Question Unlikely wear in a 9 month old 500Gb SSD

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Sebastian42

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I like to keep backups of my system, rather than do roll-backs to a Restoration Point, so for years I have cloned my system every week to a partition on a larger hard drive. Last December, I started using an SSD instead of a spinning disc HDD, to store those successive copies of my system. Recently I needed such an old clone, but failed to achieve a bootable HDD, as they all required REPAIR (which did NOT make the drive bootable) when I tried to boot from a clone of one of the partitions. So I bought a new large SSD, created partitions on it, and cloned my system to those partitions; when I clone the partitions back to a smaller drive, they succeed in booting. So something has happened to the original SSD that NOW prevents the creation of bootable clones from its partitions - the new SSD allows it and so should the old one, which has had only 9 months of once-a-week 'work' so can not be 'worn-out'. I'm interested in what damage could have been done - and so if it can be reversed.
 

VirtualLarry

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Posting it here is fine.

I just find it strange that you would "clone partitions", and expect the disk to boot. It's a bit more complicated than that.

I suggest using Macrium Reflect Free (or paid), and image the source disk / partition, and then store that image file (there will be more than one), onto a backup HDD / SSD.
 

Sebastian42

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I am very aware that IMAGES are more popular than clones; but I find clones less fuss and more direct; The question pertains to the odd behaviour of the 'old' SSD, it does NOT ask advice about the merits of cloning.
 

VirtualLarry

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ecently I needed such an old clone, but failed to achieve a bootable HDD, as they all required REPAIR (which did NOT make the drive bootable) when I tried to boot from a clone of one of the partitions.
This is why you don't just clone PARTITIONS. You IMAGE partitions (and DISKS - need the MBR info too), and CLONE DISKS.

You should read up on the little details more, or use better software, as I am fairly certain that your problem is your cloning software and workflow, and not a pre-maturely worn-out SSD.
 
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Sebastian42

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It's unlikely that 'the fault' lies with my method, because using a NEW SSD produces exactly the results that I want, but using the 9 month old SSD does NOT.
 

Justinus

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What model SSD is the old drive? What model SSD is the new drive? How large is your weekly clone "backup"? What does CrystalDiskInfo report for drive health, drive life, wear level, etc?
 

Justinus

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It's unlikely that 'the fault' lies with my method, because using a NEW SSD produces exactly the results that I want, but using the 9 month old SSD does NOT.

Have you formatted the old SSD, recreated your partition setup, recloned your system to it, and confirmed it still does not work?
 

Sebastian42

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The former 480Gb SSD was a Crucial BX500; The current one is Kingston A400. My system size - pretty stable - is 100Gb. CrystalDiskInfo will take some time to assess.

I have not yet reformatted the 'old' SSD yet; How would it solve the problem of it stopping to be effective as a clone store within 9 months ?
 

Justinus

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Does your backup method save the MBR and partition information to the backup drive? Or are you only cloning the data from the main partition?
 

Sebastian42

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I don't store data on my main drive to the extent that I can prevent it - it has only one partition and that is what I clone. My backup method is CLONING - a tried and proven method of copying all that is needed to boot a drive.

I have just tried to run CrystalDiskInfo and it returned a surprise result - that could in fact be a very useful piece of info.

The PC is fitted with 14Gb for when I run 64bits; but the system I run all the time is 32bits and it can see no more than 3.5Gb.

When I closed all unneeded programs, CrystalDiskInfo did launch and it displayed info about the other disks attached, but NOT about the 480Gb in question. DID NOT SEE IT, so I can not give you the info you have asked for.
 

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VirtualLarry

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My backup method is CLONING - a tried and proven method of copying all that is needed to boot a drive.
But, are you cloning the partition that you need AND ALL of the partition's METADATA, or JUST the filesystem in the partition? Because if it's the latter, then that's what I would expect to happen, a non-bootable partition that tries to "repair" itself in Windows.
 

Sebastian42

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I have NO idea what cloning does except that the end result is what I want - a bootable drive with access to everything that could be accessed on the drive that it was cloned from. I have been doing this successfully for years - I get a bootable drive EXCEPT no longer from THAT '9 months old' SSD.
I am very aware of being out of fashion with x32, but it's the system I have and it suits me.
Just to rub it in, my favourite text editor is DOS-based. It does what I want. If I want more, I use WORD.
 

