Modern, Readily-Available SSD That Works in a BCM50!

[fireradio]

Hello All,

I know there have been several threads on SSD compatibility in the past, but after getting thoroughly frustrated at the fact that all the models listed as compatible are completely unavailable at this point (unless you take a big risk and buy used, something I tend to avoid with SSDs) I decided to try a cheap SSD from Kingston, and it works!

Kingston A400 120 GB is what you want. They're about $20-23 new from major online retailers. Boots just fine on my BCM R3 that has been upgraded to R6!

Hope this helps someone!

Disclaimer: I've only tried this on one BCM so far. I intend on trying it on a second unit shortly.

 

[curlycord]

Thanks for the post, I have updated my list:

SSD Drives:
Corsair CSSD-F11
Intel 80GB 320
Intel 80GB 335
Intel 180GB 335
Intel S3500 160GB SSDSC2BB160G4
INTEL X25-M SSDSA2M080G2GC
INTEL X25-M (40 or 80 GB) SSDSA2M080G2GC(is the 80GB)
INTEL X25-M G1
Intel X25-V (40 GB)
Crucial 64GB or 128 V4 drives
Corsair Force LS 120GB (or 60GB)
Crucial m4 SSD 2.5 256GB SATA 6Gb/s P/N: CT256M4SSD2
Kingston A400 120 GB

SD cards:
Sandisk Ultra SDHC 32GB: 80MB/s

I will see if we can get ucxguy to update his FAQ as well.


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[ucxguy]

I could update the FAQ I guess. The problem is that the compatibility of the A400 has been verified for one release only (and that is R6). The compatibility with newer SSDs was quite poor for R1, R2 and R3. There were some improvements made in R5 and R6. Due to that, using an SSD for R6 may work, but attempting to use it for R1 - R3 could fail. In the FAQ, I listed only SSD devices that I tested with all releases from R1 to R6.

I guess we could have two sections in the FAQ - one with SSDs that work with any release and another with SSDs that work with R6 but may not work with older releases.

For the SD card, it is not just the SD card - it would be very important to also mention which adapter was used. The adapter must provide SATA I compatibility and the SD card must report info that the UBOOT on the BCM50 understands...

 

[Firebird Scrambler]

That's a good point on the last post. Personally, bearing in mind the number of years that the BCM has been out of Avaya support means for me that I'm only really interested in release 6.0 as we can easily upgrade to it from an earlier release.

Firebird Scrambler

Nortel & Avaya Meridian 1 / Succession & BCM / Norstar Programmer

Website =

http://somertel.myfreesites.net

linkedin

 

[fireradio]

The problem is that the compatibility of the A400 has been verified for one release only (and that is R6)."

Actually, I started out by cloning my R3 image to the Kingston A400, and then upgraded it to R6. It worked just fine on R3 (I rebooted many times to test) and R6. Maybe I just got lucky?

 

[rrmass]

Saw the post this morning and just happened to need a trip to my local computer store. Not a big box store but a mom and pop that I've known for years and trust.

I asked them about the Kingston drives. They said we used to stock them but since the price of better quality(?) drives have come down we don't anymore. They said the quality may not be the best but probably better than a 10-15 year old hard drive!

The price and availability are right so I guess it's worth a shot.

 

[fireradio]

Well, I've got some bad news. Nothing good ever lasts!

It turns out, there must be multiple revisions of the Kingston A400. The one I originally tested was purchased several months ago, and it works fine in a hardware revision R3 cabinet with R3 software and R6 software as well as in a hardware revision R5 cabinet with R6 software.

However, a few days ago, I purchased two more Kingston A400 drives, and although they are the identical model number, they will not work in any of my BCMs.

Using the Linux utility [pre]hdpram[/pre] reveals wildly different firmware versions (not even in the same ballpark) between the older drive and my two new ones.

So, since it is impossible to tell what revision you'll get when you purchase these drives, I'm not sure how useful this discovery is after all. What a bummer!

 

[curlycord]

fireradio...where did you buy yours? and do you have a link in your history if it was Amazon?


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[fireradio]

The two non-working drives came from Amazon. The working drive that I purchased several months ago came from eBay (brand new).

 

[ucxguy]

It comes down to the support of SATA I by the drive's chipset/firmware. The BCM50 uses SATA I - the backwards compatibility of nowadays drives with this old standard is rather sporadic. In the past, Intel was quite good maintaining backwards compatibility. Other vendors don't care much, because finding a device that does not support at least SATA II is not very common.

For the A400 drives, they have been manufactured for quite some time. Manufactures often need to change some hardware components because the original ones are no longer available - and that unfortunately leads to changes of the hardware and firmware. So, even though the device name stays the same (A400), there might be major differences for example when it comes to the SATA interface. The significant difference in the firmware versions that you see can be an indication of something like that.

My personal recommendation for anyone who wants a reasonably good SSD for their (aging) BCM50 would be a used Intel X25-E or X25-V or X25-M drive (capacity does not matter - 40GB or more).

 

[curlycord]

I found a post to add to the list that was successful with Intel 335 SSD


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[curlycord]

I read a post where somebody had an issue with their SSD so they contacted Kingston and downgraded the firmware.
Maybe try that if you still have it/them.
I looked for firmware but I guess they give direct downloads to users with issues.


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