# Got any questions about OCZ SSD...come ask me.



## ocztony (Jan 8, 2015)

Hi

I can offer some info for you, such as our new drives, whats coming, new FW etc, however I am not support and not here to talk about old OCZ Technology drives...OCZ Storage Solutions is a new company and is part of the Toshiba group of companies.

If you need support please head over to the forum here http://oczforum.com/ its dead easy to create an account there and the support staff can answer all questions support related.
If you do ask a support subject I will just push a link back at ya to the forum...as I said im not a support rep  BUT I will point you right at the people who are there to help you  even if Enterprise related.

So..we have Jet Express coming and Vector 180, Jet Express is our new controller, its compatible across many 
platforms...M.2, 2.5-inch SATA, and SFF-8639, I am personally looking forward to our M.2 drive 

Vector 180 is the last of the Barefoot 3 drives although its high clocked for enthusiast grade performance and also features new Power Failure Management Plus (PFM+) to increase reliability.

All our drives feature Toshiba Nand, going forward this will be A19.

So...what else would you like to know?

Tony


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## Jetster (Jan 8, 2015)

Thanks Tony


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## ocztony (Jan 8, 2015)

Jester..its not a problem 

BTW..I was up in Oregon last winter, snowboarding for a week at Mt Bachelor...has to be one of my favourite resorts to date although not big it was very friendly


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## RCoon (Jan 8, 2015)

Has anyone broken your Arc 100 yet?


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## ocztony (Jan 8, 2015)

Still going strong as far as I know, 5 drives all well past warranty writes. I am sure KitGuru will post updates soon.


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## RCoon (Jan 8, 2015)

Last one from me, are your m.2 drives gonna be x2 or x4 (PCI lane-wise)?


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## happita (Jan 8, 2015)

I like that some companies take a forward initiative to help customers in ways that many don't think to be a priority. There's potential to increase the widespread respect or lack thereof that a company has and to diversify itself in terms of how to market itself. Getting an OCZ (or any other company for that matter) rep to go down into the nitty gritty forum space where a lot of PC enthusiasts (mainly geeks like most of us are about PCs) are shows that you guys care.

Thanks for being a part of TPU Tony


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## rtwjunkie (Jan 8, 2015)

Thanks for being here!  I too always appreciate when company reps are here to help.


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## ocztony (Jan 8, 2015)

RCoon said:


> Last one from me, are your m.2 drives gonna be x2 or x4 (PCI lane-wise)?



I will see if i can get some pre release specs for you.



happita said:


> I like that some companies take a forward initiative to help customers in ways that many don't think to be a priority. There's potential to increase the widespread respect or lack thereof that a company has and to diversify itself in terms of how to market itself. Getting an OCZ (or any other company for that matter) rep to go down into the nitty gritty forum space where a lot of PC enthusiasts (mainly geeks like most of us are about PCs) are shows that you guys care.
> 
> Thanks for being a part of TPU Tony



I have actually 100k+ posts over various forums with the forum handle bigtoe, i post on XS just as Tony so I have been around a while, the past 2 yrs however forum posting had dropped away for me as we transitioned to Toshiba and I was managing the support forum builds etc. Thats all complete now so I have been asked to once again get down to grass routes and help more online and offer info.
Most people still feel the old OCZ is the new OCZ, i can assure you we are not, its a lot different now, and we have direct access thru Toshiba to nand ...this means OCZ are pushing like crazy to offer the best drives we can now.

Now I know some have ill feeling towards OCZ, I really can't comment on what has passed, only what we are doing going forward. I will also try to settle things like who builds our drives, where the FW comes from, whats coming soon, and if possible post tid bits of performance data (if i can)
So you guys will have facts, not forum fiction to rely on.

