Crucialm4 64GB 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s with Data Transfer Kit CT064M4SSD2CCA

PROS:* Same performance encrypted vs decrypted.CONS:* Warranty is only 3 years.* Failed hard 2.5 months after warranty.* Warranty page gives java errors.NARRATIVE:I liked this because it was mid-priced, decent performance. I used this as a secondary drive, so some bulk installers for work, a couple of games, and a 45M truecrypt volume. Free space ranged from 10-50%. Twice, I did a wipe and reload just so long-duration archives would not overly affect wear leveling. 11 weeks after the warranty, it started hanging on boot, crashing, etc. I thought it was my M.2 socket for my primary drive.I got home from my week of travel, and decided I would replace both of my SSDs with a single 1TB drive. I ordered it, cloned my M.2 to the new drive, then connected the Crucial drive to my USB3-to-SATA adapter. All of the data copied fine, including the payload inside of the 45M encrypted container.During the copy, I noticed this drive making noise. Yes. This drive. Not the USB3 adapter. Not the laptop. This device made a faint buzz/squeal noise as data copied. Larger files were less noisy. Weird. I didn't notice that before. Once I was done, I went on to other things, then noticed the drive was making noise again. I un-plugged it. A couple of hours later, I plugged it back in, and nothing. It doesn't show up. I tried two controllers, two ports, and same thing. It buzzes for 2 seconds faintly on power up, then goes silent. Nothing shows up from device detection.At the beginning of the year, SMART said I had 98% life left. A couple of months ago, it said 97%. I was happy with this. Until it failed.This shakes my confidence in Crucial/Micron overall. I originally bought it because it was the second highest reliability for an SSD at the time, bested only by Intel which was much more expensive.Unfortunately, I'm still cheap, so I went with a SanDisk Ultra II instead of a Samsung EVO as my 1TB replacement.Since this was originally 00FH firmware, I thought maybe there would be a recall on it, even though I had loaded 070H in 2013. To request a return, you have to have the "Material Number", which was only on the original box. This is 132304 for the CT512M4SSD2. Then, I put in my serial number from the sticker on the drive, and I get a "Java Null Pointer Exception." If I remove a character, it says invalid. I tried both Chrome and FireFox ESR. Java is 8. Nothing like a manufacturer whose RMA system doesn't work.Also, searching for the Material Number, it seems like a large number of us who bought these in mid to late 2012 are having sudden failures. Unfortunately, I have several other Crucial drives, and I really do not like that now I have to track their age and replace them preemptively. They should survive through their wear indicators.A couple of hours later, it worked when I tried plugging it in again. I'm hesitant to consider it "good".PREVIOUS REVIEW:SUMMARY: This is a decent SSD now that firmware problems are resolved. The kit comes with a great USB to SATA bridge and easy to use, great functioning software.DETAILS: I got one of these for my new system. The system isn't here yet, so I'm using it on my old system, a Thinkpad T61p.This came with an Apricorn SATA-Wire 2.5. This works great with SSD and SATA disks of any vintage I could throw at it.The software is simple, clean, and can be used booted from a CD, or from running Windows.The software has a performance test button. This is great. It also copied my system recovery partition on a Thinkpad.I use TrueCrypt system encryption on Windows 7, and the SATA-WIRE cloned my disk from inside running Windows 7 in several hours. I was nice and had nothing running, nothing extra mounted, etc. I just let it run overnight.This morning, I swapped the disk, and skipped preboot authorization (copy was not encrypted). Everything boots up properly. Then, I use TrueCrypt to decrypt, and it takes 1 second to reset the pointers. I tell it no, don't reboot, and then tell it to encrypt the whole drive. Test, reboot, etc... all works.The hardware is just a decent USB to SATA bridge. Everything you'd expect, and very low power consumption. Even my 3-platter 2.5" disks would spin up from it.The only drawback is that there isn't a USB 3.0 version of this device. It runs at 27.8MB/sec (about as much as you can get out of USB2 considering protocol overhead).As for the drive, it's what you'd expect from a current generation, consumer grade SATA SSD. I picked this one because it was rated as having the lowest return rates by a certain retailer, and was half the cost of Intel. This might not be the best reason, as the return rates for Intel were apparently due to a temporary firmware issue, and Intel was on track for being on top again. That's fine though, I'm okay with #2, considering it's still less than half of the return rates of the next brand (Corsair).The cost of Intel is probably due to the higher Total Writes. The M4 is rated for 72TB of 4k random writes. The Intel 710 is rated for 500TB of 4k random writes. If you're running a database, or a high-write random workload, then the Intel 710 is less than 2x the cost of this. Go there. But, if your workload is 90% read, and your writes are large blocks (downloads, a few documents, normal desktop/laptop workloads), then this drive should last way past its 3 year warranty.If you want to track the wear on your device, you can use smartmon tools to track total writes, and under 0xE4, the percentage of wear (divide by 1024).The performance is tested out by HW reviewers at:* 415MB/sec or 40kiops sequential read* 260MB/sec or 50kiops sequential writeAll of the performance tests I've been able to find shows the m4 to be in the top 4 for all read tests, but quite a way down in the write tests.* Random 4k Read 78.6MB/sec (#2 to OCZ Vertex 4)* Random 4k Write 181MB/sec (Bottom 5 out of 20 drives)* Sequential 128K Read 417MB/sec (#1 out of 20 drives, including Intel 510, but not Intel 710)* Sequential 128k Write 205MB/sec (Bottom 3 out of 20 drives)* Incompressible read/write - no change in perf, which pushes it higher in the rankings vs many othersThe HW specs for this device are:* Exact same device as Micron RealSSD C400 (parent company)* Marvell 88SS9174-BLD2 (vs the BKK2 at 3gbit in Intel 510)** SATA III 6gbit/sec host-side interface** SSD 8 channel controller (vs 10-chan for intel)* 2x 32GByte Micron 25nm MLC NAND chips per channel (29F256G08CFAAB-12)** Endurance: 72TB (40GB/day for 5 years)* 256MB internal cache RAMThe main thing to consider here is that there is no spare area. If you fill your drive to 99%, the time to failure will be much less than if it were half full. This is where Intel wins out. Their spare area is roughly half of the drive's actual capacity, plus 2 extra SSD channels.Refs: ownership, anandtech, linuxlookup, crucial,

