SSD Died

CrimsonKnight13

CrimsonKnight13

Lord Stabington of [H]ard|Fortress
Joined
Jan 8, 2008
Messages
8,438
Over the weekend, the OCZ Vertex 3 120GB SSD died in my gaming PC & I've been noticing strange behavior w/in Windows 8.1 lately. I'll be replacing it with a Samsung 840 EVO 240GB SSD. I've know about the issues with OCZ for a while, so the possibility of failure was always there.

Are there any recommended recovery processes and/or applications that I can use to possibly recover some data from the busted SSD? I know that I should've been backing up... so the next OS installation will definitely get daily backups done.

I appreciate any insight or help. If you decide that this is cannon fodder for humor, go right ahead with that as well. :p
 
Are there any recommended recovery processes and/or applications that I can use to possibly recover some data from the busted SSD?
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I say No. If you can not get the drive to work you can not as a normal user recover any data even though I would bet most if not all of the data is fine on the NAND.
 
drescherjm said:
I say No. If you can not get the drive to work you can not as a normal user recover any data even though I would bet most if not all of the data is fine on the NAND.
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That's the worst of what I guessed. There's nothing substantial that I need from it, though getting some of the data would be convenient. Looks like I'll be starting over with a few things. :eek:
 
I would still search for recovery methods. The reason why 99.XX% of SSDs die is because of some type of controller failure (firmware bugs, corrupt mapping table, not recovering from unexpected power failure ...)
 
I was under the impression that in the event of extreme nand flash failure, SSD controllers usually go into a read-only mode? No?
 
GotNoRice said:
I was under the impression that in the event of extreme nand flash failure, SSD controllers usually go into a read-only mode? No?
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That is what is supposed to happen when a drive wears out however I would bet that the cause of the problem is not wear.
 
I bought it May 2012 & its been used as the main OS drive since then.
 
ive been using ssds for a few years haven't had one wear out yet but have had 2 die completely, haven't actually seen any reports of drives going into read only modes in normal use yet.
 
dangerouseddy said:
ive been using ssds for a few years haven't had one wear out yet but have had 2 die completely, haven't actually seen any reports of drives going into read only modes in normal use yet.
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It takes many years of normal desktop usage to wear out an SSD for example my 80GB Intel G1 drive has over 5 years of uptime on my htpc and it still has 93% life left..
 
You should have cloned the drive. At least you will enjoy a clean install right now.
 
Iching said:
You should have cloned the drive. At least you will enjoy a clean install right now.
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Yeah, I kept holding off on making drive images. Now I'll start that off as soon as I get the OS installed w/ every driver & app that I need.

Should I go with DriveImage XML or something else?
 
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drescherjm said:
I would still search for recovery methods. The reason why 99.XX% of SSDs die is because of some type of controller failure (firmware bugs, corrupt mapping table, not recovering from unexpected power failure ...)
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None of which are really recoverable by normal people.

CrimsonKnight13 said:
Yeah, I kept holding off on making drive images. Now I'll start that off as soon as I get the OS installed w/ every driver & app that I need.

Should I go with DriveImage XML or something else?
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I use Acronis TrueImage. Works well.
 
None of which are really recoverable by normal people.
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The reason why I mentioned that was I know there was a method to recover for at least 1 Crucial M4 firmware bug.
 
OCZ has accepted my RMA request. Does anyone know what they typcially replace busted SSDs with? Same model or newer version w/ similar size or larger?

Tsumi said:
I use Acronis TrueImage. Works well.
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I'm going to test out the stripped down version from Western Digital to see how much I like it.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Should I go with DriveImage XML or something else?
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Tsumi said:
I use Acronis TrueImage. Works well.
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Eww.. Acronis is barely not worthy of being called "crap".. it has issues with behaving properly.

I'd suggest Macrium Reflect, there's a free version for non-commercial use, even has a recovery disk that can be made. Drive Image XML will work fine though but it's main drawback is the lack of recovery media.
 
FnordMan said:
Eww.. Acronis is barely not worthy of being called "crap".. it has issues with behaving properly.

I'd suggest Macrium Reflect, there's a free version for non-commercial use, even has a recovery disk that can be made. Drive Image XML will work fine though but it's main drawback is the lack of recovery media.
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I like how that has what I'm looking for. Thanks.
 
FnordMan said:
Eww.. Acronis is barely not worthy of being called "crap".. it has issues with behaving properly.
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Like what?

Note: I'm not talking about installing it as backup software. I've always found that to be terribly damaging to the system.

Just creating a boot disk that's used for manual imaging works pretty seamlessly though.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
OCZ has accepted my RMA request. Does anyone know what they typcially replace busted SSDs with? Same model or newer version w/ similar size or larger?



I'm going to test out the stripped down version from Western Digital to see how much I like it.
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My OCZ Deneva 2 was replaced with another Deneva 2 of the same size. I guess it would simply depend on whether or not they have any of the same models, and whether or not it is a simple/cheap task to repair your SSD. I can almost guarantee you they won't upgrade you in size, but they might upgrade you to a newer version if they don't have any of your model in stock. Keep in mind OCZ is owned by Toshiba now.
 
