Hi everyone, following this topic, I’m looking for a software like NVCleanstall but for SSDs. Specifically Sandisk SSDs.
Is there something like that that exists? I don’t want to use the SanDisk Dashboard for privacy reasons.
Why not just install that dashboard app, do the firmware upgrade and uninstall it afterwards?
If you are on paranoia mode, take an image of your disks, do a low level format, create a separate VLAN for your computer, install VPN profile via wireguard on your router, install Windows 11 with local account, download and install SD Dashboard, do firmware upgrade, format your disks, and then restore the images back.
You can update SanDisk/WD firmware using the native nvme-cli tools, it is one of the reasons I recommend them over eg. Samsung.
(WD also supports 4k sectors which helps with encryption performance, Samsung locks this out on their consumer disks it seems).
There is a decent guide here: Western Digital Drive Update Guide Without Windows/WD Dashboard - Framework Laptop 13 - Framework Community
Thank you for this, it’s probably the right solution, but still haven’t got around in doing it.
After several back and forth with the customer service team at SanDisk, here is the official final answer:
Please be assured that we understand your concern regarding the firmware update for your SSD. We would like to inform you that updating the firmware on this model is not strictly required. Firmware updates typically include minor improvements or optimizations for compatibility with the latest operating systems, and since your SSD does not have any known critical issues that mandate an update, you may continue to use the drive with confidence even without updating the firmware.
However, it is generally recommended to keep your firmware up to date to ensure the best possible performance and system compatibility. Should you decide to update the firmware in the future, the SanDisk Dashboard will be the required tool to perform this action.
So, should I just skip updates and monitor the SanDisk website for critical update if there are at any point (which I haven’t done in the past)? Thoughts?
Up to you.