SanDisk Ultra+ SSD Manual Firmware update version X2316RL

SanDisk has released the ISO firmware images to allow SSD firmware update on operating systems that are NOT supported by the SanDisk SSD Toolkit. Each capacity drive has a separate Firmware ISO. You MUST use the correct firmware ISO for the capacity SSD you have installed.

WARNING: Applying the wrong firmware ISO to your SSD product will render the drive unusable! Please confirm the capacity of your SSD product before proceeding with the firmware download and update.

Note: The SanDisk Ultra+ SSD has two different model numbers. There is no functional difference between the two different model numbers. The Label on the SSD itself will always show SDSSDHP regardless of the internal model number.Ā 

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Please verify the model number Ā using one of the methods below. Do not use the SSD label to verify model number. Additionally you will need to know the capacity of your Ultra+ SSD and select the corresponding download below

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Checking Model Number

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Windows

Method 1 - Use SanDisk SSD Dashboard. The model number will be listed under Drive Info > ModelĀ 

Method 2 - Under Device Manager > Disk DrivesĀ 

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MAC

1. Open Macintosh Hard drive > Applications > Utilities > System Information

2. In System Information on the left side select Serial ATA, The Model number will be listed on the top right window

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Note: If the Firmware upgrade fails to install please check your BIOS SATA mode. If your computerā€™s SATA mode is set to Legacy IDE please change the SATA mode to AHCI before performing the Firmware update. After the Firmware upgrade is complete log back in to the BIOS and change the SATA mode back to Legacy IDE

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Step 1 - Verify the capacity and model number (Using Device manager or SSD ToolKit) of your SanDisk Ultra+ SSD and download the corresponding firmware ISO

SDSSDH2-XXX

SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDH2-064GB
64GB X2316RL Firmware ISO

SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDH2-128GB
128GB X2316RL Firmware ISO

SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDH2-256GB
256GB X2316RL Firmware ISO

SDSSDHP-XXX

SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDHP-064GB
64GB X2316RL Firmware ISO

SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDHP-128GB
128GB X2316RL Firmware ISO

SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDHP-256GB
256GB X2316RL Firmware ISO

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Step 2 - Burn the saved image file to a CD/DVD with another software application then boot from the CD and perform the firmware update.

Burn image with Windows 7 or 8: Right-click on the .iso file and select ā€˜Burn Imageā€™
Burn image with Mac: Use Mac Disk Utility

Restart your computer.

For PC and Linux
Make sure the CD/DVD drive is the first device in the boot sequence defined in the BIOS, and restart your computer with the newly created CD/DVD boot disk inserted.

For Mac
With the firmware disk inserted Press and hold the ā€œCā€ key while the computer restarts.

  1. After restart, your system will boot to the SanDisk Firmware Updater
  2. Select the drive you want to update from the list displayed.
  3. Press ENTER to start the update.
  4. When the update is completed, Press ENTER to shutdown computer.
  5. Remove the boot CD/DVD from the drive and restart computer.

Thank you! Iā€™ve a question for youā€¦ two months ago iā€™ve updated my SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDHP-128GB with the old X2316RL ISO firmware found on a website that i donā€™t remember. Is this new X2316RL firmware different from the previous? Because it canā€™t updated with the new ISOā€¦ the updater says something like ā€œdevice not supportedā€.

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Thank you!

All X2316RL are the same.Ā 

Hi,

Iā€™ve found something I suspect to be a mistake in iso (at least for the SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDHP-128GB model, I have not checked the others).

there is an argument passed to the kernel (found in menu.lst file) which contains a parameter blocking the firmware upgrade, I think it is related to a serial number, the value is near of my SSD S/N.

Iā€™ve tested the ISO on three differents computers (two laptops and one desktop) without success.

I finally managed to do the update by removing the parameter from the colored boot / grub menu (ā€˜eā€™ key twice, modify / delete the entry, ā€˜returnā€™ key and ā€˜bā€™ key to boot)Ā 

!!! Note that at this moment the sandisk SSD I want to upgrade was the only SSD/harddrive/whatever-disk connected to my computer, donā€™t know if itā€™s important but I prefer to not take any risk !!!

the line to edit is :

kernel /EFI/Boot/vmlinuz quiet splash locale=en.UTF-8 loglevel=2 sandisk.drive=131996401388 sandisk.command=ffu

and the parameter is

sandisk.drive=131996401388

Iā€™ve removed the parameter, booted and Iā€™ve been able to update my SSD easily.

If ever it may helpā€¦

2 Likes

Does this firmware update only work with the new UEFI? Just that my laptop has an old BIOS and when I try to boot up this firmware update it fails every time. It says something along the lines of ā€œNo EFI partition found at /dev/sdaā€. Is there any way round this? I would be very grateful for any help.