First off the Crucial 256GB SSD screams, noticeable difference from my 500GB Seagate 7200rpm SATA drive.My set up before adding this SSD:EVGA Mainboard4GB RAMIntel Core2Duo CPU (E8500 3.16GHz)Windows Vista 64bit2 500GB ST364032 3AS SATA drives set up as C: and D:Paging file was on D:After reading some posts here I decided to create a boot drive with a USB thumb drive. You do this with the EZ Gig IV software you can choose to start Windows and perform the clone "inside" of Windows. If your CD is not readable you can go to Apricon's website and download the lastest too. Options for creating an ISO are available as well.Prior to making the bootable thumb drive I wanted to clean up my current C: drive, I moved about 40GB of data to my D: drive and paired my C: down to about 200GBs. I cleaned out my document folders and download directories. But I forgot to empty the recycle bin. That added to the clone time and I also forgot to change the swap file settings moving them from D: to C:, this missed step caused me some issues, if you do not have your swap file on a separate hard drive no worries. I had no other logical partitions on the hard drive. I then backed up my C: drive to my D: just in case, not the whole drive just my data files as I have all my original install disks.Once I created the bootable thumb drive, I rebooted my machine and changed the boot order so the USB drive would be the first bootable drive.I then turned my machine off and I connected the bootable thumb drive and then connected the cable included in the transfer kit to the Crucial drive and plugged it in to an available USB port. There was the SSD drive dangling from the Tower Case's USB port. The drive weighs barely nothing.I turned on the machine and the system booted to the USB thumb drive and I followed the instructions, first off: analyzing the original boot disk my 500GB drive this step took a very long time. First try I stopped the process because after an hour it still was analyzing. I thought maybe something got hung up I was wrong it just takes time, after I started over 2 hours went by and still analyzing! So I went to bed. Woke up checked the system and it said congratulations it successfully completed.I turned off the machine. Removed the bootable thumb drive, Disconnected the C: Drive and connected the new SSD using the power and SATA cable originally connected. And I booted, first changing the boot order in the bios. I did not need to do this but I do leave thumb drives in my USB ports all the time so I wanted to avoid hassles later. Anyway fingers crossed but knowing that my original C: drive was there. The system booted extremely fast wow. I got to the logon screen and entered my password and for the next forty minutes the round little graphic kept on spinning. I rebooted went to safe mode, blazing fast looked at the errors. I remembered that I didnt change the swap files from D: to C: (why slow things down now that I have a SSD). Rebooted and the same thing I could logon but it would take forever. So I went back to safe mode and stopped the forceware IP service and put it to disabled (this is a firewall software) I could always re-enable it. Rebooted and the same thing system would hang after entering my password. Ok is it the user profile? Back to safemode, I created a new user account and rebooted, yaaaa everything came up no more issues, so I deleted my old profile (remember i have backups) and tried the old account and that one too got it ok.Now my system is really fast, MS Office opens instantly! Now I need to go back and get my profile information from my backups.Hope this helps

