Sto ... Bottom.jpg
http://www.storagereview.com/images/Sto ... CB-Top.jpg

Intel's specification states that the user capacity is 468,862,128 sectors. That's a capacity of 240GB.

http://www.intel.com.au/content/dam/www ... cation.pdf

Therefore, the over-provisioning figure is 14.5%, not 7%.

(256GiB - 240GB) / 240GB = 0.145

http://www.google.com/search?q=(256+GiB+-+240+GB)+/+240+GB