OCZ Agility dying (guessing this isn't a surprise?)

SB118

SB118

SB118

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Running a 32gig OCZ Agility ssd, bought from the MM in august, it's about 8 months old in total.

Ran SSD Life when i got it, drive was showing 95% when i got it, no problems i thought.

Ran it yesterday and it was showing 5% life, this afternoon it's showing 3% life :eek:

But i've had no reduction in performance so far, do these drives just "die"?

Can i start an RMA yet, or do i have to have a dead drive beforehand? (Just thinking of the mechanical harddrives i've returned when the heads were bouncing but not totally busted yet)

Happy new year. :(
 
I would get the ball rolling by contacting them.
As from my experience it took a week emailing back and forth before I got an rma , then was told it'd be another 2-3 weeks from when they receive it.
 
Ive had my ssd for just over a yr now and its still at 100%....

image1knq.jpg
 
SB118 said:
ssdlife.jpg


Time to get emailing then.
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Have you done a secure erase and a fresh install? Also these ssd's like about 30% of freespace left, so it can move data about on the drive, so its not using the same cells all the time.

So I would secure erase the ssd and reinstall, then see what it says and if its says its good then, dont fill the drive up, let it have room to move stuff around.
 
Didn't know about the 30% thing, i'll give the wipe & reinstall a go once i've remade my win7 usb image, lack of optical drive catches me out every so often!
 
SB118 said:
Low level format, fresh install.

ssdlife.jpg


:(
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Are you using the proper secure erase tool that your ment to use for the ocz ssd's, because using any forms of format will bugger the drive up more, because the cells are not being erased, there just being written too?

To use the proper tool, you need boot windows from a normal hard drive and then download toolbox from here, that will have the secure erase that you'll need. http://www.ocztechnology.com/ssd_tools/OCZ_Vertex,_Agility,_Vertex_Turbo,_Vertex_EX,_Solid_2/

remove all partitions from ssd in win 7 and run secure erase from in the toolbox you downloaded.

Unplug the harddrive and try installing windows again on the ssd

Like I say if your just using normal format, that isnt erasing the cells. What secure erase does it erases all cells on the ssd and its then back at factory default when the ssd was new.

By the way secure erase only takes about 1-3secs to complete
 
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Ahh, booted with an "Ultimate Boot CD" on a usb stick, used one of the low level format prog off there, took about 30 minutes to wipe the disc. Guessing that's done more damage then?

Even tried to update the firmware to 1.7 but i'm buggered if i could get the iso to load onto the usb. :(

Ahh, just check the link, i've got the toolbox stuff, there's a different version for each drive they have, trying to find something to get it one a usb stick.

edit

Can't see any windows based erase tool.
 
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SB118 said:
Ahh, booted with an "Ultimate Boot CD" on a usb stick, used one of the low level format prog off there, took about 30 minutes to wipe the disc. Guessing that's done more damage then?

Even tried to update the firmware to 1.7 but i'm buggered if i could get the iso to load onto the usb. :(

Ahh, just check the link, i've got the toolbox stuff, there's a different version for each drive they have, trying to find something to get it one a usb stick.

edit

Can't see any windows based erase tool.
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Ive been using this guide, and it works well, saves having to boot of a hdd when you want to format(secure erase) ssd. I think you can use this for your ssd aswel. If not you will need to find a spare hdd to boot windows from, so you can secure erase the ssd.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18236428#post18356612

To remove partitions in windows, you need disk management and thats in...... control panel > Administrative Tools > Computer management > Storage
 
But yeah formatting and defragging are a big no no with the OCZ ssd's as they do far too much writing to the cells,, also ssd's use something called disk alignment and formatting dosent get the alignment right, that makes the ssd slowdown or misbehaves.

Basically you've been treating the ssd as a hard drive, and thats ok but theres 3 rules.. everytime you reinstall windows use the correct erasing tool for the drive, never defrag and leave free space on the drive, so the ssd can move data around.. Those are the rules with my ssd and probably yours too.
 