Sebastian42

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Dec 2, 2016
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What model SSD is the old drive? What model SSD is the new drive? How large is your weekly clone "backup"? What does CrystalDiskInfo report for drive health, drive life, wear level, etc?
I have now tested the 480Gb SSD in CrystalDiskInfo in a 64bits system with loads of RAM, and again, I can not get it to show in that program. THIS PC shows it quite clearly there, but the DISK Menu of C.D.I. shows only the system disk. So I can't answer your question, but maybe there is a clue in its invisibility to C.D.I. as to why it a stopped being a useful storage medium (for MY purposes).
 

Sebastian42

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A possible clue to my problem is that while the partitions on the 'new' (working) 480Gb SSD are all Primary, and so capable of being set 'Active', the 9-month-old SSD has all its Partitions 'Basic' rather than 'Primary', and 'Mark as active' is greyed out for all of them.
 

Billy Tallis

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Aug 4, 2015
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A possible clue to my problem is that while the partitions on the 'new' (working) 480Gb SSD are all Primary, and so capable of being set 'Active', the 9-month-old SSD has all its Partitions 'Basic' rather than 'Primary', and 'Mark as active' is greyed out for all of them.

Go read up on the differences between MBR and GPT, and BIOS vs UEFI booting. And if you still need help figuring out what's going on in your system, boot to a Linux live system and use that to see what's really on your drives—all the partitions, filesystems and partition tables, including any possiblity of duplicated partition UUIDs, or inconsistencies between different partition tables on the same drive. We can't help you any further without that information about the underlying realities that Windows prefers to obscure.
 
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Billy Tallis

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That is a serious bit of homework you have set me.

You've been peculiarly resistant to providing useful information thus far in this thread, but you have admitted to doing some pretty strange and non-standard things with your system. So educating yourself enough to understand what you've done is the most likely path to a satisfactory resolution of your current difficulties. And failing that, with a bit more knowledge you might at least be able to communicate more effectively and less ambiguously about the causes and symptoms of your problems. You still haven't even disclosed what tools or steps you're using to "clone" your system!
 
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Sebastian42

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I've not been intentionally secretive about info you seem to want. I will happily admit to being RETRO in my dealing with the PC - I'm stuck in a time warp - but why upgrade when it is functional ? My cloning tool is Casper. "communicate more effectively and less ambiguously " has been my aim all along. I apologise for failing to meet your standards.
 

Justinus

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I've not been intentionally secretive about info you seem to want. I will happily admit to being RETRO in my dealing with the PC - I'm stuck in a time warp - but why upgrade when it is functional ? My cloning tool is Casper. "communicate more effectively and less ambiguously " has been my aim all along. I apologise for failing to meet your standards.

This is a weak copout. I checked your posting history to see where you plainly told others trying to help you that you were intentionally withholding information until someone asked you the right questions.

This is in no way how you productively ask for help.

As far as I am concerned you have been helped more than you deserve for the effort you are willing to put forth to help yourself, much less the effort you put forth to help others help you. You don't even seem to give a hoot about educating yourself on what you are even doing at the most basic level.

I deliberately decided to 'limit' my information until such time as RELEVANT questions were asked.
Mobo is Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. - GA X58A-UD5; keyboard connects by USB.
When I had access to BIOS, I was using a P/S2 connected keyboard; I switched to a USB connected keyboard to prevent unwanted enabling of OVERTYPE mode.
 
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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
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This is a weak copout. I checked your posting history to see where you plainly told others trying to help you that you were intentionally withholding information until someone asked you the right questions.

This is in no way how you productively ask for help.
I knew that I had seen this poster before. Well, I'm out of here; I'm not paid for this, the "20 questions game" gets old pretty quick.
 

Sebastian42

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If the thread has not been closed on me, in which case it is too late -- I fully admit (how could I do otherwise with the evidence you present ?) that I even made the statement of with holding information until it is asked for. But I do that not for the sake of being secretive, but to prevent information overload. Feel free to abandon my query - ANYTHING you do for me is over and above the 'call of duty'. I do not know about a 20-questions game. I apologise for upsetting you two and thanks for the efforts you have made so far.
 
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