Screwy SSD not cooperating/Dead?

[Izlude]

Hello folks!  My SSD went out some time ago, was advised to just try it every now and then to see if it would come back, but hasn't..
Model is  PNY XLR8 240GB. In the BIOS, it shows up as Sandforce 2000xxxxxx (some random string?)  0MB and 3Gbps instead of PNY 240GB 6Gbps.

 

-Tried booting on another PC, no go.
-Booted with another drive and put the SSD on SATA, doesn't show up in explorer.
  put the SSD on USB 3.0, it shows up in explorer and shows and all the directories are still on the drive (17GB free of 223GB).
-I can't open any of the directories or copy them, it says Not Accessible - "The Device Is Not Ready".

I'm using EaseUS data recovery and it shows the following on System Reserved partition:
Other Lost Files, Recovery, Boot, System Volume Information, BOOTNXT, bootmgr, BOOTSECT.BAK
EaseUS is able to recover these files (copy them over to my working drive), this means the drive technically can be read/copied from.
Now with my main partition with my goodies, EaseUS shows nothing.

Hard Disk Sentinel shows the status of my SSD as being perfectly normal. Partitions are healthy.
Disk Management (in Windows) sticks when I open it as it's trying to read the SSD.
If I power on the SSD, but not plug in the USB cord yet, open Disk Management first, THEN put the USB cable in after, it will show my drive and says the partitions are healthy.

So... confused...  if it were a bad sandforce chip, would I still be able to read from the drive as I am now? EaseUS even worked for the system reserved, reading and copying off of it... ugh, what's your take on this?

[T3X4S]

You were told to try and it every now and then ?  Like, it was going to magically heal itself while it sat on your desk ?  That doesnt make sense.

Since its outside of the warranty (I hope it was outside of the warranty when it went bad initially and the bad advice you rec'd didn't cause you to miss your only chance of getting it replaced)  you really have 2 options"
 

1.)  Forensics data recovery to get the data back and maybe repair the drive (~$1000 USD)
2.)  Move on with your life

With the BIOS referring to it by its controller  makes it sound like the FW went south on you - and is probably bricked.


Have you tried using some kind of Windows PE or Linux Live CD and flashing the FW ?

I think its toast - dont buy stuff anymore just because its cheap - buy quality brands - its cheaper in the long run.



Are you more concerned about getting the drive back ?  If so, would you really trust it with putting valuable data on it again ?

Or are you more concerned with getting the data off of it ?  If so, use a forensics data recovery company if the data is irreplaceable.  

And backup from now on

[enroh]

as T3X4S replied - def. sounds like firmware ###### the bed. 

[Izlude]

Hi, ya thankfully I backed up, but it's a few weeks before the issue.  Will be missing a few songs, some RPG Maker progress and some photos   but I'm not too sour   I'm putting those things on two google drive accounts.

Yea SATA cords didn't help     but now I think I'd like to try a reflash.  PNY's disk utility doesn't see my disk, so I wonder if I can do this with a live CD? Which would you suggest? And for the actual firmware, I have the package from PNY's site, would I have to extract the firmware from it somehow?

[T3X4S]

Well, I will tell you this - in the last 5 minutes, I read some reddit strings and this - apparently they used multiple controllers on this Optima 240GB SSD - and a lot of people had problems with the sandforce ones...

So - maybe just - dont expect much.


As for the Windows PE enviro to do the flash -I'll look - as most SSD(s) flash the FW on the fly now from an .exe inside WIndows.

(1st and 2nd gen SSDs it was much different - almost like flashing BIOS back in the 90s - you puckered up and prayed nothing went bad.)

[T3X4S]

If it were me, I would create a WIn7 PE on a USB, and boot to it and make an attempt @ flashing the FW.

I cant remember the name of the one I used back in the day - Im sorry.

But any WinPE would be fine as long as the installer is of the portable variety (doesnt try to install on the drive, just runs)

@warwagon might have some tools of the trade that he used to run on customer machines

 

[Circaflex]

BartPE is a good one. 

 

I have heard of the old trick, leave it powered via PSU for 20-30 minutes but do not connect the data cable, for very old sandforce drives. I believe many refer to this as the "crucial method." It has been many years since I remember that, so I might be somewhat off.

