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Is my Vertex 4 SSD Dead ?

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So recently i woke up and checked my pc if the renders and updates were finished , they were but about 2-3 mins later i had a black screen that i had no clue about and then my pc hanged for the first time in months
and it started giving a intel boot loader error of some sort
it said something like " drive check failed please check the cable "
about 2 lines of error that i dont exactly remember

so i tried reconnecting the cable changing the cable and even using a usb adapter on a different pc to see if i can recover data or do thy thing with it

it seems that my secondary pc can't even recognize the disk at all so a different adapter but it did't work either , then i took out my emergency HDD and started installing win7 in it while in the process of selecting a drive to install windows in , i saw my vertex drive there and that's the only menu that showed it just anywhere

so my question is my drive dead , and can i recover my valuable data from it

the drive i am using is Vertex 4 128 Gb

thanks to everyone who helps :)
 
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I tried running it just now its not detecting the drive
 
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Having had an extremely expensive OCZ SSD die on me, and knowing OCZ's failure rates, I'd say it's most likely dead. And no, sadly, you can't save data from a dead SSD since the SSD saves data logically and not physically like a HDD.
 
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Sorry for your loss. Apparently, OCZ's HAVE gotten better, since being acquired by Toshiba. I know that doesn't help you but, let's try and not poop on the company's older equipment. Many of them have worked for long periods, many still are working.

SSD's REQUIRE a safe form of backup. Regardless of the lifespan promoted by any company's website, backup is absolutely necessary because SSD's are just a controlled form of RAM, the most volatile of memory.

I don't mean to sound condescending, it's hard to convey myself online, unless I am being a complete smart-ass...well, even that can be misunderstood.

Anyways, I am sorry for you and I hope you can rebuild relatively pain free but, save yourself from next time with a secure method of backups!

;)
 
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Sorry for your loss. Apparently, OCZ's HAVE gotten better, since being acquired by Toshiba. I know that doesn't help you but, let's try and not poop on the company's older equipment. Many of them have worked for long periods, many still are working.

SSD's REQUIRE a safe form of backup. Regardless of the lifespan promoted by any company's website, backup is absolutely necessary because SSD's are just a controlled form of RAM, the most volatile of memory.

I don't mean to sound condescending, it's hard to convey myself online, unless I am being a complete smart-ass...well, even that can be misunderstood.

Anyways, I am sorry for you and I hope you can rebuild relatively pain free but, save yourself from next time with a secure method of backups!

;)
well you are right there is no point in being sad for something like this ssd served me well but unfortunately its the data that i care about right now since its worth about ~500$ , if i was sure my ssd is dead i would buy another one and start the work all over again without wasting my time but when i was installing win7 in my hdd the vertex clearly shows up and it even showed free space and stuff witch gave a little hope , but anyways i guess its going to be a hard week for me xD
 
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So much for SSD technology. I've never had or seen a HDD die like that. They always had a share of smaller problems first before they died completely. That's why i'm still kinda sticking with HDD and using software SSD cache for speedup. Because it's just a cache, i don't care if it dies...
 

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The problem with the OP's OCZ drive might be a controller issue. Sometimes the controller overheats and this causes the solder on the contacts to crack and not make a good connection. The controller overheating and dying was a common problem in OCZ drives, and the main cause behind their high failure rates.(See below for a explanation on why they overheat.)

This is, IMO, probably why it showed up in the Win7 install screen. It probably worked one last time and then died again. When solder joints start to crack like this, things can become flaky and work sometimes and not work others.

As a last ditch effort, you can try to take the drive apart and reflow the solder under the controller with a heatgun($30 at Harborfreight). When you do take the drive apart, a good sign that overheating is an issue is if there is discoloration on the drive case or PCB.

SSD's are just a controlled form of RAM, the most volatile of memory.

That statement isn't remotely accurate. Flash memory and RAM are very different things. Flash memory is non-volatile. In fact, Flash memory is some of the most stable non-volatile forms of storage there is.

You ever hear stories of people finding old NES cartridges from 20 years ago that have been neglected and mis-treated, some left out in the weather, and they still work. Yep, the data stored on those are a form of flash memory. The BIOS chips on motherboards, the chips that basically never fail? Yeah, why do you think it is called "flashing the BIOS"?

However, regardless of the method of storage, you are correct that having a backup is a necessity. It doesn't matter if it is stored on a HDD, an SSD, or punch cards.

With SSDs, even though they aren't mechanical, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. SSDs are basically RAID0 arrays of multiple flash chips, which is why they are so fast. However, it also means that if one flash chip dies, the whole SSD is junk. There is also the possibility of the SSD controller going bad. In OCZ's case, this is what plagued their drives. They used Sandforce controller exclusively, and they used a firmware with unlocked IOPs. This lead to premature controller death. This wasn't really OCZ's fault, since Sandforce never said leaving the IOPs unlocked was a bad thing, I believe their reference firmware even had the IOPs unlocked. However, now most drives have some form of limiter on their IOPs to not ever stress the controller. Ironically, controller death is a common problem on HDDs as well, and seapping out the controller PCB can bring a dead HDD back to life.
 
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so i opened up my SSD and checked for any damages due to high temps on controller , i did a 3 hour search on entire ssd with a magnifying glass , and i could not find anything at all , and when i connected my ssd to pc while open it showed a green LED turning on , now i have a feeling that there is something wrong with firmware , there is no damage on ssd , and it shows up while on win installation , i am not trying to be too optimistic here but i think my SSD still have a chance
 

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Maybe boot of another drive and try update the firmware though their software.


Any chance the casing was slightly discolored ? ( mine was terribly discolored on the steel plate ), although i do believe Toshiba still back the warranty up on that drive.

I was sure in a thread i started a little while ago said they said Toshiba still back them..

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/ocz-ssd-died.202926/
 

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Any chance it has something to do with windows updates i just read few days ago about black screen issues after installing latest windows updates. at guru3d they have a thread about it and how to fix it
 
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