Intel 520 SSD causes system to lock up on format

[CHudk]

Hello!

I'm in charge of our company's fleet of managed assets. A few days ago, a problem surfaced with 240GB 520 series SSDs, utilized in Lenovo W510 laptops.

Summary: Upon clearing all partitions from the drive, creating a 2GiB and a 222GiB (approximate size), and attempting to format the larger one, after about a minute the entire system locks up, requiring a hard power-off.

Details

This is a scripted process, however for troubleshooting purposes I have also done it by hand, with the same result. The steps involved are:

1. PXE boot into Windows PE.
2. Remove all partitions (PowerShell Clear-Disk -RemoveData -RemoveOEM).
3. Initialize the disk (Initialize-Disk -PartitionStyle MBR)
4. Create a 2GiB partition and a second one using all remaining space (New-Partition ...)
5. Format both partitions to NTFS (Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -AllocationUnitSize 4096)
   1. 2GiB partition formats fine in just a few seconds.
   2. Big partition appears to work at first (HDD access light flickers as usual), but then something happens. HDD access light begins blinking regularly, and after about a minute the computer locks up hard.

Initially, I hit this with one drive and naturally thought it had failed. I tried with several other units, however, and swapped the drives between identical computers, also swapped them into different models, with the same result for four different SSDs. My script has not changed, and I verified that it still works on other hardware (using Crucial SSD in Lenovo W530).

I have run SSD Toolbox on three of these drives. Quick check shows both life expectancy bars at 100%, SMART shows no errors or warnings, and a long diagnostic turns up no problems. These drives have been in use for over two years, and most of them have about 4 TiB written according to SSD Toolbox.

I just tested with a SSD that had been through a detailed diagnostic with SSD Toolbox; I created partitions using the Windows Disk Manager, and formatted them just fine. I put it back into a machine and attempted to format using my script. Machine locked up.

At this point I am stumped.

Where would we go from here?

[jbenavides]

Hello ch_ciab,

Here are some options to consider based on the information you have provided:

- Try doing a Secure Erase (Low level format), this will remove all data on the SSD, then try initializing the drive again. You can find more information about this in the following advisory: http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/software/000006198.html When You Run a Low-Level Format on Intel® Solid State Drives for...

- Make sure that the Storage Controller is set to AHCI mode, and that the SSD's are detected correctly.

- Check with the http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/topics/oems.html Computer Manufacturer Support and make sure you are using updated BIOS and any required drivers for the PC's.

If the issue persists at this point, you might need to review the script, since you mentioned that Windows Disk Management is able to use the drive normally.

[CHudk]

Hi, Jonathan, and thanks for the prompt reply!

I will try using a low-level format utility because that's certainly something I hadn't considered yet!

Meanwhile, regarding the other things you suggested: Yes, storage controller is set to AHCI; SSD would appear to be detected correctly, considering that it is available to WMI and DiskPart; system BIOS is, in fact, a bit out of date so I'll fix that -- however the fact remains that the scripted setup I'm using has been working for over a year.

As far as reviewing the script, I have been doing that because I couldn't find any fault with the hardware -- what puzzles me is why it would suddenly stop working, when it had been fine for over six months. (I started making changes while troubleshooting yesterday; prior to that I had not changed anything since August.) The same script works fine on other hardware, and these are just standard storage commands we're using here, so it's questionable.

Anyway, I'll report back once I've done a low-level format. I'm not thrilled about having to do that on (up to) 36 machines, however if it works it's better than replacing the drives.

[CHudk]

OK, I've tried the other things you suggested.

Update BIOS: No change

Low-level format: No change

Updated BIOS + low-level formatted drive: No change

Further, I did some reading and was thinking the "ATA Secure Erase" might be a good idea, and quicker than "low-level" formatting. I attempted to use Secure Erase from within SSD Toolbox, but amazingly it told me that operation isn't supported in Win8/2012. My test machines are Win 8.1 and Server 2012 R2.

Is it possible we have a bad batch of drives here?

[jbenavides]

As you mentioned, running the ATA Secure Erase from Intel® SSD Toolbox is not possible with current Windows® releases, since they block ATA Security commands once the drive is detected by the OS. Secure Erase may still be possible using 3rd party tools, or Linux OS.

We are not aware of this happening with retail versions of the Intel® SSD 520 series, however, I found some Lenovo forums and advisories about issues with the Lenovo OEM version of this drive.

If the drives are OEM versions from Lenovo, please check with thehttp://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/topics/oems.html Computer Manufacturer Support, and make sure you are using the most recent Firmware version for the SSD's.