 

Here is my opinion, which might not be worth squat here to some, but I think it is time to accept your loss and move on. Here is why i say that. The time needed to troubleshoot this, is taking time away from something else (opportunity cost). Say you do get the drive working again, something was critically wrong with the drive for it to exhibit the symptoms you have described. I recently went through this with an Intel SSD a few weeks back, I spent so much time trying to revive it, which I did, but it crapped out a few days later again. I wanted to revive it originally because it was out of warranty and I did not want to fork over the some odd hundred dollars for a new one, but I eventually did. It sounds like this drive is toast or on its last limb. I would recover what you can and toss it away, unless you have a ton of spare time and want to do this as a trial and error.

 

All signs are pointing towards the controller going/has gone bad.

 

 

I will continue to search for a solution, regarding force flashing the FW outside of Windows, but I thought I would just chime in with my opinion.

[Izlude]

Thanks again!  I'll hold the drive for now,  if all future attempts fail I'll bash it good.

[+Warwagon MVC]

44 minutes ago, T3X4S said:

If it were me, I would create a WIn7 PE on a USB, and boot to it and make an attempt @ flashing the FW.

I cant remember the name of the one I used back in the day - Im sorry.

But any WinPE would be fine as long as the installer is of the portable variety (doesnt try to install on the drive, just runs)

@warwagon might have some tools of the trade that he used to run on customer machines

 

 

 

Well I know you can run spinrite on level 2 (read only pass) of an SSD, but from the sound of it, it does sound like a firmware error where the size of the drive isn't getting detected correctly.

[T3X4S]

41 minutes ago, Circaflex said:

BartPE is a good one. 

 

I have heard of the old trick, leave it powered via PSU for 20-30 minutes but do not connect the data cable, for very old sandforce drives. I believe many refer to this as the "crucial method." It has been many years since I remember that, so I might be somewhat off.

 

Here is my opinion, which might not be worth squat here to some, but I think it is time to accept your loss and move on. Here is why i say that. The time needed to troubleshoot this, is taking time away from something else (opportunity cost). Say you do get the drive working again, something was critically wrong with the drive for it to exhibit the symptoms you have described. I recently went through this with an Intel SSD a few weeks back, I spent so much time trying to revive it, which I did, but it crapped out a few days later again. I wanted to revive it originally because it was out of warranty and I did not want to fork over the some odd hundred dollars for a new one, but I eventually did. It sounds like this drive is toast or on its last limb. I would recover what you can and toss it away, unless you have a ton of spare time and want to do this as a trial and error.

 

All signs are pointing towards the controller going/has gone bad.

 

 

I will continue to search for a solution, regarding force flashing the FW outside of Windows, but I thought I would just chime in with my opinion.

Well said Circa - 

I wanted to stress that very thing, but I feel I say it so much (about opportunity cost) that I feel like a broken record.

The cost of time and frustration spent, for me, would outweigh the cost of just moving forward and getting a new one.


 

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Contact PNY and see if they will replace it for you.  Even if it is out of warranty, sometimes hardware companies will do this on a "good will" basis.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Izlude]

AAH!!!  You guys aren't gonna believe this... My drive is letting me copy files!!!

I decided to give it one more chance, at first nothing.. but noticed that when I tried opening a directory, I didn't get that "device not ready" error.  It acted like it was trying to scan (green loading bar in the address bar).  I turned off the drive and the directory opened, but then quickly closed.

Turned it back on immediately.  Now I can get into folders, but only for 10 seconds after turning the drive on, then it sticks.  I copied a folder, pasted it in my safe drive and it starts to copy, but then gets stuck.  I turn the drive off, it says the file location is not available,  turn it back on and click try again and it successfully begins copying where it left off.

All files copied appear undamaged and open without issue. Pictures, Songs, RPG project.  This is nuts!!! I'll even attach a screenshot of what I see.

What do you think is going on here?   This is so nuts!!! So glad though.  Gonna stash these files online ASAP.

PS - Oh I didn't know they sometimes accept dead drives   I will have to keep that in mind if it ever happens in the future... sadly I opened the drive (to examine for burn marks on the controller)  none, but that sticker is peeled so.. I'm outta luck   Thanks for the awesome tip though!!!

[SIE]

Sounds like a power issue, it could just be that's it's not getting enough power, it seems as though when power usage increases the drive fails.

[NinjaGinger]

I had a standard hard drive that did exactly the same and it turned  out the best action was get the data and then chuck it in the bin. Yes originally kept it for months, turned it on in a dock and for half hour it was fine, then crash. Bin it and get another.

