# Help: I think I have "bricked" my ssd



## Air (Jun 3, 2017)

Im not sure if I can ask this kind of stuff around here, but this is the only pc hardware community Im part of so Im trying:

I have an 250 Gb 840 EVO SSD. So i saw this option to "optimize performance" or something of the sort in the magician software. So, i tried it. Magician issued a "data loss can occur if interrupted" message, but i was like "yeah whatever". I started closing some programs after it started, then my pc hang up.

Ok, booted again, freeze shortly after. Next try, cant even boot. Turns out magician was serious about that
warning.

Ok np, no important data on this drive. I proceeded to reinstall w10 from usb drive. But on the partition select screen i cant format any partition on the drive. I deleted all partitions, still no sucess. Each time i try to create a new partition it fails and create a small partirion for system, recovery, and msr. On the 5th try it gives an error but creates a 230gb partition. But i cant format or install windows on it. Image follows. This is after i disconected my hdd after seeing some recomendations around. Also tryed to format using cmd comands. Didnt work.

Im about to order a new ssd but decided to give it a shot here. If thats indeed beyond fixing... another question, is an 850 evo worth 30% more than a MX300?


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## FR@NK (Jun 3, 2017)

Can you stick it in a working computer and try to reformat or maybe try updating the firmware?


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## Air (Jun 3, 2017)

FR@NK said:


> Can you stick it in a working computer and try to reformat or maybe try updating the firmware?


Got no spare computer unfortunately, but firmware is last version, i had just checked it.

New development: tried the "clean all" comand in diskpart and it failed "due to a fatal hardware device error"...


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## NdMk2o1o (Jun 3, 2017)

Air said:


> Got no spare computer unfortunately, but firmware is last version, i had just checked it.
> 
> New development: tried the "clean all" comand in diskpart and it failed "due to a fatal hardware device error"...


That suckers dead! RMA time.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jun 3, 2017)

Optimising performance just means changing a few windows registry settings and 'trimming' your SSD instead of letting windows handle it afaik...

I cant see this option on the new samsung magician though


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## Air (Jun 3, 2017)

NdMk2o1o said:


> That suckers dead! RMA time.


Yeah i guess so... not sure if Im still in the warranty time... gonna have to check.



FreedomEclipse said:


> Optimising performance just means changing a few windows registry settings and 'trimming' your SSD instead of letting windows handle it afaik...
> 
> I cant see this option on the new samsung magician though


Yeah, i think it got replaced with this new function. It said something like "data will be realocated to improve performance". Perhaps thats something exclusive to the 840 evo? After all, this is the model that has the performance degradation over time issue.


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## brandonwh64 (Jun 4, 2017)

Its not dead. Use a linux boot CD with Gparted and delete all partitions


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 4, 2017)

Secure erase


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## Air (Jun 4, 2017)

brandonwh64 said:


> Its not dead. Use a linux boot CD with Gparted and delete all partitions


Ok, tried it. There is only on 450 mb partition, unknow format, with an exclamation mark icon right next to it, and unused space. When i try to delete the partition, it gives an sucess message, but the partition does not go away. Trying to format it has the same results. Sucess message but no format change. Tryin to create a new partition fails.


eidairaman1 said:


> Secure erase


Magician does not let me create a usb bootable disk because i do not have an samsung ssd on my laptop. So i tried in the gparted drive using the comand line, comand hdparm --security-erase NULL /dev/sdb. Ends in error, "bad/missing sense data"


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## Solaris17 (Jun 4, 2017)

If you can still recognize it to some degree see if you can flash i manually?

http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools.html


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## Air (Jun 5, 2017)

Ok, this was what i did as a last try: Created a new 100 Gb partition on my HDD, instaled windows on it (which only takes around 15 Gb? nice), installed Samsung Magician (which reports SSD condition as "good", ha), created a bootable Secure Erase USB drive, used it, operation failed and told me to try again. I did, same results. And again.

So i gave up and ordered a new one. Lost way too much time on this....

But regardless, thanks a lot for all the replies

EDIT: I strongly adivise against EVO 840 users running the "performance optimization" tool in the new magician. Not worth the risk at all.... my drive was perfectly fine.


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## blobster21 (Jun 5, 2017)

thanks for letting us know, at least your bad luck will serve as a reminder to everyone reading this thread. 

Don't tweak it if it ain't broken ! (obviously i'm not following this advice as often as i should too)


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## Readlight (Jun 5, 2017)

That new version is no good secure erase bootable usb dont work.


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## dorsetknob (Jun 5, 2017)

Air said:


> So i saw this option to "optimize performance" or something of the sort in the magician software. So, i tried it. Magician issued a "data loss can occur if interrupted" message,


So the Program gave you a Warning of possible Data loss that's Fair enough
You Run the Program and Then


Air said:


> but i was like "yeah whatever". I started closing some programs after it started,


Closing or opening new programs while the Drive is low level Optimizing would Seriously mess with that low level Optimizing as its Probably interrupting data Optimizing

Resulting in Data loss/corruption  ( are you Surprised ) AS WARNED BY THE PROGRAM


Air said:


> EDIT: I strongly adivise against EVO 840 users running the "performance optimization" tool in the new magician. Not worth the risk at all.... my drive was perfectly fine.



