Ssd failure, I don’t know what to do

[AdoringFan]

I got Samsungs 990pro 2TB SSD about 1.5 year ago. As soon as I installed it I made sure to update to latest firmware as I was aware of issues.
I never had problems with it.
It is not my system drive I just keep a lot of work stuff there, games and programs I use.

I got new laptop so I wanted to sync files between pc and new laptop and I decided to try IDrive cloud. I downloaded the app and tried to setup cloud folder on my SSD.

I was trying to rearrange some files using an app for managing files (Eagle app), so I could sync them to the cloud.
Basically I just moved about 100gb of files in one go from one folder to another (within the same SSD) and my pc froze for a minute. Moving files failed and when I tried opening files that are on this drive it wouldn’t let me.

Restarted my PC and the SSD was not found in the explorer, restarted again and it came back.
Tried running Samsung Magician diagnostic full scan it showed 5 red squares very soon and stopped progressing. Restarted again, did short scan and everything was ok but when I tried full scan it was going good for a while but ultimately few red squares appeared and progress froze

Eagle app never failed me before, I don’t know if it’s IDrive fault since I wasn’t syncing any files at that time.

I tried backing up files I needed into a cloud but it failed, when I looked into event I had plenty of errors event id 51 and 140.
When I tried to backup on external drive I was getting “a device which does not exist was specified”

Restarted my pc AGAIN. Couldn’t open files as it was saying they were corrupted,

I ran CrystalDiskInfo and suddenly everything started working, I was able to open files and I managed to do backup on some of important files to external drive.
crystal disk said my drive is fine and is at 100% health.

I tried running fallout 4 I have installed on my drive and it crashed in the same place (no errors in event viewer) but on 3rd try I was able to play for few hours and it was running fine.


I’m pretty spooked now, I don’t know what to do and if I can trust this drive again. Someone on Reddit told me to rma it but I don’t even know how long it can take.
Is my SSD broken? What else should I do?

Samsung magician and my Ssd firmware is up to date

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

Have you run chkdsk since you did all this? I bet your file system is funky.

run "chkdsk /f" on the drive from an elevated command prompt (not /r, lets not worry about a sector scan just yet).

Proper shutdown and power off afterwards, then re-seat the drive.

What other storage is in the mix here? Please fill out your system specs.

 

[nageme]

If you don't have backups, first copy all files to another drive.

Then start to the analyze what's going on.
It could be a problem with the hardware the SSD is connected to.

 

[Hardcore Games]

Might want to look at a new SSD as this one is definitely dodgy

 

[Carlyle2020hs]

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1hqew6m/comment/m9hxhw2

The answer is in there somewhere

 

[efikkan]

To add upon what DirtyDingusMcgee and nageme have already said;
Firstly make sure you have made backups of everything of value, if you are still able to make uncorrupted copies of files, only after you've completed the backup should you start tinkering with the file system.
I usually tell people to have at least 3 copies of anything worth keeping, 3 separate copies. Having multiple devices synced, or devices synced to the "cloud" still counts as only "one copy", as if a file is deleted, modified or corrupted you might accidentally sync the error. So make sure you have or acquire enough devices and/or remote storage to have separate copies before you proceed.

Based on there being no SMART-errors on the device (as far as I can see), I suspect it being one of two errors (or both);
1) A corrupted file system
2) Bad physical contact.

Number 2 is the easiest to eliminate; re-seat the drive (like DirtyDingusMcgee said), or add it to another slot if you can.

As for the file system, I would probably format it regardless, as even if there is a hardware issue with the SSD or other hardware, the filesystem is probably partly corrupted anyways. The number of "Unsafe shutdowns" in CrystalDiskInfo can be an indication of just that. So whenever a file system is corrupted, it's usally easier to start with a clean slate rather than to try to run chkdsk and hope things are fixed (they usually aren't). A prerequisite is that you have backuped all files before you start.

Getting a full list of hardware could be useful. (Also whether the system is overclocked.)

