Hello everyone, first post for me on MDL I recently bought this PATA SSD from ebay for my Thinkpad X41, and it seems to have only been sold in Japan (and other Asian countries) because I can't find information about it anywhere else. I ran the "smartctl" tool on the drive and it informed me that it's unable to know if SMART is enabled, which is scary to me, other than that the only information it gave me was that the ATA Verion is "ATA/ATAP-7" and the Firmware version is "20090521". Is there any tool I can use to figure out what type of controller it has or any other details, so I can look for possible firmware updates? or at least enable SMART? The device model is "OCZSSDPATA1-64G", it seems to have been released in 2009. Screenshot: I've installed on my X41 now, and installed Debian on it, and it seems to work just fine. Would be nice to have some information about this SSD though. Thanks in advance!
@Bat.1 It would be cool to learn Japanese, but I don't have the time for that, so Google Translate will have to do If all else fails, I'll post on the OCZ Gurus page, thanks @JFKI Thanks! I came across that too but didn't know what to do with it really. Are there any Hitachi SSD tools for Linux that can auto-detect my drive? Quick Google search resulted in nothing @ms User Didn't find my SSD there, could it be the Vertex? If that was the case then the OCZ SSD tool that I tried when I still had XP installed should have detected it I think. @John Sutherland I tried the smartctl tool before, but it failed to detect SMART or enable it. The other tools weren't of too much help either. I'll post my results here: Code: sherman@X41:~$ sudo lshw -c disk *-disk description: ATA Disk product: OCZ-PATA-64G physical id: 0.0.0 bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0 logical name: /dev/sda version: 0521 serial: OCZ64I09122500000043 size: 59GiB (63GB) capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos configuration: ansiversion=5 logicalsectorsize=512 sectorsize=512 signature=a3e340f2 Code: sherman@X41:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda /dev/sda: ATA device, with non-removable media Model Number: OCZ-PATA-64G Serial Number: OCZ64I09122500000043 Firmware Revision: 20090521 Standards: Supported: 7 Likely used: 7 Configuration: Logical max current cylinders 16383 16383 heads 15 15 sectors/track 63 63 -- CHS current addressable sectors: 15481935 LBA user addressable sectors: 124420096 Logical/Physical Sector size: 512 bytes device size with M = 1024*1024: 60752 MBytes device size with M = 1000*1000: 63703 MBytes (63 GB) cache/buffer size = 1 KBytes (type=DualPort) Capabilities: LBA, IORDY(can be disabled) Standby timer values: spec'd by Vendor R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 1 Current = 0 DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5 udma6 Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4 Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns Commands/features: Enabled Supported: * SMART feature set Security Mode feature set Power Management feature set * Write cache * Host Protected Area feature set WRITE_BUFFER command READ_BUFFER command NOP cmd SET_MAX security extension * Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE Security: Master password revision code = 65534 supported not enabled not locked frozen not expired: security count not supported: enhanced erase 2min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. HW reset results: CBLID- above Vih Device num = 1 Integrity word not set (found 0xaa55, expected 0x5da5) Code: sherman@X41:~$ sudo smartctl -i /dev/sda smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [i686-linux-4.7.0-1-686] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, wwwDOTsmartmontoolsDOTorg === START OF INFORMATION SECTION === Device Model: OCZ-PATA-64G Serial Number: OCZ64I09122500000043 Firmware Version: 20090521 User Capacity: 63,703,089,152 bytes [63.7 GB] Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical Device is: Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall] ATA Version is: ATA/ATAPI-7 (minor revision not indicated) Local Time is: Sun Oct 9 13:31:04 2016 EEST SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 85-87 don't show if SMART is enabled. SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability. Code: sherman@X41:~$ sudo smartctl --smart=on --offlineauto=on /dev/sda smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [i686-linux-4.7.0-1-686] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, wwwDOTsmartmontoolsDOTorg SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 85-87 don't show if SMART is enabled. A mandatory SMART command failed: exiting. To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options. The relevant error message is "SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 85-87 don't show if SMART is enabled.", but it does say that "device has SMART capability" so I guess it does support it. I tried to add the "-T permissive" option as the tool suggested, here's the result: Code: sherman@X41:~$ sudo smartctl --smart=on --offlineauto=on /dev/sda -T permissive smartctl 6.6 2016-05-31 r4324 [i686-linux-4.7.0-1-686] (local build) Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, wwwDOTsmartmontoolsDOTorg SMART support is: Ambiguous - ATA IDENTIFY DEVICE words 85-87 don't show if SMART is enabled. Checking to be sure by trying SMART RETURN STATUS command. === START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION === SMART Enabled. SMART Automatic Timers not supported SMART Enable Automatic Offline failed: scsi error badly formed scsi parameters I guess SMART is enabled, but Automatic Timers (whatever those are) are not supported, and another error is "badly formed scsi parameters". Thanks for the help so far!
What an interesting SSD you have there. What I understand about the information you have on your tests is that it possibly supports SMART but might be a controller issue that might require firmware upgrade. Looking at the rarity of that particular SSD you better forget about the possibility of getting a new firmware.
@Hadron-Curious Yeah it seems to have been especially made to replaced HDD's on older laptops. This particular SSD has a PATA (IDE) interface and is 1.8" in size, that is already almost impossible to find. The only other kind of SSD of this type that I found were a "KingSpec" brand on ebay which I never heard of so I didn't trust it. OCZ is a more trusted brand so I went with that. I could have bought a SATA to IDE converter and attach a 1.8" SATA SSD to it, but because I'm lazy I didn't want to do any extra work. Perhaps talking to the OCZ Gurus would be my best chance of getting any information about this device. I'm glad it works but hopefully it won't break in a year
It seems to be a quality SSD despite being old. The origin of that SSD looks like Taiwan rather than Japan - although, it is a Japanese product(OCZ is Toshiba's). It makes a lot of sense to speak with them to have better idea of the features on how to best manage it.
Thank you everyone for your input, I really appreciate it! The speed indeed isn't what you'd expect from an SSD, but at least it's a lot quieter than an HDD! @T-S I suppose I should have done that from the beginning, I was too lazy and as soon as I saw a known-brand PATA SSD and also 1.8" inches in size, I had an urge to buy it. Perfect fit, and you really don't see them on the market anymore! If (when?) this SSD breaks, hopefully not, I will take the adapter route. So far it seems to be running well though.
it has an ugly 16/9 display. Better to get a good T500. SSDs can be easily replaced, displays does not.