topic SSD 540s unreliable functionality in Solid State Drives (NAND)

SSD 540s unreliable functionality

taspn — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 10:57:31 GMT

Hi,

I have an SSD 540s series, or INTEL SSDSC2KW240H6. It's less than 2 years old.

I have since about a year back experienced that the disk seems to disconnect from the pc, while its still in use. Which crashes the OS (Windows) and forces a restart. The last time it did this, 31/10, the disk apparently wiped itself and there's nothing on it anymore. I have tried to let different software scan on it but nothing can be found. What is wrong with this disk and how do i fix it? How do I get my partitions back? Does it need to be replaced?

According to the Intel SSD toolbox, it is using the latest firmware. But it says SMART is disabled, which it isn't. See attached screenshots.

Any help and/or suggestions are appreciated. I'm quite stuck at this point.

Re: SSD 540s unreliable functionality

idata — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 20:07:05 GMT

Hi vortexringstate,

Thank you for posting in the Intel® communities.

According to the description you provided, this issue is related to the DevSleep feature of the drive. This was identified some time ago and newer firmware releases have been available since then.

You are currently using the firmware version 036C, which was the firmware where this issue was identified. A newer firmware was released (041C) to fix intermittent errors when resuming from unsafe shutdown and when resuming from low-power states. Please check this article for further details: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-00055.html https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-00055.html

Currently the latest firmware for this drive is the 042C. It's always recommended to keep the drives up to date with the latest firmware so known vulnerabilities and issues can be fixed for proper functionality.

Having said this, I recommend you to try to update your firmware version using the Intel® SSD Toolbox or the Intel® SSD Firmware Update Tool. Latest versions of both tools can be downloaded from the following sites:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28234/Intel-Solid-State-Drive-Toolbox Download Intel® Solid State Drive Toolbox

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28174/Intel-SSD-Firmware-Update-Tool Download Intel® SSD Firmware Update Tool

Considering the current state of your drive, I'm not sure if there is a way to recover the data as it appears as "not initialized", which could mean that the partitions were erased. However, chances are that updating the firmware version may recover the drive and the data as well.

I hope you find this information useful.

Have a nice day.

Regards,

Diego V.

Re: SSD 540s unreliable functionality

taspn — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 09:00:55 GMT

Hi,

SSD toolbox said that it already had the latest firmware in that release.

However, I ran the firmware update iso just before I posted, but nothing changed. I took a new screenshot today to show what it looks like. It is still not usable.

Re: SSD 540s unreliable functionality

idata — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 19:03:16 GMT

Hi vortexringstate,

Thank you for the screenshot.Considering that the firmware has been updated but the drive remains as "not initialized", I'd say that the partitions has been erased and the data is not recoverable. Having said this, I'd recommend you to initialize the drive from Disk Management. If you can initialize it, then you may be able to get the SMART details from the Intel® SSD Toolbox.If you cannot do this, then please try to get the SMART details from the other tool that is shown in the screenshot and attach the report file here.Have a nice day.Regards,Diego V.

Re: SSD 540s unreliable functionality

taspn — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 07:31:06 GMT

Hi,

I've already done that. It is still not usable, like I said earlier.

Any read/write test I do returns errors. SMART cannot be read.

Update; suddenly it could read the smart data. See attached file. It looks like bogus though.

Re: SSD 540s unreliable functionality

idata — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 18:51:53 GMT

Hi vortexringstate,

Thank you for getting the SMART report from the tool.According to it, the End-to-End Error Detection Count is the root cause of the issue with the drive. This error is related to the cache RAM data buffer, and it means that the parity data between the host and the drive didn't match.Unfortunately, there is no way to recover the drive from this state, and the drive should be replaced.I'll send you a private message with additional information, so please check your inbox.Have a nice day.Regards,Diego V.