Oh!
So the firmware on the 320 and 520 drives might be different. I see they all say "400i" but there may be a dozen version of this 400i firmware too... I pulled the HD info off a 520 I had here and got the following:
mint@mint ~ $ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdc
/dev/sdc:
ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: INTEL SSDSC2CW120A3
Serial Number: CVCV223301VR120BGN
Firmware Revision: 400i
Transport: Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x0110)
Supported: 9 8 7 6 5
Likely used: 9
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 234441648
LBA48 user addressable sectors: 234441648
Logical Sector size: 512 bytes
Physical Sector size: 512 bytes
Logical Sector-0 offset: 0 bytes
device size with M = 1024*1024: 114473 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 120034 MBytes (120 GB)
cache/buffer size = unknown
Nominal Media Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Queue depth: 32
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Advanced power management level: 128
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=120ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
* Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
Look-ahead
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* NOP cmd
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* Advanced Power Management feature set
* 48-bit Address feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH_CACHE
* FLUSH_CACHE_EXT
* SMART error logging
* SMART self-test
* General Purpose Logging feature set
* 64-bit World wide name
* WRITE_UNCORRECTABLE_EXT command
* {READ,WRITE}_DMA_EXT_GPL commands
* Segmented DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Native Command Queueing (NCQ)
* Host-initiated interface power management
* Phy event counters
* unknown 76[14]
* DMA Setup Auto-Activate optimization
Device-initiated interface power management
* Software settings preservation
* SMART Command Transport (SCT) feature set
* SCT Data Tables (AC5)
* Data Set Management TRIM supported (limit 1 block)
* Deterministic read data after TRIM
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
enabled
locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
Security level high
4min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 2min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 5001517bb296403c
NAA : 5
IEEE OUI : 001517
Unique ID : bb296403c
Checksum: correct
mint@mint ~ $
The
Used: unknown (minor revision code 0x0110)
is interesting. I wonder how this compares to the 320 drive...
There is also the update tool:
But that might install different software for different drives too. Perhaps the toolbox application will give more info on the drive firmware and help see what the differences actually are.
I note that Toolbox version v1.93 was released far after OP's post. Aug. 17 vs. Nov. 27th. Who knows, maybe updating the 520's firmware to the latest version will fix it all. They list a lot of firmware revisions here:
http://downloadmirror.intel.com/18363/eng/Release%20Notes.docx
But they don't say much for the drives in question.
Update: I have another 520 drive on a running machine so I did hdparm on it and only the bottom changed between the two drives:
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
frozen
not expired: security count
supported: enhanced erase
4min for SECURITY ERASE UNIT. 2min for ENHANCED SECURITY ERASE UNIT.
Logical Unit WWN Device Identifier: 5001517bb2a3cabe
NAA : 5
IEEE OUI : 001517
Unique ID : bb2a3cabe
Checksum: correct
That really does not say much but perhaps it might be of use to someone. The first drive above is the one with the scrambled password that is now permanently locked. I had to hot-plug it to get past the security lock just to be able to read the drive data off it. The second drive does not have the ATA password set and is running in a system.