I should have vector 180 soon, i have been asked to test on a new high performance platform BUT I will also test on my slower day to day A10 based AMD system as I know not every one has the latest and fastest


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## Steevo (Jan 8, 2015)

What do you use to program the controller originally after assembly, I have a drive that I killed with coolant, OCZ Agility 3 120GB, and after cleaning it will now power up, the fault light doesn't come on, so I am guessing it just needs the BIOS re-flashed on it, I see the TX/RX GND places on the board, and have been thinking about serial connecting it with my USB adapter and seeing what I get out of Hyperterminal.


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## ocztony (Jan 8, 2015)

Steevo said:


> What do you use to program the controller originally after assembly, I have a drive that I killed with coolant, OCZ Agility 3 120GB, and after cleaning it will now power up, the fault light doesn't come on, so I am guessing it just needs the BIOS re-flashed on it, I see the TX/RX GND places on the board, and have been thinking about serial connecting it with my USB adapter and seeing what I get out of Hyperterminal.


special flash tool... you will never see it sorry, propriety sandforce flasher which can not be released.


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## peche (Jan 8, 2015)

Rebo Drive, does it would perform well on Z68X mobo from gigabytes and intel i7 3770?

Regards,


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## eidairaman1 (Jan 9, 2015)

The new controllers dont have the issues the sandforce controllers did?


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## bubbleawsome (Jan 9, 2015)

Is there any way for me to get a free one?  (It must be annoying to be asked about that. Like saying if there is no tag it must be free. Sorry for the horrible attempt at humor.)

Seriously, it's great to have reps come in and be proactive like this.
Welcome Tony!


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## RCoon (Jan 9, 2015)

Proof the Agility 3 is capable of actually surviving  It's been running my file server OS for years.







That being said, I'm pretty pleased with the offerings OCZ are bringing to the SSD table. Good deals on the ARC 100. It's one of the few contenders to the MX100 in terms of performance and price. I also notice your M.2 SSD's have x4 PCI-E lane interfaces which is a good step in the right direction!


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 9, 2015)

What a refreshing attitude to  sales and prospective customers

Like the Ronald McDonald of the component world.  

I like it.


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## GreiverBlade (Jan 9, 2015)

RCoon said:


> Proof the Agility 3 is capable of actually surviving  It's been running my file server OS for years.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


so do my Vertex 3


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## ocztony (Jan 9, 2015)

eidairaman1 said:


> The new controllers dont have the issues the sandforce controllers did?


No....plus we write the FW for our own controllers so can attack issues much quicker. I actually talk directly to the head FW engineer when needed.
Our FW team is based in the UK, not the US...just so you know 



peche said:


> Rebo Drive, does it would perform well on Z68X mobo from gigabytes and intel i7 3770?
> 
> Regards,


If you mean Revo 350...sure it does, HOWEVER, make sure you use one of the primary PCIE slots and always test the card in the port 0 slot (top one ) also as mobo manufacturers have a habit of slowing pcie speeds except for this slot when a none video card is installed to them...no idea why but they do.

I have seen 400MB's gains moving from one slot to another with a revo so its worth the time testing 

Always be sure to discharge static and ground yourself when testing any hardware on a PC 



bubbleawsome said:


> Is there any way for me to get a free one?  (It must be annoying to be asked about that. Like saying if there is no tag it must be free. Sorry for the horrible attempt at humor.)
> 
> Seriously, it's great to have reps come in and be proactive like this.
> Welcome Tony!



I used to give out many samples, now the team back in cali and the NL handle sampling so honestly i doubt I could BUT...as our relationship on TPU gets better I may be able to organise some give aways etc...right now though its early days so I can not promise.

lets wait and see how things develop


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## Aibohphobia (Jan 10, 2015)

There are concerns about how hot the first-gen high-performance M.2 drives like the Samsung XP941 run, is that an issue with JetExpress?

I'm interested because many motherboards place the M.2 under the video card so the drive won't get much airflow there plus it'll pick up the heat from the GPU.