[Izlude]

Alright time for a new SSD.  I'll be sure to only put OS and Programs on this thing.  Previously using 240GB, should I go with Intel drives?

[adrynalyne]

2 hours ago, Izlude said:

Alright time for a new SSD.  I'll be sure to only put OS and Programs on this thing.  Previously using 240GB, should I go with Intel drives?

Samsung. 

[NinjaGinger]

3 hours ago, adrynalyne said:

Samsung. 

Agreed

[spaceelf]

Intel, Samsung, OCZ, it doesn't really matter as long as you're not getting a budget drive and keep the firmware on the latest.

[Danielx64]

24 minutes ago, LostCat said:

Intel, Samsung, OCZ, it doesn't really matter as long as you're not getting a budget drive and keep the firmware on the latest.

What do you call a budget drive?

[spaceelf]

40 minutes ago, Danielx64 said:

What do you call a budget drive?

Poor performing ones like the Trions or MX100s...often will do reads fine but sustained ops and writes will be poor.  Sadly, it's hard to tell the difference without reading specific reviews (and they're all pretty cheap now, so perhaps a poor choice of words on my part.)

[Circaflex]

7 hours ago, Izlude said:

Alright time for a new SSD.  I'll be sure to only put OS and Programs on this thing.  Previously using 240GB, should I go with Intel drives?

I really enjoy using Intel SSDs. They have twice now, gone out of their way, to warranty drives that were no longer under warranty for me.

[adrynalyne]

49 minutes ago, LostCat said:

Poor performing ones like the Trions or MX100s...often will do reads fine but sustained ops and writes will be poor.  Sadly, it's hard to tell the difference without reading specific reviews (and they're all pretty cheap now, so perhaps a poor choice of words on my part.)

MX100s aren't bad as long as you get a 512. 

[Izlude]

I found an evo 850 250GB locally for less than offered online   $75   I'll go ahead and grab one.

I'm kinda bummed now, I had wanted a PCI-e SSD one time, but seeing as it's a direct PCI-e connection, recovery might be impossible?  (unless there's a pci-e to USB 3.0 adapter lol)... there such a thing?

[nekrosoft13]

On 10/17/2016 at 4:18 PM, Izlude said:

Hello folks!  My SSD went out some time ago, was advised to just try it every now and then to see if it would come back, but hasn't..
Model is  PNY XLR8 240GB. In the BIOS, it shows up as Sandforce 2000xxxxxx (some random string?)  0MB and 3Gbps instead of PNY 240GB 6Gbps.

 

-Tried booting on another PC, no go.
-Booted with another drive and put the SSD on SATA, doesn't show up in explorer.
  put the SSD on USB 3.0, it shows up in explorer and shows and all the directories are still on the drive (17GB free of 223GB).
-I can't open any of the directories or copy them, it says Not Accessible - "The Device Is Not Ready".

I'm using EaseUS data recovery and it shows the following on System Reserved partition:
Other Lost Files, Recovery, Boot, System Volume Information, BOOTNXT, bootmgr, BOOTSECT.BAK
EaseUS is able to recover these files (copy them over to my working drive), this means the drive technically can be read/copied from.
Now with my main partition with my goodies, EaseUS shows nothing.

Hard Disk Sentinel shows the status of my SSD as being perfectly normal. Partitions are healthy.
Disk Management (in Windows) sticks when I open it as it's trying to read the SSD.
If I power on the SSD, but not plug in the USB cord yet, open Disk Management first, THEN put the USB cable in after, it will show my drive and says the partitions are healthy.

So... confused...  if it were a bad sandforce chip, would I still be able to read from the drive as I am now? EaseUS even worked for the system reserved, reading and copying off of it... ugh, what's your take on this?

Sandforce 2000xxxxxx = your SOL, nothing you can do about it

[nekrosoft13]

On 10/22/2016 at 9:01 PM, LostCat said:

Poor performing ones like the Trions or MX100s...often will do reads fine but sustained ops and writes will be poor.  Sadly, it's hard to tell the difference without reading specific reviews (and they're all pretty cheap now, so perhaps a poor choice of words on my part.)

stay away from trion (especially 100) and toshiba q300, same drive.

 

I made mistake of buying five trions and five q300 for work, half died after 4 months, rest i didn't want to take a gamble and i threw them out.