SSD deded

[Dr_Badthur]

posted this on reddit, forgot to post it here

copy&paste because lazy:

I have two SSDs in my PC. Primary (Samsung 850 EVO) for OS, programs and games I play often. The second (Crucial MX500), the one which I'm pretty sure is dead, is for other games, random files and family media. Specifically that last category was ~130GB, mainly photos.

On Thursday night (so two days ago), I was transferring files (videos) from my primary SSD to my second SSD. About 2/3 of the way through transferal, it stopped doing anything. I clicked "cancel" to try stop it, but nothing happened. No error message or popup. I sign out to quit the processes, sign back in, and attempt to delete the files (since they were corrupted somehow, I couldn't play the videos), but wasn't able to and got an error message. Unfortunately I didn't think anything of that message, just another random Windows error right? Well it was the first time I'd seen it, so in hindsight I should have investigated more. I don't recall if I tried to transfer/use files from this SSD earlier that day, since I usually transfer files to it near the end of the day/when I'm going to turn my PC off.

I shutdown my PC and went to sleep. Next morning, I try to turn my PC on. It fails to boot. I force it to turn off, and try again. Still does nothing. Unplug all peripherals and try again, it boots successfully. First thing I check are those files on my secondary SSD (again, the dead one, Crucial MX500)... only it's not there. Only my primary SSD is showing. Huh? Guessed it was a bug, so I restart again... Nope, still not showing.

Turn my PC off and go into BIOS, it's also not showing there (it was, just under a different name, for some reason?). Again I turn off my PC, open it up, check for loose cables (since I had to move my PC around to remove the peripherals), and try again. Still not showing up/working. So I switch out the cables, maybe they're somehow dead. No change.

For now I've removed the SSD, and as said earlier it was in fact showing in BIOS under a different name, but of course it's not there now since it's removed. I don't know if that means it's still alive or not.



And that's where I'm at now. The SSD in question is still within warranty, which I guess is cool, if it is dead, but that's not the issue. It would be pretty heartbreaking to lose my family media, along with everything else stored on there. I had a backup external HDD, but hilariously that also died about a month ago, and I stupidly never got around to replacing it.

So is the SSD dead? If yes, is it possible to recover the files that were stored on there? Would be a huge bummer if that's not possible.

[Orrie]

Seems pretty dead, but depending on how old it is (Since warranty is like what, 5 years?), it's surprising that it died in that time.
I presume you didn't keep track of the SSD health?

[Dr_Badthur]

yeah, it would be 2 years old this july, so still relatively new

I presume you didn't keep track of the SSD health?

nope, didn't know that was something you could or should do.
do you know if file recovery is possible? some mr sexiі on the reddit thread said it wasn't, but I don't trust the guys there (buildapc), I used to post there somewhat regularly, and a lot of the posters there just waffle. that's why I also posted here

[Erebus8]

tell us more about the videos pls.

-glad to be helpful

[Orrie]

If you can't interface with it inside Windows, then any potential recovery will exceed the price of the harddrive itself.
Some storage devices just brick themselves randomly, and it's "common" part of but reliability is increasing yearly.

But if you didn't track the health of it, then it's hard to know when and what really happened.
Has the PC been stationary for those 2 years, or did you move it?

[Dr_Badthur]

If you can't interface with it inside Windows, then any potential recovery will exceed the price of the harddrive itself.

but is recovery possible? money isn't the issue here, the issue is none of those photos or videos were backed up elsewhere (well they were, but that hdd also died recently), and their value is worth far more than the ssd itself.
how much would we be talking about? unless it's something ridiculous like 500euro, my parents would probably pay for it (since it was their media, I just stored it)

Has the PC been stationary for those 2 years, or did you move it?

it was moved once into my new room, maybe 5 months ago. other than that, once or twice to clean it out

[Orrie]

I was about to write about finding a disk recovery program would be your next step, but then I came across this:

• Only connect the SATA power connection and not the data cable. A USB enclosure with an external power source will also work.
• Once you have the drive connected, simply power on the computer and wait. The computer will need to stay powered on for 20 min and it is recommended that you don't use the computer during this process.
• Power the computer down and disconnect the drive for 30 seconds.
• Repeat steps 2 and 3 one more time.
• Reconnect the drive normally, and boot the computer to your operating system.
• Update your firmware, if you are not already at the latest on your drive. Please visit the following link for our firmware updates

It was posted by Crucial employee, but the source link is broken.

If this shit doesn't work, which I have my doubts on, just try with a disk recovery program.
I see some recommend this: https://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywiza ... ftware.htm and here's a guide: https://www.easeus.com/storage-media-re ... d-ssd.html
Here's an alternative: https://www.stellarinfo.com/windows-dat ... sional.php

Now if that doesn't work, this is the expensive part. Finding a PC repair shop that has storage recovery.

Could maybe try to update the firmware, but the process could also reformat your SSD, depending on your device. So you better be 100% it doesn't before you try.

[Dr_Badthur]

reconnected it normally again, just to see if there was any change or something I missed. I watched a youtube video, in it the guy said to check to see if it's displayed in device manager, which it is:

I guess this is at least a good sign? idk

is there something I should do, before following the steps you suggested?

opened up disk management and got this message:


edit:

If this shit doesn't work, which I have my doubts on

just did this and yep, no change
gonna try use the recovery programs now

[Dr_Badthur]

well, I guess it's totally borked. initialized it, did everything I could see or try with the recovery programs, it only displayed 1gb (which is obviously incorrect), no files found, etc...

will look into seeing if it can be done professionally. thanks for the help regardless caramelboi

[Orrie]

I've had storage devices brick, and it's very sad.
Though, why did you store file on an SSD? Why didn't you just get some external harddrive, or a high capacity usb flash drive?

[Venitus]

You can always use it as presse papier

[Dr_Badthur]

Though, why did you store file on an SSD? Why didn't you just get some external harddrive, or a high capacity usb flash drive?

didn't think it was an issue, from the research I did on SSDs vs HDDs, nothing was mentioned about not using an SSD for storage

[Dr_Slartibartfart]

Thing is an external hard drive is cheap, you can just couple it to your pc when you need to access it to the pc and decouple it when not needed, meaning you use it less and it will last longer.

[Dr_Badthur]

yeah ik, but until recently I didn't have money to spare to actually buy an eHDD. it's something I'm looking into as we speak

also went to some mr sexiіs in town, one of the places said they are able to do data recovery so... we'll see. I'm not very optimistic about it, but worth a try

[Orrie]

SSDs are still very expensive per GB/TB, compared to HDD.
Besides, you don't need the read/write speed that SSDs gives you, since you're just storing files.
I got like 25TB of storage, and it's all in normal HDDs. Meanwhile, I got a 500GB and 128GB SSD for Games and OS respectively.
Though, I regret not just throwing in a few more papers for an 1TB SSD, but ehh.

[Dr_Badthur]

yep, I know. the whole point of my most recent build was I wanted it to be as quiet as possible, since my previous builds were (relatively) noisy. that meant as little moving parts as possible, so no HDDs

[Orrie]

Autism.

[Dr_Badthur]

brought it in to a profeshunul yesterday, he said that it's completely corrupted, and that he hasn't seen that sort of damage in years

so yep, files completely lost. fml

[Brati007]

can i see a picture of the device without case please?

this can only be a smt issue and most likely its "only" the controller that is fault.