-----

As for what causes such problems, there can be a number of causes; It can be a hard shutdown from an application crashing the computer, power loss, bad connection to the drive, defective drive, defective RAM or defective CPU.
If you have any reason to suspect other hardware faults, I suggest running a memory check and a CPU stress test. I have seen cases of faulty RAM causing file system corruption.

-----

When it comes to addressing your concerns gong forward, I suggest making your setups more robust;
1) Backups (3 independent copies) as said. (I also like to have checksums of files)
2) Having at the very least separate partitions, or preferably a separate SSD for the OS. So having your files on one drive, and the OS and applications on another. The first reason for this is the chance of corruption caused by crashes almost always occur on the OS drive (applies whether it's separate partitions or SSDs). The second reason (which only applies to separate SSDs) is that the OS drives will usually have much more writes, so having a "small" OS SSD will take the hit with most of the wear and tear, and your files sits on a "larger" SSD which will probably last for many years. (I have all 4 of my desktops set up this way; when a SSD goes bad, I just replace it and install the OS, my files are separate )
3) If you experience further problems after the drive is reformatted and have eliminated other hardware problems, then assume there is some funky firmware issue. Unfortunately Samsung 990 Pro are known for such issues.

 

[PowerBuilder]

In most cases this is not a problem, but TLC SSDs can occasionally exhibit unrecoverable instability. This gets worse with increasing write counts (and over time). And there is a high probability of random freezes during brief periods of high load. The freezes can show up as warnings in the Event Viewer. And certain company chipsets with poorly designed storage controllers can exhibit unstable (sudden stuttering) behavior. You may need a fixed driver. Samsung NVMe drivers (version 3.3) are available, but they are no longer being updated and the latest 990 PRO SSDs are not recognized.

 

[eidairaman1]

I got Samsungs 990pro 2TB SSD about 1.5 year ago. As soon as I installed it I made sure to update to latest firmware as I was aware of issues.
I never had problems with it.
It is not my system drive I just keep a lot of work stuff there, games and programs I use.

I got new laptop so I wanted to sync files between pc and new laptop and I decided to try IDrive cloud. I downloaded the app and tried to setup cloud folder on my SSD.

I was trying to rearrange some files using an app for managing files (Eagle app), so I could sync them to the cloud.
Basically I just moved about 100gb of files in one go from one folder to another (within the same SSD) and my pc froze for a minute. Moving files failed and when I tried opening files that are on this drive it wouldn’t let me.

Restarted my PC and the SSD was not found in the explorer, restarted again and it came back.
Tried running Samsung Magician diagnostic full scan it showed 5 red squares very soon and stopped progressing. Restarted again, did short scan and everything was ok but when I tried full scan it was going good for a while but ultimately few red squares appeared and progress froze

Eagle app never failed me before, I don’t know if it’s IDrive fault since I wasn’t syncing any files at that time.

I tried backing up files I needed into a cloud but it failed, when I looked into event I had plenty of errors event id 51 and 140.
When I tried to backup on external drive I was getting “a device which does not exist was specified”

View attachment 397733

Restarted my pc AGAIN. Couldn’t open files as it was saying they were corrupted,

I ran CrystalDiskInfo and suddenly everything started working, I was able to open files and I managed to do backup on some of important files to external drive.
crystal disk said my drive is fine and is at 100% health.

View attachment 397734
I tried running fallout 4 I have installed on my drive and it crashed in the same place (no errors in event viewer) but on 3rd try I was able to play for few hours and it was running fine.


I’m pretty spooked now, I don’t know what to do and if I can trust this drive again. Someone on Reddit told me to rma it but I don’t even know how long it can take.
Is my SSD broken? What else should I do?

Samsung magician and my Ssd firmware is up to date

You should back your data up pronto, otherwise you might need to pay a data recovery specialist if you don't back it up.

MDrepairs

We repair and recover data from all types of electronics, check out the link below. Mail-in Your device https://mdrepairs.com/mail-in-repair/

youtube.com

 

[AdoringFan]

Firstly make sure you have made backups of everything of value, if you are still able to make uncorrupted copies of files, only after you've completed the backup should you start tinkering with the file system.
I usually tell people to have at least 3 copies of anything worth keeping, 3 separate copies. Having multiple devices synced, or devices synced to the "cloud" still counts as only "one copy", as if a file is deleted, modified or corrupted you might accidentally sync the error. So make sure you have or acquire enough devices and/or remote storage to have separate copies before you proceed.

