Is my SSD failing? Can it be saved if so?

I'm worried my SSD is failing. I store a few games and Windows 7 on it. Everything else is stored on my HDD.

As of late, my computer will bluescreen after about an hour or two of being powered up. Says something about a critical system file is missing. Then, upon restart, sometimes it seems to not detect my SSD when listing my hard drives, and in which case, would then proceed to tell me that no operating system is detected.

I'm not really sure how to diagnose this further (and safely, as I'm not sure how many public tools might screw up an SSD upon testing)

Can you guys help me diagnose it and save it?

EDIT: My SSD is 7 months old

Brand Name: Crucial
Model: CT128M4SSD2
Hard Disk Size: 120.0 GB
Hardware Platform: PC, Mac, Unix, Linux
Form Factor: 2.5-Inch
Hard Disk Interface: Serial ATA-600

Rob

Posted 2012-08-29T03:41:12.103

Reputation: 647

2More information would be helpful. What model is it? How old is it? Etc. – None – 2012-08-29T03:47:29.703

2@RandolphWest added more details. Sorry about that. – Rob – 2012-08-29T03:55:07.467

3Is there a way to monitor an SSD state and predict its failure in case of active read-write usage?. Mentioning bugcheck code in bluescreen also helps. IME BSOD during drive access is an early indicator of imminent SSD failure. Backup asap, if you don't have one yet. – Sathyajith Bhat – 2012-08-29T04:16:05.587

2@Sathya, according to HD Tune, health status is OK – Rob – 2012-08-29T04:42:33.537

@Rob HD Tune said the same to me and it didn't end well ;) also use SSD Life http://superuser.com/a/283595/4377

– Sathyajith Bhat – 2012-08-29T05:06:44.067

@Sathya, SSD Life is also reporting that it's in good health. I can't imagine where else the problem lies. – Rob – 2012-08-29T05:15:57.193

my next suggestion would have been to check for a firmware update and looks like you have an answer mentioning that :-) – Sathyajith Bhat – 2012-08-29T14:16:49.573

Answers

Crucial has addressed this issue with firmware updates.

It makes perfect sense that your Crucial m4 SSD has exceeded 5184 hours powered on, which is almost exactly 7 months.

Firmware version 0309 fixes the issue you are having:

Correct a condition where an incorrect response to a SMART counter will cause the m4 drive to become unresponsive after 5184 hours of Power-on time. The drive will recover after a power cycle, however, this failure will repeat once per hour after reaching this point. The condition will allow the end user to successfully update firmware, and poses no risk to user or system data stored on the drive.

Go here to download the new firmware and get instructions for updating.

Deltik

Posted 2012-08-29T03:41:12.103

Reputation: 16 807

Old post bumped by your edit. How in the world do you find this stuff? – fixer1234 – 2019-05-08T08:29:45.847

@fixer1234: The firmware problem? I had the same SSD model with the same problem. The answer? I got the Announcer badge for this answer and decided to check it out, which is how I noticed that the links in the answer were broken.

– Deltik – 2019-05-08T09:08:08.883

6Wow! My SSD's work time is 5241 hours. Going to install this now. It sure seems like exactly what it is. I hope so. Will update you shortly. – Rob – 2012-08-29T14:02:07.030

By the way, I haven't forgotten about you, and I will be accepting your answer if it works. I just don't want to jump the gun and accept it only for the same thing to happen an hour later. So far, so good, though! Will accept it in an hour or two if all is still going well! – Rob – 2012-08-29T16:58:29.867

that's a really strange error... O_O – Marcx – 2012-08-30T19:11:50.130