Because of this drive I buy almost exclusively Crucial SSD SATA drives. Superb drive 👍

Great SSD - as any, transforms PC experience into a pleasure.14 sec Windows 7 boot times, instant launch of the apps and access to any data, insanely fast internal transfers when muxing.512 GB capacity means I can finally have all photos and Lightroom catalog on the laptop and still have enough space for games/apps and ~200GB spare capacity to make sure the firmware can cycle flash cells well and don't reduce its life.1) General:Build quality is excellent - as with all Crucial (Micron) SSDs and included data transfer kit makes the swap to a new drive a doddle.2) Performance:SATA 2 mode (SATA 3 Sony Vaio laptop - with SATA reduced to 2 by the BIOS)Sequential:Read: 262.6 Mb\secWrite: 244.6 Mb\secRandom 512K:Read: 240.9 Mb\secWrite: 235.8 Mb\secRandom 4K:Read: 17.87 Mb\secWrite: 41.28 Mb\secSATA 3 mode (in my SATA 3 desktop)Sequential:Read: 418.3 Mb\secWrite: 254.1 Mb\secRandom 512K:Read: 376.7 Mb\secWrite: 252.3 Mb\secRandom 4K:Read: 21.18 Mb\secWrite: 101.6 Mb\secWell deserved 5/5, recommended!

I bought this to replace a 160GB hard drive in an elderly Dell 1525 Laptop, at the same time I decided to do away with "Vista" and "clean install" Windows 7 Home Premium. Overcautious me ordered the HDD complete with data transfer kit...just in case! Changing the HDD for the SSD turned out to be surprisingly easy.(1) Turn the laptop upside down, identify the two screws that secure the HDD in place, remove them, then carefully slide out the HDD. It was a little stiff to move initially then slid out easily, it comes out complete with its caddy, there are no wires or leads to worry about.(2) There is one screw on each side of the caddy to undo and then the HDD slides out from it easily. The black plastic end trim of the caddy will come adrift at the same time as it`s secured to the caddy by those same two screws.(3) Reassemble the caddy and SSD. Don`t forget the black plastic end trim. You can`t put the SSD in the caddy the wrong way up because the screw holes in the caddy and the SSD won`t line up.(4) It`s obvious which way up the caddy slides back into the laptop. A smooth, gentle push is all that`s required, you can feel the resistance as the connection is made, so it`s obvious when to stop pushing! You can see down the two securing screw holes in the laptop case to see if they line up with those of the SSD. When they do, replace and tighten the screws. Be careful not to cross thread or over tighten the four tiny screws involved in the operation.(5) Turn the laptop the right way up and turn it on. You can now install, or reinstall, your chosen operating system.That's it! Four screws and a little careful handling.No fitting instructions at all came with the SSD, but to be honest you don`t really need them with this particular laptop. Others may be different of course. I hope this review encourages those who may be a bit nervous of changing their HDD to SSD.I don`t regret it and it`s transformed the performance of the Dell 1525.Boot time from "off" to "on line" is about 25 seconds and "shut down" is about 7 seconds, everything loads umpteen times faster than before!