By the way, Iā€™m using Linux, so I have a MBR boot partition. Is that the problem? I suspect that this firmware installer canā€™t work with MBR, but only with an EFI boot partition.

The Sandisk Utlra Plus SSD is working fine on my computer (Iā€™ve installed Linux on it), but I just canā€™t update this firmware! Could anyone help me out?

Hi,

It doesnā€™t boot or doesnā€™t find the ssd ?

in the second case you try what Iā€™ve written above.

Iā€™m also running Gnu/Linux on an MBR format but Iā€™ve upgraded the firmware while the disk was brand new.

@zoidberg wrote:

Hi,

It doesnā€™t boot or doesnā€™t find the ssd ?

in the second case you try what Iā€™ve written above.

Iā€™m also running Gnu/Linux on an MBR format but Iā€™ve upgraded the firmware while the disk was brand new.

The firmware iso starts to boot up, I briefly see some kind of menu, this disappears and then I see something loading up, but this always fails. So yes, this firmware iso fails to find my ssd - it shows some messages about not being able to find an EFI partition on /dev/sda, which is where the ssd is located.

This is strange as Iā€™m actually using the ssd right now with Linux Mint installed on it - so the installation disk for Linux Mint was able to find the ssd without any problems. Iā€™m just not having any luck with this manual firmware updateā€¦

The only thing I can think of doing right now is to download the iso again and burn it onto another disk, just to make sure there wasnā€™t some kind of corruption with my first attemptā€¦ Do you have any other ideas? Itā€™s encouraging to know that you were able to install the firmware upgrade.

Thanks for you help!

zoidberg, Iā€™m also going to try following your instructions above. Iā€™ll let you know how I get onā€¦

@zoidberg wrote:

Hi,

 

Iā€™ve found something I suspect to be a mistake in iso (at least for the SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDHP-128GB model, I have not checked the others).

 

there is an argument passed to the kernel (found in menu.lst file) which contains a parameter blocking the firmware upgrade, I think it is related to a serial number, the value is near of my SSD S/N.

 

Iā€™ve tested the ISO on three differents computers (two laptops and one desktop) without success.

 

I finally managed to do the update by removing the parameter from the colored boot / grub menu (ā€˜eā€™ key twice, modify / delete the entry, ā€˜returnā€™ key and ā€˜bā€™ key to boot) 

 

!!! Note that at this moment the sandisk SSD I want to upgrade was the only SSD/harddrive/whatever-disk connected to my computer, donā€™t know if itā€™s important but I prefer to not take any risk !!!

 

the line to edit is :

kernel /EFI/Boot/vmlinuz quiet splash locale=en.UTF-8 loglevel=2 sandisk.drive=131996401388 sandisk.command=ffu

 

and the parameter is

sandisk.drive=131996401388

 

Iā€™ve removed the parameter, booted and Iā€™ve been able to update my SSD easily.

 

 

If ever it may helpā€¦

 

This worked for me. Thank you, zoidberg! Iā€™ve no idea how you spotted the option to press ā€œeā€, because that screen was just flashing by on my computer - I never had chance to read it!

I deleted the parameter as you say and then it all worked just fine. Iā€™ve just had a look in the Disks utility and it states that the latest firmware is now being used.

I still saw the messages about there being no EFI partitions, but the installer didnā€™t come to a sudden halt at this point. It continued with the installation of the updated firmware. It only took a second and then the computer turned off. No message about successful installation (which would have been nice!), so thatā€™s why I checked by looking at the Disks utility.

I hope someone at SanDisk will update this iso so that others donā€™t have the same hassle!

@zoidberg wrote:

Hi,

 

Iā€™ve found something I suspect to be a mistake in iso (at least for the SanDisk Ultra+ SSD SDSSDHP-128GB model, I have not checked the others).

Iā€™m using the SDSSDHP-064GB model, so the mistake is in this iso, too!

Glad to know you were able to upgrade your disk !

@chainy wrote:

This worked for me. Thank you, zoidberg! Iā€™ve no idea how you spotted the option to press ā€œeā€, because that screen was just flashing by on my computer - I never had chance to read it!

:wink:

Iā€™ve just seen the file containing grub parameters while creating usb key from the iso file, and this parameter was very similar to the serial number of my disk, so I just try to remove it :smiley:

Also itā€™s my job, Iā€™m a Gnu/Linux sysadmin, it may help :wink:

And yes, it would be nice if Sandisk could correct this big mistake !

Zoidberg, thanks for sharing with others your discovery about the error in the GRUB commaned line.

I tried removing the offending part of the command line, then had the updater boot, but it still fails no matter what.