You should back your data up pronto, otherwise you might need to pay a data recovery specialist if you don't back it up.

Sorry for late reply everyone and thanks for many replies, I was backing up most important files and didn't want to touch my PC at all at that time.
I was able to make 3 backups because I'm paranoid at this point, 1 cloud and 2 external drives.

Have you run chkdsk since you did all this? I bet your file system is funky.

run "chkdsk /f" on the drive from an elevated command prompt (not /r, lets not worry about a sector scan just yet).

I tried running it now but got the "Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPEN HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)"

EDIT: When I tried running it from Windows Recovery Enviroment:

"The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.
windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected."

What other storage is in the mix here? Please fill out your system specs.

Getting a full list of hardware could be useful. (Also whether the system is overclocked.)

my full specs are
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: 2x32GB Corsair sticks i think it was 3600MHZ
MOBO: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY
GPU: GIGABYTE RTX3080
Storage:
- My system drive: Samsung 980 PRO 1TB
- some 3TB HDD drive
- some old 1TB HDD drive
- some really old 512GB drive
- the trouble maker Samsung 990 PRO 2TB with heatsink or radiator whatever its called
PSU: Corsair RMx 850W 80 Plus Gold

I didn't overclock anything

Might want to look at a new SSD as this one is definitely dodgy

Yea, I'm not trusting it right now. Someone on reddit told me to try RMA it but the thing is I just might get the same drive back I can't rely on. Any recommendations for new one? I've been thinking about WD SN850X. at this point reliability>specs

https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1hqew6m/comment/m9hxhw2

The answer is in there somewhere

I don't really mess with BIOS as I'm not really good with it, however in Samsung Magician I've found something this reddit post is talking about?
Should I put the SSD in Full Power mode to prevent it from ever going idle or sleep?

 

[AdoringFan]

I'm BEYOND confused right now.
I ran short and extended scan using samsung magician and everything is fine

Then I ran the full scan and I was expecting for it to show red squares like right after the ssd failure and just freeze never progressing, but this time everything went smoothly for whatever reason.
I did delete and move some files before this attempt at scanning. Could this whole issue lie in some corrupt file?

EDIT: wow i got ahead of myself. Just to be sure I restarted my PC and tried full scan again, it froze and i got bunch of Event Viewer warinings ID 50 and 140

EDIT2: another restart and scan went fine...

 

[nageme]

What are the details in Event Viewer?
What do the SMART stats show now?

Try one or more of:
- Reseating the drive.
- Another slot.
- A different drive in the same slot.
- Memtest86(+).

Edit:
- Trying the drive on another computer.

 

[AdoringFan]

What do the SMART stats show now?

SMART Stats from Samsung Magician are what you are seeing in my previous post, there is nothing else to it and ones from CrystalDiskInfo are also same as before.

What are the details in Event Viewer?

Thats when SamsungMagician full scan froze

I was getting EventID 50 errors, for folders with Eagle App and ShareX software
First succesful samsung magician full scan I ran was with the Eagle app and ShareX off, next failed one was with both on and the last succesful one was also with both of them on, so I have no idea if it is the cause of this

 

[Solaris17]

This drive is toast and I would not trust it with any data; it smells like controller failure. SMART data is polled on a cycle it is not instant. That is a common misconception. Smart “currently” indicates everything is fine, but the drive is self write protecting. Something is catastrophically wrong.

 

[AdoringFan]

This drive is toast and I would not trust it with any data; it smells like controller failure. SMART data is polled on a cycle it is not instant. That is a common misconception. Smart “currently” indicates everything is fine, but the drive is self write protecting. Something is catastrophically wrong.

sorry but just to clarify as im not that into tech, do you mean like a controller on the drive or motherboard?