Crucial havent skimped in the production of the M4 and it has been well reviewed for excellent performance and consistency between drives; and more importantly has good support from a solid company. I can't remember the last time I bought a mechanical hard disk and it came in a box. That is partly because the M4 comes with some accessories to help you on your way; first up a USB cable that turns your new / old drives into a USB (2) external disks and a CD that will help you migrate to the new drive. Instructions to install a new hard disk into your notebook are likely a quick google/bing search away. If you can use a screwdriver with a little bit of care you will be able to fit this to your computer. Though you may need some  Torx screwdrivers  if they aren't already in your toolkit if your manufacturer (as Apple do) use them somewhere.I elected to do a completely fresh install; as I had the disks I required and generally you get a quicker machine from a fresh install. If that is too much Crucial do provide a transfer disk and others have reported it works just fine. The proof of the pudding is once its installed the SSD reduces application loading times on my mac to blinks of your eye and you can run more applications at once as you don't notice the time your computer used to spend writing memory to disk. The USB cable also powers my original hard drive so I still have access to the data thats on it when i need it; though i wouldn't use an unprotected disk outside of a  2.5 SATA TO USB CADDY.  (Others are available.) Torx screwdrivers2.5 SATA TO USB CADDY.

For those of us with a desktop that has been getting frustratingly long to boot in the morning this is an ideal solution. You will need to clear your current boot disk down to 45 gb or less, but its easy to move 'my documents' and shared off the existing disk while you deploy the software provided. Don't forget to buy an 3.5" to 2.5" adapter and cables as well.The software is easy to use to copy the drive. I left my existing boot drive in the machine after the operation. I bought two of these drives and on one computer I just moved the SATA2 cable over while on the other I had to tell the BIOS to boot from the new disk.My disks are loaded with Windows XP, Microsoft Office 2010 and Corel X4 among many other programs and the disk ended up about half full. (If you're buying an M4 for games, buy the 128GB one)Boot time reduced from 3 minutes to 1 and loading MS Office programs now takes 3 seconds or less. The improvement claimed in magazines is 17%, but the things that irritate, like waiting for Outlook to load, are about 5 to 10 times faster.Buy the bigger disk if you can afford it, but this one is fine if you have a couple of HDDs and want to prolong the life of your machine.Not quite suitable for amateurs, but not all that difficult either.

This is a great product and has revitalised my increasingly sluggish computer. I'm running this on a SATA-II socket, so I'm not even using it to its full potential but it is still an evolutionary leap over my old HDDs. I can't comment yet on longevity or read/write failures as I've only had the product a short time, but the ease of install (windows 7 install disc detected it without issue), the speed with which the installation completed (I'm used to spending half a day installing windows, but this completed in ten or twenty minutes) and the subsequent boot times and read times are phenomenal. The transfer kit is a useful addition though I didn't need it in the end. I am thinking of using it to create an image of my clean install to save time in the future. Very good product from crucial, as is always the case in my experience.UPDATE: This hard drive finally failed on December 2016... not quite five years lifetime, which is a little short. However, I can't go back to using a non SSD drive for my boot drive as the speed is simply incomporable. It's definitely worth taking an image of your drive when you first install it however, just to save pain later!