If all unnecessary Programs are shut Down prior to running Program and you walk away/leave it well alone while running there should not be any problems
You Unfortunately did not


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## Air (Jun 5, 2017)

Yes, Im not claiming to be smart or anything. But, if I may, given the risk of such operation, I do think the warning should be a little more "scary", or maybe the option should be hidden in an "advanced users" menu or something, so dumb fucks like me just trying to look to the old "OS optimization" menu don't stupidly destroy their SSDs. Normally you can't damage hardware from the inside the OS, simply by clicking a button.

But I'm not mad at Samsung or anything. I know this was my fault.



Readlight said:


> That new version is no good secure erase bootable usb dont work.



Ok, you just made me go back and try yet again with magician 4.x...


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## RejZoR (Jun 5, 2017)

Go to:
http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools.html

Check:
*Samsung SSD Firmware Updates for Windows Users *section

And download ISO for your drive. Boot up the system using this ISO and try updating drive with that. Maybe bootable firmware update will be able to re-flash the drive even after failure.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 5, 2017)

Evos are cool and all, but required a firmware update to fix a major flaw, the Pro line was not affected. Just like other patts, their support diminishes over time as their focus is 850 series and 960 series. So next time find an old version of Magician and use it.


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## Air (Jun 5, 2017)

RejZoR said:


> Go to:
> http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools.html
> 
> Check:
> ...


Thanks, I'll try that at night.



eidairaman1 said:


> Evos are cool and all, but required a firmware update to fix a major flaw, the Pro line was not affected. Just like other patts, their support diminishes over time as their focus is 850 series and 960 series. So next time find an old version of Magician and use it.



Ill hardly do any tweak on ssds ever from now on, but thanks, I will keep it in mind (I think magician updated itself though).

On a side note... I have ordered an 250 Gb EVO 850. Where i live its 30% more expansive than a Crucial MX300 275 Gb. I opted for the EVO based on reviews and popularity, but starting to have second thoughts after rembering the 840 flaw, and the price difference is kinda huge (~$206 x $157). Thoughts?


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 5, 2017)

I'm using a 840 Pro. No issues.

The 850 EVO. I would suggest installing the Included software and updating the firmware, I would also disable the automatic updates function


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## Air (Jun 6, 2017)

So, creating a Secure Erase USB from magician 4.9 yelded same results. I also tried updating the firmware using a bootable USB, but could not make it work for some reason. The drive does not boot to the firmware update software. I'm too tired to thoubleshot also this problem.

850 EVO on the way. Once again thanks for all the replies. At least I learned some new stuff in this process.


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## 95Viper (Jun 6, 2017)

Have you tried... from the Samsung F.A.Q.s page:

If you run into the ‘Frozen state’ message during a secure erase, unplug the SATA power cable from the SSD, wait a few seconds, and plug it in again without turning the PC power off.  And, execute secure erase again.

Also, you may want to have a look at disconnecting the SSD and boot into the BIOS.  Check in your security section and make sure there is not any HDD, SSD, or other passwords or encryption set.


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## eidairaman1 (Jun 7, 2017)

95Viper said:


> Have you tried... from the Samsung F.A.Q.s page:
> 
> If you run into the ‘Frozen state’ message during a secure erase, unplug the SATA power cable from the SSD, wait a few seconds, and plug it in again without turning the PC power off.  And, execute secure erase again.
> 
> Also, you may want to have a look at disconnecting the SSD and boot into the BIOS.  Check in your security section and make sure there is not any HDD, SSD, or other passwords or encryption set.



I do recall that for secure erase to work you must pull power on the ssd then replug and then start the process. Good find.


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## brandonwh64 (Jun 7, 2017)

We bought about 50 or so of the 840 evo 256/512 models and I believe we only had one die due to bad firmware flash. I still have two or three in personal computers around the house without an issue. I have 2 samsung 950 evo m.2's in raid 0 on my main PC. I love them they are super fast.


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## Bones (Jun 7, 2017)

Air said:


> Ok, tried it. There is only on 450 mb partition, unknow format, with an exclamation mark icon right next to it, and unused space. When i try to delete the partition, it gives an sucess message, but the partition does not go away. Trying to format it has the same results. Sucess message but no format change. Tryin to create a new partition fails.
> 
> Magician does not let me create a usb bootable disk because i do not have an samsung ssd on my laptop. So i tried in the gparted drive using the comand line, comand hdparm --security-erase NULL /dev/sdb. Ends in error, "bad/missing sense data"



I've had a drive do something similar before with a unknown partition that woudn't go away after it ran into a problem.
Ran DBAN to completely wipe the drive clean then reformatted and all to fix it. If you've already decided to toss it then doing this won't hurt a thing if you do give it a shot.


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## Air (Jun 7, 2017)

95Viper said:


> Have you tried... from the Samsung F.A.Q.s page:
> 
> If you run into the ‘Frozen state’ message during a secure erase, unplug the SATA power cable from the SSD, wait a few seconds, and plug it in again without turning the PC power off.  And, execute secure erase again.
> 
> Also, you may want to have a look at disconnecting the SSD and boot into the BIOS.  Check in your security section and make sure there is not any HDD, SSD, or other passwords or encryption set.