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## Steevo (Jan 11, 2015)

ocztony said:


> special flash tool... you will never see it sorry, propriety sandforce flasher which can not be released.




How about a hint, like is standard 3v signalling used? Is there an AT command to ready the chip to accept the BIOS file or write? Or what is the name of the software used specifically so I can uhhh, think about it.


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## OneMoar (Jan 11, 2015)

Steevo said:


> How about a hint, like is standard 3v signalling used? Is there an AT command to ready the chip to accept the BIOS file or write? Or what is the name of the software used specifically so I can uhhh, think about it.


try here
http://forum.hddguru.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25650&start=40
the drive is certainly jtag-able but good luck reversing the protocol to actually write firmware
you will need to find the datasheets for the relevant chips and consult them to get started
@ocztony
there should be nothing proprietary about a JTAG interface for recovering firmware we know the sandforce boards have them and its only a matter of time before somebody figures out how to write firmware to the NAND
on a personal note I won't use anything sandforce driven I prefer micron/intel/samsung controllers they are more reliable and less prone to sudden death


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## Steevo (Jan 11, 2015)

So short pins on the BIOS chip to get it to possibly reload the OCZ firmware, may have to give it a try, I will use a spare PC I have so I don't hurt mine.


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## OneMoar (Jan 11, 2015)

Steevo said:


> So short pins on the BIOS chip to get it to possibly reload the OCZ firmware, may have to give it a try, I will use a spare PC I have so I don't hurt mine.


the drive is probably toast anyway


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## Mussels (Jan 11, 2015)

ocztony said:


> Hi
> 
> I can offer some info for you, such as our new drives, whats coming, new FW etc, however I am not support and not here to talk about old OCZ Technology drives...OCZ Storage Solutions is a new company and is part of the Toshiba group of companies.
> 
> ...




hey tony, long time no see 


Even if tony doesn't remember me (i stopped reviewing years ago when 3DChipset went offline), i remember him - he knows his products well.


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## Steevo (Jan 11, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> the drive is probably toast anyway


 I agree, but whats the fun if I don't try, even though I plan on getting a new SSD shortly and retiring this one to some other PC, if it survives I who knows what I will do with it.


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## HammerON (Jan 11, 2015)

ocztony said:


> Hi
> 
> I can offer some info for you, such as our new drives, whats coming, new FW etc, however I am not support and not here to talk about old OCZ Technology drives...OCZ Storage Solutions is a new company and is part of the Toshiba group of companies.
> 
> ...


 Welcome aboard and thanks for joining


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## ocztony (Jan 11, 2015)

Mussels said:


> hey tony, long time no see
> 
> 
> Even if tony doesn't remember me (i stopped reviewing years ago when 3DChipset went offline), i remember him - he knows his products well.


I remember everyone


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## ocztony (Jan 11, 2015)

Steevo said:


> I agree, but whats the fun if I don't try, even though I plan on getting a new SSD shortly and retiring this one to some other PC, if it survives I who knows what I will do with it.


I can't help you...simple as that.

Not being awkward, legally i can not

Hope you understand


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## ocztony (Jan 12, 2015)

RCoon said:


> Last one from me, are your m.2 drives gonna be x2 or x4 (PCI lane-wise)?


Its gen 3 x4 lanes....backwards compatible gen2 x4 obviously


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## FireFox (Jan 12, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Ronald McDonald


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Jan 12, 2015)

Tony



Can i have fries with that please.


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## FireFox (Jan 12, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Tony
> 
> 
> 
> Can i have fries with that please.



I would avoid fries from McDonald's?
I worked there and better if you don't know how it works.


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## ocztony (Jan 14, 2015)

Update for you....we just added some QC info to our main website showing some actual/factual return rates.

http://ocz.com/consumer/quality

Scroll down to see the data, an example is return for any reason on vertex 460 was 0.01% of all drives sold, out of those with confirmed failure...0.006%

We did not just make these figures up (like some will say we have) 

Things have changed at OCZ.