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Can't use that guide, one of the first steps is "boot from cd" :(

Never defragged it, only on my 2nd install of windows so it's not that the drive has been "formatted" repeatedly.

Can not for the life of me find the toolbox software, all the links just offer me a firmware update, which i can't get to work. I've managed to make a windows based dos boot usb, but then it won't run the linux stuff that comes with the firmware update.

How can something so simple be so awkward!
 
ultraiso to the rescue! Been so long since i've needed anything other than daemon tools i'd totally forgotten about it.

Usb burnt, firmware updated, usb burnt, secure erase done (using the method in your link, cheers!), usb is currently burning a win7 image.

Running on one usb stick is a pain, really need to find my other one!
 
Bummer, ah well at least youve tried everything..

Maybe if you use it for a few days it might come to life, as it might only update the health status every few days, as it says......

"The estimated lifetime is calculated depending on the amount of data written to the drive. If it is not calculated yet, it means that little data has been written to it. Simply wait a bit, it does not usually take more than a week (or two) after the first launch of the program."

So basically if you use it as normal for a few days, doing as little writing to the drive as poss, and then see if things start improving.

Also a good idea is to leave pc on overnight for a few nights and log off, then the ssd will do its trim thing.
 
I think I would have sent this SSD straight back to the vendor in August last year when it showed up as 95% :(

Being so small.... was it part of a RAID setup?

Again a straight nope :(

As you can see for yourself using the wrong software is really easy to do and it really borks the drive up :(
 
Essexraptor said:
I think I would have sent this SSD straight back to the vendor in August last year when it showed up as 95% :(

Being so small.... was it part of a RAID setup?

Again a straight nope :(

As you can see for yourself using the wrong software is really easy to do and it really borks the drive up :(
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But did SB118 low level formatted the drive when he first got it, as it might have been at 100% before doing that, Then filling up the drive totally was the final straw. Plus the formatting messes up the alignment of the drive.

Yeah these ssd's should come with a big notice, like "DO'S AND DONTS" or something like that

I would just use the drive now, and hopefully the health will come back up in time
 
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Essexraptor said:
I think I would have sent this SSD straight back to the vendor in August last year when it showed up as 95% :(

Being so small.... was it part of a RAID setup?

Again a straight nope :(

As you can see for yourself using the wrong software is really easy to do and it really borks the drive up :(
Click to expand...

I got it from the MM, it was the first SSD i'd used, the estimated life when it was showing 95% life was was something like 01/12/2015, so i didn't think there was much to worry about.

Being so small? You mean being so affordable? ;) I was on the hunt for something to quiten down my system, this did it. Now all i can hear is the duff bearings in my pump :(

Phil2008 said:
But did SB118 low level formatted the drive when he first got it, as it might have been at 100% before doing that, Then filling up the drive totally was the final straw. Plus the formatting messes up the alignment of the drive.

Yeah these ssd's should come with a big notice, like "DO'S AND DONTS" or something like that

I would just use the drive now, and hopefully the health will come back up in time
Click to expand...

I used the format function on the Win7 disc (not the "full" format, the one where it just ticks the box that the drive is formatted and carries on writing data), always had 10% free space.

Looking around and i'm seeing OCZ stuff is dirt cheap compared to most other suppliers, wonder why ... :(
 
The reference to small.... was simply that a lot of these smaller drives were/are grouped together in RAID 0 arrays

New prices are much the same across the board. Used are low because people are dumping them because of the "fear factor" or they have already borked it through stupidity and passing it down the chain :)

If we get a spate of M4 failures because of ..... whatever ..... the same will happen :)
 
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Ahh, just noticed that they get more expensive per gig as they get bigger, would explain the smaller ones getting bought in batches.

2nd hand stuff doesn't seem to lose that much value though :(
 
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