Yeah, the secure erase software orients you how to do it. Will have to look about the security on the BIOS, but i think thats unlikely, since I never had any problem before the "event".



Bones said:


> I've had a drive do something similar before with a unknown partition that woudn't go away after it ran into a problem.
> Ran DBAN to completely wipe the drive clean then reformatted and all to fix it. If you've already decided to toss it then doing this won't hurt a thing if you do give it a shot.


Thanks, will try it when i have the time.


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## Calhoun (Jun 9, 2017)

Try this when "clean" does not work.

1. Run cmd prompt as admin.
2. diskpart
3. list disk
4. select disk (whatever # the hdd is here)
5. list partition
6. select partition (whatever # the partition is here)
7. delete partition *override*

The override command is a useful one.
If that doesn't work, connect it to a different PC and try the same thing.
To create one main partition of the whole disk (after partitions are deleted), type: create partition primary


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## Air (Jun 10, 2017)

Calhoun said:


> Try this when "clean" does not work.
> 
> 1. Run cmd prompt as admin.
> 2. diskpart
> ...


Thanks for the tip, just tryied it. No partitions found on the disk.


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## R-T-B (Jun 10, 2017)

Air said:


> Thanks for the tip, just tryied it. No partitions found on the disk.



Does your drive have a "PSID" (followed by a long string of numbers) on it?

If so, it's opal compliant.  This is useful because we can use an opal command to tell the drive firmware to do a secure erase and go back to the factory state with that number.

The utility you want that can do this is called "sedutil-cli" and is on github from the DriveTrustAlliance.  It's not very well documented.  But if you have those numbers, I can walk you through it.


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## flappyone (Jun 10, 2017)

Hey, try
diskpart
and then "clean" command.
After that the SSD can be initialized again.
Moste helpful would also be a screenshot of Crystal Disk Info where we can see ALL raw values from the SSD:


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## Calhoun (Jun 28, 2017)

Air said:


> Thanks for the tip, just tryied it. No partitions found on the disk.


Can you override a clean command, or create a new partition primary? If the SSD can be selected, but no partition is found, then it seems like a success. You lost your data, but the drive may still work.
I JUST had a Samsung 950 Pro SSD die on me after 1 year the other day. It was in RAID. Extremely inconvenient.


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## silentbogo (Jun 28, 2017)

Air said:


> Thanks for the tip, just tryied it. No partitions found on the disk.


The partition table may be broken you need to re-initialize it.



flappyone said:


> Hey, try
> diskpart
> and then "clean" command.
> After that the SSD can be initialized again.


Might require 
	
	



```
convert mbr
```
 just in case after cleaning, if the MBR is broken too.


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## OneMoar (Jun 29, 2017)

if you do a clean it completely erases the drive MBR included 
the optimize performance does two things and none of them directly affect the SSD

it disables write cache buffer flushing and depending on the drive creates a ram-disk buffer to increase random access performance at worst it could cause a corruption and trash the MFT but it not behaving after a clean .... yea dead drive 

my guss the drive failed completely on its own bad timing ....


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## timta2 (Jun 29, 2017)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Optimising performance just means changing a few windows registry settings and 'trimming' your SSD instead of letting windows handle it afaik...
> 
> I cant see this option on the new samsung magician though



The new version sucks. Why they removed just about every feature is beyond me and makes it mostly useless.


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## Miguel2013 (Aug 2, 2017)

Friend, what I would do is a low level format to it using HDD Guru software http://hddguru.com/software/
I used his LLF tool on usb drives that I wasn't able to repartition after doing a failed "dd if of" to it. It helped me multiple times and I recommend it. run it as admin cause normal user won't see the drives put your admin password then when the program shows up select your disk and check "quick wipe" then continue. that takes only a few seconds... if it doesn't work then do a full format and good luck. I always had luck with quick wipes.


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## Papahyooie (Aug 2, 2017)

I had an 840 (technically a lenovo OEM drive, but it was a re-stickered 840) die too, randomly. It's only a couple of years old, but one day said it was over its write limit. It went into "read only mode" in order to preserve the data so it could be backed up (nothing important on it anyway.) I've tried every tool imaginable to update the firmware, secure erase, etc etc... Nothing works. Doesn't make any sense, as it was in a laptop that was powered off for easily 70% of its life (Kitchen PC for watching TV while cooking, dishes, etc.) And somehow it went over its write limit. 

840's suck.


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## W1zzard (Aug 30, 2017)

R-T-B said:


> Does your drive have a "PSID" (followed by a long string of numbers) on it?


I got the same error message while trying to secure erase a Crucial MX100. Turns out Opal TCG gets automatically activated when installing Windows 10 on supporting drives.

Solution: Use Crucial Storage Executive or sedutil on Linux to disable PSID (this will delete all data from the drive)


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## m1ch4L (Mar 24, 2018)

The same problem here. I know it is 7 months since the last reply, but did you fix it, Air?  I'm going to try fix it tonight.


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