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## micropage7 (Jan 14, 2015)

ocztony said:


> Update for you....we just added some QC info to our main website showing some actual/factual return rates.
> 
> http://ocz.com/consumer/quality
> 
> ...


nice to hear that, that data include from indonesia?

in here warranty sometimes kinda shitty, the last time i RMA dvd drive. it took me one months and alot of calls before they give me the stuff
sometimes i better smash it and buy another one than waiting for RMA


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## ocztony (Jan 14, 2015)

micropage7 said:


> nice to hear that, that data include from indonesia?
> 
> in here warranty sometimes kinda shitty, the last time i RMA dvd drive. it took me one months and alot of calls before they give me the stuff
> sometimes i better smash it and buy another one than waiting for RMA


Thats inhouse data world wide, so all returns are counted, then checked, often there is nothing wrong with returned products so this is why total returns compared to actual fault numbers vary


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## Ahhzz (Jan 14, 2015)

Thanks for posting up, Tony. Will come through and read up on what you've got. I've got a few clients interested in SSD drives, so would be good to have a track on what OCZ/Toshiba has to offer. Thanks.


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## Schmuckley (Jan 14, 2015)

I still have an Agility 2 and 3 
They both messed up though.
Had to do some plugging/unplugging/ run appropriate OCZ tools to fix.
(flash firmware)
running strong after fixing though


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## ocztony (Jan 14, 2015)

Old drives there...get saving for Jet Express


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## micropage7 (Jan 14, 2015)

ocztony said:


> Thats inhouse data world wide, so all returns are counted, then checked, often there is nothing wrong with returned products so this is why total returns compared to actual fault numbers vary


from the percentage it looks good and its a nice start for OCZ


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## ocztony (Jan 14, 2015)

Here is a new interview with our head of engineering...it explains a lot.










Its from Kitguru...which if is an issue mods just drop the link off.


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## xslipper (Mar 1, 2015)

Hi, I recently recommissioned one of my 2 year old OCZ SATA III SSD drives for use as an external music server drive with my OPPO BDP-105D universal CD player.

Worked great until tonight.  From my macbook pro I ripped a couple of my concert DVD's to the same OCZ drive and walked it over to my OPPO to audition the newly burned videos.

My audio rack is all steel and makes for an excellent electrostatic discharge and I most always touch it first before touching one of my components.

Tonight I forgot to touch the rack first and when I went to plug in the OCZ SSD I saw a nice little spark between the chassis and the usb cable plug.

The SSD did not register with the OPPO unit, nor does it register with my macbook pro.

I removed the SSD from the external case and tried plugging it into my mac using my USB to SATA drive cloner cable and still does not work. There is a little orange light inside the OCZ SSD near the plug that illuminates outward agains the cloner cable plug that I don't remember seeing before.

I then took a 128GB Thumb drive with music on it, (touched the rack first) and plugged it into the same USB port on the OPPO and it registers just fine and I'm able to play the music on it.

So it seems that I blew up my OCZ SSD with a little ESD.

Is there any reasonable recovery for this SSD or is it toasted, charcoal crisp on rye?

Thanks for any help.

ps - all 3 of my 240 (or 256) GB OCZ drives are 2 - 3 years old and never had a single problem with any of them.  This is the first and obviously I'm to blame. And it seemed to be a tiny spark too.


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## Ahhzz (Mar 1, 2015)

Not sure when the rep checks in on the weekend (I'm betting early sunday morn is NOT the time heheh), but hopefully he'll pop in soon. Good luck!! I blew up one of my hard drives a few years ago plugging it in hot when I thought the pc was down (got impatient) and bumped it wrong, fried the board  I feel for ya man....


