dead OCZ Vertex Plus R2 240GB SSD (SAVED once more)

[VirtualLarry]

I bought two of these refurb from Newegg a month or two ago, for $85 ea. I thought I got the deal of the century, but it hasn't turned out that way.

I installed one of them into a Foxconn NanoPC (passively-cooled C-70 APU). After a few months, it started showing red blocks during an HDTune free surface scan, and hanging.

I manage to resuscitate it, by booting Win7 installer, deleting the partition, creating a partition and formatting it (trim pass), then using diskpart and doing a clean all (write zeros), followed by another trim pass.

Well, a month later, it started going south again.

This time, before Win7 64-bit had completely crashed, I used CCleaner's wipe disk functionality to wipe free space on C colon.

It got 99% done, and then I started doing some web browsing. Win7 froze. I force-rebooted, and now it won't boot.

I booted a different machine, with a 990FX/SB950 chipset, and a hot-swap bay plugged into a Marvell SATA6G controller.

I booted Win7 installer, and plugged the dead SSD in, and I clicked "refresh" on the disk screen, and it hung with the spinning cursor.

It seems to do that on any attempt to read from the drive.

I had also tried booting the Win7 on that other machine, plugging the dead SSD into the hot-swap bay, then going to device-manager, clicking "scan for new hardware", and the SSD was actually detected.

However, going into disk management, hangs on "Loading virtual disk interface".

It also hangs if I go into device manager and double-click on the SSD.



Is there a way to detect the drive, and then trim it and then wipe it and trim it again, WITHOUT reading from it?

 

[Elixer]

I would use a linux distro, and then do a secure erase on it... but, I wouldn't get my hopes up. If it does work, then the best you can do is use them for scratch drives.

 

[razel]

Wow 240GB for $85. I think I remember seeing that sale. At that price, it piqued my interest until I reminded myself that it is a very old Vertex Plus. I think that's 2009-2010-ish.

I'm pretty sure the warranty was 6 months, but you'd have to double check with the 'new' OCZ if you are still covered. That'd be the 1st thing I'd do. If not, many credit card companies offer replacement warranty if it's under one year. Best of luck.

You definitely can secure erase it. Boot into ultimate boot disk's older version of parted magic. Yes, the parted magic's are donation only. Anyhow boot into it, Vertex unplugged. Plug it in, initiate a disk rescan and secure erase.

By the way, stop writing zeros to SSDs. If you keep playing with it, it'll fall off.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Well... I finally managed to resuscitate the SSD once more.

My primary problem, was that both Linux and Windows attempt to read and auto-mount partitions on drives when they boot.

I finally got the bright idea to try booting with a different (working) SSD, and then hot-swapping to the bad SSD. So I did that, and managed to do a secure erase manually using "hdparm" under Ubuntu 12.04.

I then created a partition with "Disk Utility", and it worked.

So I booted a Win7 install disc, and formatted (TRIM pass) the partition. For good measure, I deleted the partition, re-created, and re-formatted it again.

I then installed Win7 64-bit, and HDTune. I did a surface scan, all green squares. It did seem to semi-hang twice during the scan, though. Thankfully it unfroze and continued.

SSDLife says health is 100%, and it should last for eight years.

SMART data doesn't show anything anomalous.

 

[Compman55]

Why would you continue to *want* to use a drive that has these symptoms?

 

[Old Hippie]

Why would you continue to *want* to use a drive that has these symptoms?

As Mick Jagger said answering a question about a question about why it took him so long to become sober...... "I always was a slow study". :biggrin:

 

[VirtualLarry]

Why would you continue to *want* to use a drive that has these symptoms?

Why not? I paid good money for it. And when it works, it works. Sure, it breaks down sometimes and needs to be resuscitated, but a fresh Windows install is always good anyways.

I don't use it for any critical applications.

Kind of like the auto mechanic that drives a fixer-upper that always seems to need a little TLC.

 

[Old Hippie]

Kind of like the auto mechanic that drives a fixer-upper that always seems to need a little TLC.

You must work with different mechanics than the ones' I know. LOL!

They would consider that a waste of time unless that's all they could afford....and I don't know any like that either. LOL!

But...to each their own.

 

[code65536]

On a tangential note, I wonder what the warranty for the Vertex Plus R2 is now that Toshiba's taken over. The official warranty announcement explicitly listed model lines that were covered ("Vertex", "Vertex 2", etc.) and also the bottom-of-the-barrel model lines that were excluded ("Petrol", "Octane", etc.). The problem is, they didn't list the "Vertex Plus R2" (even though they listed every other Vertex variant) in the covered list, and even though the VPR2 is a bottom-of-the-barrel part, it wasn't listed in the excluded list, either. It's got Schrodinger's warranty. I hope I don't have to find out what state mine's in.


(I have a VPR2 that, at the time I bought it, was installed in an old testbed system that I didn't care about, but then I started to use it more and more for non-testing uses because it had a really nice screen, and now it's no longer a testbed system. I tried to replace the VPR2 with something that I would feel more comfortable about, but the Samsung 840 that I put in would intermittently cause hangs that required hard resets when the system wakes from sleep. Not everyday you see someone going back to OCZ from Samsung. Turned out that that the 840 didn't like the nForce controller, because the 840, which is now in my new testbed system that was supposed to have been the new home of my VPR2, works fine there.)

 

[birthdaymonkey]

I wouldn't mess around with the extra formats, zeros and TRIMs. Asking for trouble! Just secure erase, then quick format and install Windows.

 

[OneStiffGT]

Well... I finally managed to resuscitate the SSD once more.

My primary problem, was that both Linux and Windows attempt to read and auto-mount partitions on drives when they boot.

I finally got the bright idea to try booting with a different (working) SSD, and then hot-swapping to the bad SSD. So I did that, and managed to do a secure erase manually using "hdparm" under Ubuntu 12.04.

I then created a partition with "Disk Utility", and it worked.

So I booted a Win7 install disc, and formatted (TRIM pass) the partition. For good measure, I deleted the partition, re-created, and re-formatted it again.

I then installed Win7 64-bit, and HDTune. I did a surface scan, all green squares. It did seem to semi-hang twice during the scan, though. Thankfully it unfroze and continued.

SSDLife says health is 100%, and it should last for eight years.

SMART data doesn't show anything anomalous.

How do you do a manual secure erase?

I have the unit up on ubuntu, but only shows up with the jumper on. If there is no jumper on the unit, can't get ubuntu to recognize it.

I am doing a hot swap like you said. But using a different model SSD than the bricked one.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

How do you do a manual secure erase?

I have the unit up on ubuntu, but only shows up with the jumper on. If there is no jumper on the unit, can't get ubuntu to recognize it.

I am doing a hot swap like you said. But using a different model SSD than the bricked one.

You'll get more help if you start a new topic, oh and welcome to the forum!

 

[VirtualLarry]

How do you do a manual secure erase?

I have the unit up on ubuntu, but only shows up with the jumper on. If there is no jumper on the unit, can't get ubuntu to recognize it.

I am doing a hot swap like you said. But using a different model SSD than the bricked one.

I don't think that the Vertex Plus R2 has a jumper. Perhaps you are referring to the original Vertex? Or is there a jumper that I just didn't see?

Anyways, you have to do a "destructive erase" of those drives, using OCZ's tool, I think. Then you can remove the jumper, boot it normally, and secure-erase.

I have no idea what happened to OCZ's support forums, but they used to have downloadable ISOs with those tools on them.