SSD seems to be losing connectivity

[Spike]

So, starting a few weeks ago my boot SSD seems to stop losing connectivity every once in a while. Windows itself will start to freeze up and over the course of 1-3 min everything stops responding. The PC then restarts and after going through the mobo splash screen proceeds to tell me to pick a valid boot drive or insert bootable media. To fix this I either have to leave the pc off for a while or restart it with the SSD unplugged, then restart with it plugged in again.

The SSD in question is a 1.5 year old OCZ and yes, I know now that OCZ's are not exactly high quality. The mobo is my main machine below, asrock P67 extreme 4. What I'm curious about is if this problem seems like something related to the SSD or the mobo? I swapped SATA ports about a week ago and still have the same problem if that helps. Any good programs out there to test my SSD with?

If its the drive I'll order a 120GB crucial m4 to replace it as those seem to be higher quality (but not nearly as expensive as the plextors).

Thanks!

 

[jimpz]

I put an OCZ in a new desk top I built earlier this year, and several weeks down the road started having similar problems. I did replace the OCZ with a crucial M$ which has been fine. Before I RMA'd the OCZ, however, I updated the firmware (which kills everything on the SDD) & put it in a 6yr old HP laptop, the laptop has a new lease on life, boots & runs faster & the drive has been perfect sine. You may want to check if your OCZ has the latest firmware & try updating it, if it doesn't.

Jim

 

[Spike]

I had whatever was on it 1.5 years ago, I have not updated it since. Firmware kills the contents though? That would be a bummer.

 

[Bubbaleone]

If you're planning to try the firmware update before you RMA, just clone the drive image to another drive, upgrade the firmware, then clone the drive image back to the SSD.

 

[Spike]

If you're planning to try the firmware update before you RMA, just clone the drive image to another drive, upgrade the firmware, then clone the drive image back to the SSD.

Any recommendations on software and steps to do this? I have not cloned a drive in a VERY long time so I'm a bit rusty.

 

[Bubbaleone]

EaseUS Disk Copy Home Edition 2.3.1 is a good basic cloning utility and it's a freeware that's often recommended in this forum. Their site has several short tuts that'll refresh your "rusty" cloning skills...:thumbsup:

 

[Spike]

Does this work well with SSD's? I keep hearing something about alignment when cloning and the need to keep it.

 

[Bubbaleone]

Unless another forum member chimes in to say that Easeus Disk Copy Home Edition or Todo Backup Free will correctly align the cloned image, from what I read on the Easeus support pages they either don't yet support or don't guarantee SSD alignment. I've used Paragon software for several years and it automatically aligns AFDs and SSDs, whether new installation or cloning. It's also expensive, which is why Easeus freeware is popular.

If you don't mind a little technical work you can still use Disk Copy Home Editon or Todo Backup Free to clone the SSD image to a HDD, do the firmware upgrade, and then follow the procedure in Windows 7 - SSD Alignment to prep your SSD prior to cloning the image back from the HDD. Hope this helps.

 

[Spike]

Unless another forum member chimes in to say that Easeus Disk Copy Home Edition or Todo Backup Free will correctly align the cloned image, from what I read on the Easeus support pages they either don't yet support or don't guarantee SSD alignment. I've used Paragon software for several years and it automatically aligns AFDs and SSDs, whether new installation or cloning. It's also expensive, which is why Easeus freeware is popular.

If you don't mind a little technical work you can still use Disk Copy Home Editon or Todo Backup Free to clone the SSD image to a HDD, do the firmware upgrade, and then follow the procedure in Windows 7 - SSD Alignment to prep your SSD prior to cloning the image back from the HDD. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info!