In fact, it doesnā€™t just fail to update, but it shuts down the computer altogether so rapidly that I donā€™t even get a chance to see what the error was.

Very frustrating.

:cry:

Hi, sorry to read that, from what I remember the process should only reboot at the end, it is very fast, are you sure your SSD was not updated ?

If not, could you try from another computer (even a laptop) ?.

Iā€™m dead certain that it failed, because I checked the firmware revision on the SSD afterward, and it was still on the old version: X2306RL

For what itā€™s worth, right before it shuts down, I can for a split second see an error indicating ā€œfirmware not found.ā€

I even tried mounting the ISO within Linux, and I couldnā€™t find the firmware anywhere within the initrd file ā€œssdupdater.gzā€ that I extracted to examine the contents of to see if that was true, and there was nothing within that file.

I looked more closely at the directory structure of the intact file image, and here is what I (the below is the output of a simple ā€œfindā€ command within the root directory of the image with no parameters:

./EFI
./EFI/Boot
./EFI/Boot/ssdupdater.gz
./EFI/Boot/vmlinuz
./EFI/SanDisk
./EFI/SanDisk/update.flu
./grldr.mbr
./menu.lst

Iā€™m pretty sure that the file ā€œ./EFI/SanDisk/update.fluā€ is the actual firmware, but I have no idea why the updater doesnā€™t locate it automatically.

Itā€™s very strange that the updater stops at the exact same point, whether I leave the default GRUB command line as is, or whether I follow your idea to remove the part that caused the problems for you.

Very odd.

:confounded:

Update:

I was finally to make the update work via brute force.

First, I booted to Linux as normal.

Then, I extracted the entire ā€œssdupdater.gzā€ file.

Then, I moved to the ā€œoptā€ directory within the directory structure.

I then typed ā€œecho ffu ā€¦/EFI/SanDisk/update.flu | ./sankitā€

Suddenly, the update started, then exited.

A quick ā€œhdparm /dev/sdaā€ after all that gave me the following output:

/dev/sda:

Model=SanDisk SDSSDHP128G, FwRev=X2316RL , SerialNo=132895402244
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=0
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=1, MultSect=1
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=250069680
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
AdvancedPM=yes: unknown setting WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: unknown: ATA/ATAPI-4,5,6,7

* signifies the current active mode

I put the firmware revision in bold.

Before, the firmware was X2316RL , but this proves that it finally made the full update.

Yay!

Had same problem and thought it was a problem with my Asus Rampage motherboard but it wasnā€™t.
Just removed the serial line as everyone already mentioned and updated right away after failing every other way I tried i.e. via Windows Sandisk firmware update and using bootable ISO image.
Canā€™t believe they never bothered to fix this since how long has this firmware been out?

So another thanks for Zoidberg and not SanDisk!

Thanks for the trick needed to apply the update (amazing that Sandisk hasnā€™t fixed the ISO imagesā€¦).Ā  That allowed me to update my (failing) v2 128GB Ultra+ drive.Ā  After installing, I booted into a DVD of Knoppix, and saw the new firmware version.Ā 

I was doing this because my 1-week-old (though sitting on a shelf for a year or two) SSD suddenly started locking up when touching certain sectors.Ā  I had (painfully!) copied all but a few hundred MB (at a guess) with ddrescue to another drive (since the SSD locked up hard on touching a bad sector, I had to continually save the ddrescue state, do a hard reboot (restart didnā€™t un-bork the SSD), then run again. I quickly got 99%, but then got into areas where Iā€™d get 0 to a few hundred KB before hitting a bad set.Ā  After 50-some iterations of this (and looking at hundreds and hundreds more, even before trying to dissect the failed blocks (4 to 64K each)), I checked for a firmware update.Ā Ā  There was one!

The update (this one)Ā  was supposed to improve error handling and such.Ā  Great, just what I needed (I hoped)!Ā  With this thread, I got it updated successfully!Ā  Then I powered down, reattached other drives, and powered-on.Ā  Hung probing SATA-1 (which it had done all along occasionally).Ā  power-cycle - same.Ā  25 power-cycles later, I gave up.Ā  :frowning: :frowning:

Ironically I installed it to replace a failed rotating disk with a head crash (only 5 files affected, only 1 interesting and that was just an IMAP mailbox file, so all the data lives on a server).Ā  But now I get to reclone the data, and re-do all the cleanup.Ā  And unfortunately I moved a bunch of email (when cleaning up) to local folders on the SSDā€¦Ā  Thatā€™s all gone forever now.Ā  (I did preserve the attempted clone of the SSD, but thereā€™s no working directory structure thereā€¦ a recovery program might be able to dig out the files, if they donā€™t have holes in them, maybe.)