Tsumi said:
My OCZ Deneva 2 was replaced with another Deneva 2 of the same size. I guess it would simply depend on whether or not they have any of the same models, and whether or not it is a simple/cheap task to repair your SSD. I can almost guarantee you they won't upgrade you in size, but they might upgrade you to a newer version if they don't have any of your model in stock. Keep in mind OCZ is owned by Toshiba now.
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I figured as much. I've learned that you either win small (replacement of the same) or win big (replacement with an upgrade).
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
OCZ has accepted my RMA request. Does anyone know what they typcially replace busted SSDs with? Same model or newer version w/ similar size or larger?



I'm going to test out the stripped down version from Western Digital to see how much I like it.
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The stripped down version of Acronis probably wont allow you to password protect archives.
I saw a version that came free with an SSD that performs like this.

FnordMan said:
Eww.. Acronis is barely not worthy of being called "crap".. it has issues with behaving properly.
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I had issues with an old version many years ago, but its been solid since.

It installs a load of services and process that can be disabled without any issue if you dont want any automation and like your windows to run lean.
I disable all the 3 services and 3 boot up processes and it works fine when manually run.
Acronis will give an error at startup that you can "ignore" if the scheduler is disabled.
Enable just the scheduler service to stop the error.
 
Nenu said:
The stripped down version of Acronis probably wont allow you to password protect archives.
I saw a version that came free with an SSD that performs like this.
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I haven't really thought about password protecting drive images.

Some more fun involving this headache. I received the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD yesterday, which worked fine when I installed Windows 8.1. After the initial boot, it started to give me BSoDs about INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. I was only get it to boot once more normally into Windows & the rest of the time I couldn't get in at all. :mad: Now I'm sending that SSD back to Amazon for a replacement after I securely erased the drive.
 
Some more fun involving this headache. I received the Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD yesterday, which worked fine when I installed Windows 8.1. After the initial boot, it started to give me BSoDs about INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. I was only get it to boot once more normally into Windows & the rest of the time I couldn't get in at all. Now I'm sending that SSD back to Amazon for a replacement after I securely erased the drive.
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Although this may be bad luck it may be time to check the voltages on your powersupply.
 
drescherjm said:
Although this may be bad luck it may be time to check the voltages on your powersupply.
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Would using a hardware info tool through Linux be a good shot with that? I don't own any electrical testing tools & the power supply tester I own doesn't show voltage readings.
 
Well... I'm SOL in that case. I have no way of knowing if the SATA power connectors are over- or under-volting. So far, the HDDs & optical drives have been working just fine.

The PSU tester should at least tell me if its getting proper voltages to each connector type. I don't think that would definitely tell me the details that I'd like to know though. :(
 
Both are already out of my hands... the OCZ is on its way to CA & my wife will be sending out the new Samsung to KY today while I'm at work. I think before I hookup any new SSDs, I'm going to buy a multimeter & test each PSU connection.
 
Chas said:
Like what?

Note: I'm not talking about installing it as backup software. I've always found that to be terribly damaging to the system.

Just creating a boot disk that's used for manual imaging works pretty seamlessly though.
Click to expand...

Nenu said:
The stripped down version of Acronis probably wont allow you to password protect archives.
I saw a version that came free with an SSD that performs like this.


I had issues with an old version many years ago, but its been solid since.

It installs a load of services and process that can be disabled without any issue if you dont want any automation and like your windows to run lean.
I disable all the 3 services and 3 boot up processes and it works fine when manually run.
Acronis will give an error at startup that you can "ignore" if the scheduler is disabled.
Enable just the scheduler service to stop the error.
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Running 2013 here, the biggest thing it does, functionality wise, is that it ignores the delete the old image after finishing the backup setting on the weekly full image a decent chunk of the time.
Then there's the huge issue: It's built-in DRM crap, you have to activate the thing with their servers for it to work at all. That's an instant NO in my book. Wouldn't have bought the thing if I knew that's what their doing.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Would using a hardware info tool through Linux be a good shot with that? I don't own any electrical testing tools & the power supply tester I own doesn't show voltage readings.
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A multimeter is cheap at Harbor Freight, if there's one nearby. They often have coupons where you can get it for free. Low quality, but it works.
 
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Boot Linux off a USB flash dive and use dd to copy the whole thing before you send it back.
 
reb00tin said:
Boot Linux off a USB flash dive and use dd to copy the whole thing before you send it back.
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I attempted that, but no luck since the drive wasn't readable via internal SATA or external SATA-to-USB 3.0 connections.

For now, I do have the replacement Samsung 840 EVO from Amazon. I won't know until later in the week just how jacked up the OCZ SSD is. My Corsair H80 Hydro decided to die on me after I was checking out all of the voltages w/ my PSU (which wound up being all under 5% variance). Maybe when I get the new H100i, I'll be able to see just how far I can take my PC & how well the new SSD works.
 
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