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## Schmuckley (Mar 1, 2015)

Do NOT use newer OCZ toolbox 
http://www.overclock.net/t/1515851/...-ocz-drives-here-vertex-1-2-agility-1-2/0_100


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## xslipper (Mar 2, 2015)

Ahhzz said:


> Not sure when the rep checks in on the weekend (I'm betting early sunday morn is NOT the time heheh), but hopefully he'll pop in soon. Good luck!! I blew up one of my hard drives a few years ago plugging it in hot when I thought the pc was down (got impatient) and bumped it wrong, fried the board  I feel for ya man....



Thanks.  I've dabbled with all kinds of electornic replacements off and on over the years e.g. internal fuses, RAM, SSD drives, etc. and in my mid-50's and this is the very first time I actually at least knowingly zapped something via ESD.  

Although it took me about 50 hours or so to build the music onto this SSD, I'm very greatful I didn't zap anything inside the CD player.  

I do have about half that music backed up, but still I've got quite a bit of copying to do.  From now on I'll make sure I've got a complete back up on an old HDD.

You'd think they'd have tiny little fuses if these drives could go belly up so easily.


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## bubbleawsome (Mar 2, 2015)

I'm no pro, but you might have just busted something around the actual chips on the SSD. (controller, port, etc) Everything might still be on the memory chips. I don't know if you can get to them though.


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## ocztony (Mar 19, 2015)

Getting data off an SSD is a lot more difficult than getting data off a HDD...this goes for all SSD's not just OCZ ones. This is why is pays to back up the drive on a regular basis, maybe invest in some cloud storage or similar.
I use my drives here for the OS and apps, I store everything else on the cloud i subscribe too...seamlessly...i don't even think about it as its automated.

Now we had some firmware updates recently, not sure if you guys are aware.

Updates are for the 450, 460 and 460A drives, have a look here http://oczforum.com/forum/

We also have the vector 180 coming soon,probably the last of the Barefoot 3 drives...looking forward to getting mine here.


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## kn00tcn (Mar 20, 2015)

do the radeon drives count as ocz? not that i have a specific question, just like having details


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## ocztony (Mar 20, 2015)

we make them, we support them


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## xslipper (Mar 28, 2015)

xslipper said:


> Hi, I recently recommissioned one of my 2 year old OCZ SATA III SSD drives for use as an external music server drive with my OPPO BDP-105D universal CD player.
> 
> Worked great until tonight.  From my macbook pro I ripped a couple of my concert DVD's to the same OCZ drive and walked it over to my OPPO to audition the newly burned videos.
> 
> ...



Just want to say that OCZ / Toshiba has been excellent to work with.


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## Schmuckley (Mar 30, 2015)

Try unplugging/plugging it in while booting (power connector)


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## Schmuckley (Mar 30, 2015)

Ok,I have a question:
How do I get my Agility 2 to show up without rebooting twice 1st?


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## Urlyin (Mar 30, 2015)

Mussels said:


> hey tony, long time no see
> 
> 
> Even if tony doesn't remember me (i stopped reviewing years ago when 3DChipset went offline), i remember him - he knows his products well.



I remember him as BigToe... Great guy and yes he knows his chit... Welcome Tony!


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## tabascosauz (Jul 29, 2015)

@ocztony do you have info regarding the Vertex 460's replacement? I remember that a while ago you guys had a press release that said 460 was transitioning into 460A and I would like to ask if that has been completed. In the first few months Newegg continued to sell the original 460 which caused a bit of confusion.

At the time I really wanted to give the 460A a try but a) prices were high and b) because of the confusion I decided to wait. I don't know how you guys do it but Barefoot 3 has provided Arc 100, 460A and 180 with some spectacular consistency among similarly priced drives.


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## ocztony (Aug 3, 2015)

Vector 180 is the last of the BF3 drives, Arc100 will run along side it for the duration as the more budget offering using a slower clocked BF3 controller.

Old OCZ Technology drives I can't really comment on any more...all my time now is focused on OCZ Storage Solution drives.


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