 

[efikkan]

Sorry for late reply everyone and thanks for many replies, I was backing up most important files and didn't want to touch my PC at all at that time.
I was able to make 3 backups because I'm paranoid at this point, 1 cloud and 2 external drives.

Having such incidents is what's usually leads people to establishing proper backup routines. Depending on how much data you create/acquire/store, you should backup regularly and also verify backups.

I have myself a very low level of trust for storage devices, and usually replace them if there is any indication of instability. SSDs, especially heavily used ones, are known for premature failure. I usually have 1 or more spares on-hand for immediate replacement, and also run several of my SSDs and HDDs in RAID1 too. Over the last ~6 years I've probably had 5 SSDs fail in my home, and another two in my family, and it's also the reason for >90% of hardware failures that I've seen in places I've worked, so just to give you and indication of the problem; it's fairly normal.

What I find puzzling is the fact that this is not the system drive of your setup, so the problems seem far more suspicious then.

my full specs are
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: 2x32GB Corsair sticks i think it was 3600MHZ
MOBO: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY
GPU: GIGABYTE RTX3080
Storage:
- My system drive: Samsung 980 PRO 1TB
- some 3TB HDD drive
- some old 1TB HDD drive
- some really old 512GB drive
- the trouble maker Samsung 990 PRO 2TB with heatsink or radiator whatever its called
PSU: Corsair RMx 850W 80 Plus Gold

I didn't overclock anything

That platform only supports up to 3200 MHz natively, so you seem to be running overclocked memory. That may still have nothing to do with your problem, but I would have run memtest86 just to make sure (it's way better than Windows' built-in RAM check), so we can eliminate it.

Yea, I'm not trusting it right now. Someone on reddit told me to try RMA it but the thing is I just might get the same drive back I can't rely on. Any recommendations for new one? I've been thinking about WD SN850X. at this point reliability>specs

Getting it RMA'ed will be challenging until you can prove a technical defect.

WD SN850X is excellent, with a good track record, and top performance too for PCIe 4 devices.

I was getting EventID 50 errors, for folders with Eagle App and ShareX software
First succesful samsung magician full scan I ran was with the Eagle app and ShareX off, next failed one was with both on and the last succesful one was also with both of them on, so I have no idea if it is the cause of this

If I read the event log correctly, this points to the system losing contact with the device. (Which may point towards a bad SSD, bad seating or bad motherboard plug)
I don't know if you've answered it yet, did you try re-seating it like many have suggested?

Also, after you get such events, does the SSD disappear from Disk Management?

 

[Solaris17]

sorry but just to clarify as im not that into tech, do you mean like a controller on the drive or motherboard?

SSD.

 

[nageme]

SMART Stats from Samsung Magician are what you are seeing in my previous post, there is nothing else to it and ones from CrystalDiskInfo are also same as before.

The Magician screenshot doesn't show SMART stats. Crystal does. I wonder if the stats have changed since you started the thread.

The Windows Event Log errors don't explicitly mention hardware errors.
"A device which does not exist" might also be a badly seated drive.

I'd try what I suggested in my previous message.
And also, try the drive on another computer.

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

I tried running it now but got the "Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPEN HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)"

This is ok. do this. It isn't your system drive, and you are not currently writing critical files to the drive, so it won't hurt a thing.

 

[Carlyle2020hs]

Lets not hope he rolls a

Please have a good look during the process since the info messages will vanish quickly as far as i can remember

 

[AdoringFan]

This is ok. do this. It isn't your system drive, and you are not currently writing critical files to the drive, so it won't hurt a thing.

Please have a good look during the process since the info messages will vanish quickly as far as i can remember

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk x: /f
The type of the file system is NTFS.

Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another
process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first.
ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID.
Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N) Y
Volume dismounted. All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
Volume label is SAMSUNG990PRO 2TB.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
951552 file records processed.
File verification completed.
Phase duration (File record verification): 4.86 seconds.
699 large file records processed.
Phase duration (Orphan file record recovery): 0.70 milliseconds.
0 bad file records processed.
Phase duration (Bad file record checking): 0.23 milliseconds.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
2597 reparse records processed.
1184462 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
Phase duration (Index verification): 6.72 seconds.
0 unindexed files scanned.
Phase duration (Orphan reconnection): 1.07 seconds.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
Phase duration (Orphan recovery to lost and found): 2.41 milliseconds.
2597 reparse records processed.
Phase duration (Reparse point and Object ID verification): 8.21 milliseconds.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
Phase duration (Security descriptor verification): 0.78 milliseconds.
116455 data files processed.
Phase duration (Data attribute verification): 0.23 milliseconds.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

1953497087 KB total disk space.
1379552592 KB in 662502 files.
190840 KB in 116457 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
1077275 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
572676380 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
488374271 total allocation units on disk.
143169095 allocation units available on disk.
Total duration: 12.68 seconds (12683 ms).

The Magician screenshot doesn't show SMART stats. Crystal does. I wonder if the stats have changed since you started the thread.

These are current CrystalDisk stats. The unsafe Shutdowns number went up because once the ssd fails, my pc won't shut down properly for whatever reason and I had to long press the power button.

I don't know if you've answered it yet, did you try re-seating it like many have suggested?

"A device which does not exist" might also be a badly seated drive.

As for reseating, I really really don't like messing with the inside of the PC since its quite operation for me to do with all the cables in inaccesible area but I will try. My motherboard has 3 m2 slots and I would try the empty one, but that would mean removing my GPU—which I’m scared to break, lol. I don't have any other pc to test the ssd on.
Are there any safety steps for reseating the drive? Do I have to dismount it in someway from the Disk Managment before I shut down and unplug everything? I mean sort of like "Ejecting" external drive?

Really getting used to just thinking about ordering the SN850x at this point.

Also, after you get such events, does the SSD disappear from Disk Management?

After the very first failure it vanished from File Explorer - that's for sure, I didn't check the disk management then. When it fails during the samsung magician scan it's still in explorer

 

[Dr. Dro]

By Azura, by Azura, by Azura! It's the Adoring Fan!

Solaris has it down to a T, your drive seems to have a controller failure. I would not trust it, especially if it keeps freezing after issuing a secure erase command. Since you already have a backup, just replace it, your data is worth more than what that drive costs.

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

By Azura, by Azura, by Azura! It's the Adoring Fan!

Solaris has it down to a T, your drive seems to have a controller failure. I would not trust it, especially if it keeps freezing after issuing a secure erase command. Since you already have a backup, just replace it, your data is worth more than what that drive costs.

You and Solaris are probably right. just trying to go through all the steps.

 

[eidairaman1]

Sorry for late reply everyone and thanks for many replies, I was backing up most important files and didn't want to touch my PC at all at that time.
I was able to make 3 backups because I'm paranoid at this point, 1 cloud and 2 external drives.



I tried running it now but got the "Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPEN HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID. Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N)"

EDIT: When I tried running it from Windows Recovery Enviroment:

"The type of the file system is NTFS.
Cannot lock current drive.
windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected."





my full specs are
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
RAM: 2x32GB Corsair sticks i think it was 3600MHZ
MOBO: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY
GPU: GIGABYTE RTX3080
Storage:
- My system drive: Samsung 980 PRO 1TB
- some 3TB HDD drive
- some old 1TB HDD drive
- some really old 512GB drive
- the trouble maker Samsung 990 PRO 2TB with heatsink or radiator whatever its called
PSU: Corsair RMx 850W 80 Plus Gold

I didn't overclock anything



Yea, I'm not trusting it right now. Someone on reddit told me to try RMA it but the thing is I just might get the same drive back I can't rely on. Any recommendations for new one? I've been thinking about WD SN850X. at this point reliability>specs


I don't really mess with BIOS as I'm not really good with it, however in Samsung Magician I've found something this reddit post is talking about?
Should I put the SSD in Full Power mode to prevent it from ever going idle or sleep?

View attachment 397902

Still rma it

 

[DirtyDingusMcgee]

scan log looks fine....its the drive.

 

[eidairaman1]

scan log looks fine....its the drive.

Hopefully still within rma time, otherwise make it a scratch drive