SSD dying?

toString · 27 Jun 2012 at 13:09

Starting yesterday I've had about half a dozen times where programs have frozen, I can move the mouse, might be able to click/use another program for a bit before that freezes, then eventually, the start menu doesnt show, ctrl+alt+del does nothing, but I can still move the mouse. Then it will eventually BSOD (win764).

Then on rebooting I will get a bootmanager error, something like the device is not accessible. I will switch off the power and it boots fine.

Could this be my ocz vertex dying? Or my mobo? I did the windows memory test and that was fine. I've done these tests on my ssd today:

I'm not even sure if these results are 'bad' or not.
What should I do guys?

wazza300 · 27 Jun 2012 at 13:17

backing up your data and doing a secure erase might help things,it will wipe the data and put it back to factory state

,then restore your data to it

bemaniac · 27 Jun 2012 at 13:43

Try another cable too just to rule that out, from a different sata controller on the board - that helped me out.

toString · 27 Jun 2012 at 16:01

Thanks guys, I will try a new cable and different port first. Could you explain how I do this 'secure erase' and get it back to factory state?

Cromulent · 27 Jun 2012 at 16:55

toString said:
Thanks guys, I will try a new cable and different port first. Could you explain how I do this 'secure erase' and get it back to factory state?

To do a secure erase on my drive you download a bootable Linux disk image and burn it to CD. Then boot with the CD and it will let you secure erase your drive, upgrade the firmware etc.

Since my drive is also from OCZ I think the process will be the same. It is all on the OCZ website.

wonko · 27 Jun 2012 at 17:47

I suspect that HD Tune is misinterpreting the SMART parameters and the reported high CRC error count warning can be ignored. If I looked it up correctly, the crc error count on your drive is parameter D3, which is zero, so while trying a different cable and port won't do any harm I'd suspect it won't help either.

If you look at parameters CE/CF/D0 it looks like your block erase count is running at about 3 times the specification (D3) which if you add the presence of bad blocks doesn't look great... From what I've read the specifications on the limit of erase count tend to be massively conservative but it could be a sign that your drive is approaching the end of its life.

toString · 27 Jun 2012 at 19:06

Thanks wonko.

I've changed the cable and put it in another port, and as you predicted, the CRC is still getting a warning, and it crashed in just as much time - 25-45mins.

Im going to do a clean install this evening and see if that helps, otherwise I'll buy a new one tonight. Thankfully a clean install wont take all of 30mins so it won't be too much wasted effort..