Random SSD issues

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This has happened twice now in the course of last few weeks: my Win7 laptop (Lenovo X230) reports a hard drive failure right after turning on and will not boot - as if it was not detecting the drive presence at all. But then I will shut it off and try again, and it'll boot fine.

The drive is Samsung 850 EVO, about 3 years old, I think.

I've ran the Lenovo drive test and it did not report any issues. Samsung Magician does not report anything suspect either.

Is it an issue with the SSD or with motherboard drive connector on my laptop? Not sure if there are any additional tests I can run...
 
This is a pretty common issue on our older X230s at work... We haven't managed to find any fix for it, other than replacing them. Which is sad, since they are the next most solid model after the T430S... Don't get me started on the T440S, and T460Ss...
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
This has happened twice now in the course of last few weeks: my Win7 laptop (Lenovo X230) reports a hard drive failure right after turning on and will not boot - as if it was not detecting the drive presence at all. But then I will shut it off and try again, and it'll boot fine.

The drive is Samsung 850 EVO, about 3 years old, I think.

I've ran the Lenovo drive test and it did not report any issues. Samsung Magician does not report anything suspect either.

Is it an issue with the SSD or with motherboard drive connector on my laptop? Not sure if there are any additional tests I can run...



Hard to say but I would find a replacement drive and start the migration process as soon as possible.

The cost of an SSD is cheap comparing to the cost of data recovery.
 
And this is why I still dont own a PC. Between the lingo and patience that little electronic notebook would be pigeon practice in the backyard during a skeet outing.
 
This would happen to me on a 2009-vintage Dell laptop (which, sadly, had a cup of water spilled on it and is now in laptop heaven) which had a magnetic drive. I always assumed it was a motherboard/connector issue, because aside from that warning message there was nothing to indicate the drive was at fault.
 
Originally Posted By: Marco620
And this is why I still dont own a PC. Between the lingo and patience that little electronic notebook would be pigeon practice in the backyard during a skeet outing.

I had more hardware issues with the one Mac I've ever owned than any PC. It was a good thing I bought AppleCare, because Apple had to replace one hard drive and two optical drives on that piece, and the third optical drive doesn't work anymore either.
 
I've had that happen occasionally with SSDs and HDDs over the years. Has always been a failing drive regardless of what the diagnostic software said.
 
I had to replace the motherboard on my ancient Compaq linux laptop for this very reason. $23 part and I was a laptop repair tech in a prior life.

This was about 4 years ago and I'm still using the laptop now, thanks to Lubuntu.

The IDE connector stopped working.

(yeah, IDE)
 
Originally Posted By: newbe46
Hard to say but I would find a replacement drive and start the migration process as soon as possible.

The cost of an SSD is cheap comparing to the cost of data recovery.

My opinion is the same. Although the 850 EVO was better than the troublesome 840 EVO, the EVO line is Samsung's low budget offering. And I find their endurance claims humorous.

SSDs offer performance we all love, but sadly I have found mechanical HDDs to be more reliable in long service despite the moving parts.
I will use a SSD but suggest considering them disposables.
 
Tough call.

That's about a 5-6 year old laptop now. I faced the same issue with an older desktop I was trying to keep alive with various upgrades, RAM SSD, etc.

Finally started getting strange drive errors, about 6mo to a year after I added a PCIe display adapter as the on-board unit was going bad. So at least I had some prior warning that the MB was getting flaky.

Found another HP refurbished desktop from MicroCenter and used the SSD to clone the drive shipped with it. Still using it without issue 9 months later. Good confirmation that it was the MB, not the drive that was my issue.

If you had a way to test the drive in a known good machine or another drive in that laptop to see if the problem follows the drive or the on-board controller would be your best bet.

I think I'd be more suspicious of the older laptop than the relatively newer SSD. But really, either could be the culprit here. You need a means to isolate one from the other to test and see which is having issues to really know.
 
Originally Posted By: BearZDefect
Originally Posted By: newbe46
Hard to say but I would find a replacement drive and start the migration process as soon as possible.

The cost of an SSD is cheap comparing to the cost of data recovery.

My opinion is the same. Although the 850 EVO was better than the troublesome 840 EVO, the EVO line is Samsung's low budget offering. And I find their endurance claims humorous.

SSDs offer performance we all love, but sadly I have found mechanical HDDs to be more reliable in long service despite the moving parts.
I will use a SSD but suggest considering them disposables.

How many SSDs have you worn out?

How many SSDs has anyone here worn out?

I really don't think most home users are going to get anywhere near the life span of even the TLC drives before they're ready to replace them due to other factors, even in a single drive setup.
 
I wore out a mid 2011 256 drive in a mac book air used every day.

UD
 
The safe solution is to replace the SSD. If he sees the same issues on the replacement SSD, then the controller on the MB is suspect and he has an extra SSD.

The other scenario, where it's a bad drive and he keeps on with it can only end badly for his data.
 
Originally Posted By: Subdued
How many SSDs have you worn out?


None. But multiple SSDs (mine and users I assist with their computers) have failed spontaneously after a few years of light usage. They were nowhere near the write endurance claims. I don't know their failure mode, but they turned into bricks that no software from the manufacturer could revive.
 
Originally Posted By: Subdued
How many SSDs have you worn out?

How many SSDs has anyone here worn out?

I really don't think most home users are going to get anywhere near the life span of even the TLC drives before they're ready to replace them due to other factors, even in a single drive setup.


Do them for a living as a FW engineer, so maybe I'm biased (hopefully in a good way).

Typically the problem is design issue that didn't show up in early life. Good reputable companies will test the heck out of the design and components before they ship it out (OEM like Dell or HP disqualifying the design would be serious trouble), retail customers usually don't get as much love so you have to go by past reputation. Some cut corners on engineering or component screening, and end up with bad drives. Sometimes it is the new tech not being mature and even the manufacturers don't know what they are doing.

I personally have no problem with SSD, nor HDD, but you never know and you should always backup on a regular basis. Don't assume SSD is invincible.

Also some advices: don't turn off a drive and let it sit in the closet for months or years. They will lose the data unlike mechanical HDD. Turn it on once in a while even if you don't need to. Also don't leave it in a hot car, high heat can reduce data retention from years to months.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
This has happened twice now in the course of last few weeks: my Win7 laptop (Lenovo X230) reports a hard drive failure right after turning on and will not boot - as if it was not detecting the drive presence at all. But then I will shut it off and try again, and it'll boot fine.

The drive is Samsung 850 EVO, about 3 years old, I think.

I've ran the Lenovo drive test and it did not report any issues. Samsung Magician does not report anything suspect either.

Is it an issue with the SSD or with motherboard drive connector on my laptop? Not sure if there are any additional tests I can run...


When you cloned the disk, which software did you use?
 
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