Kingston x64 v1.5.X.X SSD Manager User Guide

: June 7, 2024
: Kingston

Table of Contents

Introduction
Supported Operating Systems
System Requirements
Main Window
SSD Wear Indicator
Firmware Tab
Operations Tab
Over provisioning
Health Tab
Security Tab
Events Tab
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

Kingston x64 v1.5.X.X SSD Manager User Guide

FIRMWARE AND FIRMWARE UPDATES ARE PROVIDED AT KINGSTON’S DISCRETION IN CONNECTION WIT CERTAIN KINGSTON PRODUCTS. THE FIRMWARE AND FIRMWARE UPDATES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND ARE USED AT YOUR SOLE RISK WITH NO WARRANTIES, CLAIMS, OR REPRESENTATIONS FROM KINGSTON WHATSOEVER

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NO LICENSE, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, BY ESTOPPEL OR OTHERWISE, TO ANY INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IS GRANTED BY ALLOWING THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY FIRMWARE AND / OR FIRMWARE UPDATE, EXCEPT AS PROVIDED HEREIN.

Introduction

Kingston® SSD Manager is an application that provides users with the ability to monitor and manage various aspects of their Kingston® Solid State Drive.

With Kingston® SSD Manager you will be able to:

Monitor drive health, status, and disk usage
View drive identification data including model name, serial number, firmware version, and other relevant information
View and export detailed drive health and status reports
Update drive firmware
Securely erase data
Manage TCG Opal and IEEE 1667
Over provision with Host Protected Area (HPA)

Supported Operating Systems

Refer to the table below for Kingston® SSD Manager operating system requirements.

Software Version Supported Operating Systems
Kingston® SSD Manager x64 v1.5.X.X Windows 10 x64
Kingston® SSD Manager v1.1.X.X Windows 8, 8.1, 10 x86, x64

System Requirements

In order to use Kingston® SSD Manager you must have:

One or more Kingston® SSDs
AHCI mode set in BIOS
Administrator privileges in Windows®

Note: Some older model Kingston® SSDs may not be supported by Kingston® SSD Manager x64 v1.5.X.X. In this case you may continue to use Kingston® SSD Manager v1.1.X.X

Main Window

The main window allows you to quickly view device information and health status. The KSM version number is displayed in the top left corner as well as a link to contact Kingston Technical Support. To rescan for devices, click the Refresh button. If you have more than one Kingston® SSD you can switch between them in the left panel. Switching between tabs is done in the right panel. The bottom panel provides the following drive information:

Partition and disk usage
Health overview
SSD wear indicator and spare blocks
Temperature and power on hours

SSD Wear Indicator

The SSD Wear Indicator gauge found at the bottom of the main user interface displays the remaining write endurance on the selected Kingston® SSD as a percentage. A brand-new drive will indicate a value of 100% meaning it has 100% of its useful life remaining. This value will begin to decrease as the drive is used over time.

Firmware Tab

The Firmware tab provides the following drive information:

Physical device path
Volume information
Vendor/Model
Serial number
Firmware version

f there is a firmware update available for your Kingston® SSD you will be able to click on the Firmware Update button to begin the firmware update process. You will also be able to view the firmware update release notes. Once the firmware update process has completed it is recommended to safely shut down your system and leave it powered off for 10 seconds before powering back on again.

Operations Tab

The Operations tab includes any special operations that may be applicable to your Kingston® SSD. This tab will be hidden
from view if your Kingston® SSD does not support any special operations.

Over provisioning

The over provisioning feature allows you to manage the over provisioning of your Kingston® SSD by setting a Host Protected Area (HPA). Over provisioning is the practice of reducing the usable capacity of an SSD to increase both its performance and endurance. This feature is only supported on Kingston® Data Center series SSDs.

If you would like to use this feature you must first remove all partitions from the SSD. You may also need to clean the SSD using diskpart. For best performance a secure erase is recommended.

Now enter the desired capacity in gigabytes (GB) and click the Commit button to apply your changes. You will be prompted to enter the last four digits of the drive serial number before the HPA modification takes place. After the HPA modification successfully completes a power cycle of the target drive or a system shutdown and restart is required for the system to detect the new capacity.

If you encounter errors during the over provisioning process, power cycle the drive and then try again.

Health Tab

The Health tab allows you to monitor various attributes related to the health and status of your Kingston® SSD. Click the Refresh Data button to refresh the health information currently being displayed. Click the Export Data button to save the health information to a file.

You may scroll up and down on this tab to view the various health attributes. The attributes with colored gauges next to them allow you to quickly monitor their status.

There is also a table listing all supported health attributes along with their technical details and values:

Attribute: The attribute number and description.
Normalized: The current normalized value of the attribute.
Worst: The lowest recorded normalized value of the attribute.
Threshold: The value that the attribute should not exceed under normal operation.
Raw: Raw value of the attribute.
Flags: The number of flags associated with the attribute.

Security Tab

The Security tab allows you to manage and view the status of the following security features of your Kingston® SSD:

ATA Security: View the current ATA security status. You may be able to perform an ATA secure erase on a secondary non-partitioned drive by clicking on the Secure Erase button. You will be prompted to enter the last four digits of the drive serial number before any data is erased. ATA secure erase will erase all data on the drive. This will restore your Kingston® SSD to its fresh out of box condition. ATA secure erase may not be available on all systems.
TCG Opal: View the current TCG status. This only applies to Kingston® SSDs that support TCG Opal. If your drive is TCG enabled and you would like to restore it to a disabled state, you can perform a TCG revert using the PSID. The PSID is a string of 32 letters and numbers located on the drive label. The SSD must be connected as a secondary drive and you must correctly type in the PSID on the label. Once you have PSID typed in click the TCG Revert button to revert the drive. TCG revert will cryptographically erase all data on the drive.
IEEE 1667: View the current IEEE 1667 status. This only applies to Kingston® SSDs that support IEEE 1667. You can enable or disable IEEE 1667 support by clicking on the IEEE 1667 Enable/Disable button. It is recommended to only have IEEE 1667 enabled if you plan to use hardware encryption in BitLocker according to the Microsoft® eDrive standard