Question Computer stuck on boot /black screen due to faulty SSD ?

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kubrat

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May 8, 2019
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Hello,

I've been having a serious problem with my PC for the past two hours. I was doing something and I needed to unplug the power strip the pc was plugged in. I didn't think of it and I directly unplugged the power strip. I finished what I was doing and I plugged the power strip back in, started the pc but it was stuck on booting for around 10 minutes. I restarted it but the same thing happened.

After restarting it couple of times it started loading auto repair - it got stuck on that too, couple of times.

I tried removing CMOS, waited 5 minutes an plugged it back in - same thing, stuck on booting. I inserted an usb with fresh windows 10 on but it didn't want to start reinstallation.

Finally, I shut down the pc and removed the ssd that drive D is on - the pc booted (though I didn't see the boot starting with the Arsenal Gaming logo as it usually does) and it seemed to work fine. I shut down the pc and plugged the drive D ssd on, started the pc, it loaded and then black screen. Unplugged the drive D ssd again and started the pc and it worked fine.

Every time I plug in the drive D ssd it gives black screen after booting. So, it seems it might be a problem with that ssd, or is it?

So, the resulting problems are:
1. The computer can not run if the drive D ssd is plugged in - it can run only with my drive C ssd.
2. All the important data on the corrupted ssd is inaccessible.

Do you have any suggestions for a solutions to those problems? Is it possible to at least recover the data?

Thank you in advance.

All my pc parts were bought brand new:
Motherboard: MSI B450 Tomahawk
GPU: RX 6600
CPU: Ryzen 5 3600
PSU: Seasonic S12II-520 Bronze
SSD (Drive C): SanDisk Ultra 3D 500 GB - bought brand new 5 years ago
SSD (Drive D): Samsung 870 Evo 1 TB - bought brand new 2.5 years ago
RAM: 2x8GB
 
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kubrat said:
Yes, I am hoping that someone will respond with a solution, so I can at least recover my data. At the same time, as I mentioned Samsung has responded and want me to send them the SSD.

If I didn't have sensitive data on that SSD, like passwords, data collected for various projects and some crypto info I definitely would have send them the SSD or at least I wouldn't try to recover/access the data. But it seems like I won't be having much of a choice.

I will definitely back up my data from now on.

I paid twice the price for this SSD as it was supposed to be a better quality and I instead I should've bought 2x 1TB SSDs from another brand.

Any SSD brand recommendations? Would Silicon Power A55 be a good cheaper alternative, in case Samsung decides to not replace my SSD?
Click to expand...
Yes I saw in your previous post Samsung asked to send it in. When a company like that asks for the product back I think user can assume their data is safe and there won't be a breach if they try to revive or refurbish the drive. Not 100% sure on this though.

Yes backup and when something like this happens, which happens at some point to any storage media made by any company, all you lose is just the drive and if it's still under warranty you replace that and just lose some time restoring your data from backup.

Samsung makes very good SSDs and being unlucky on a single one is what it is, bad luck. Personally if I want to get an SSD I get a Samsung. There are other brands that make good SSDs too. Cruicial makes good drives too.

That particular SSD the SP A55 is a relatively good budget SSD but unlike many other large capacity drives from other manufacturers it doesn't have DRAM as a cache and instead it uses a SLC cache. Good large capacity drives 512GB, 1TB and above usually have a DRAM chip. Although that doesn't mean performance is much lower than ones with DRAM it's not as fast as drives that have it.

In that price range (depends on prices where you are) the Crucial BX500 is a better choice.

I read your last post too. As I said before maybe others have inputs but I don't think you can access that drive at home and get anything out of it. When a drive dones't even show up in BIOS and the loading process hangs or when it shows a drive known to contain data as 'empty' usually mean it's beyond repair by user.
 
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Satan-IR said:
Yes I saw in your previous post Samsung asked to send it in. When a company like that asks for the product back I think user can assume their data is safe and there won't be a breach if they try to revive or refurbish the drive. Not 100% sure on this though.

Yes backup and when something like this happens, which happens at some point to any storage media made by any company, all you lose is just the drive and if it's still under warranty you replace that and just lose some time restoring your data from backup.

Samsung makes very good SSDs and being unlucky on a single one is what it is, bad luck. Personally if I want to get an SSD I get a Samsung. There are other brands that make good SSDs too. Cruicial makes good drives too.

That particular SSD the SP A55 is a relatively good budget SSD but unlike many other large capacity drives from other manufacturers it doesn't have DRAM as a cache and instead it uses a SLC cache. Good large capacity drives 512GB, 1TB and above usually have a DRAM chip. Although that doesn't mean performance is much lower than ones with DRAM it's not as fast as drives that have it.

In that price range (depends on prices where you are) the Crucial BX500 is a better choice.

I read your last post too. As I said before maybe others have inputs but I don't think you can access that drive at home and get anything out of it. When a drive dones't even show up in BIOS and the loading process hangs or when it shows a drive known to contain data as 'empty' usually mean it's beyond repair by user.
Click to expand...
I guess I will have to send it to Samsung, hoping they will send me a new SSD, instead of paying myself.

Yep, if that was the C drive SSD I wasn't going to bother, it's just 500GB and has only programs installed on it - cheaper to replace and I'd have all the programs back in an hour.

The Silicon Power SSD does mention DRAM but am not sure if it's the same thing you are talking about - ''The A55 also uses "DRAM buffer cache" to improve overall performance and to reduce write amplification on the TLC portion''.

The A55 is twice as cheap than what I paid for the Samsung EVO 870 but I'm not looking for cheapest if it has downsides. I was also looking at ADATA SU650. I can buy Western Digital Blue SA510 but right now I am reluctant to spend more money on an SSD. I thought they were supposed to last 100 years but it seems that with SSDs it's even harder to retrieve data.

Yeah, probably it's a lost cause to try and retrieve data myself but looking at the prices for data retrieval services, it costs a lot. Maybe I will try that when I save up some money.
 
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kubrat said:
I guess I will have to send it to Samsung, hoping they will send me a new SSD, instead of paying myself.
Click to expand...
I hope that works.

kubrat said:
The Silicon Power SSD does mention DRAM but am not sure if it's the same thing you are talking about - ''The A55 also uses "DRAM buffer cache" to improve overall performance and to reduce write amplification on the TLC portion''.
Click to expand...
This is what I found. If there's a newer revision in which they also incorporated DRAMs ( I doubt it) I'm not aware. The information is from here. They are using some sort of SLC NAND as cashe. It's not a DRAM chip.

https://imgur.com/a/tGn08Wh
View: https://imgur.com/a/tGn08Wh


kubrat said:
I am not looking for cheapest if it has downsides. The A55 is twice as cheap than what I paid for the Samsung EVO 870. I was also looking at ADATA SU650. I can buy Western Digital Blue SA510 but right now I am reluctant to spend more money on an SSD. I thought they were supposed to last 100 years but it seems that with SSDs it's even harder to retrieve data.
Click to expand...
Yes this drive or the WD Blue are cheaper compared to drives made by others with same capacity but if you look at reviews they're much slower too. If budget's the main factor in your decision why not get this or the WD Blue. Especially if you're going to store data on it and not going to transfer very large files to and it eveyrday the difference in performance can be ignored. All drives fail, no matter make and model. Sometimes you get unlucky and it fails much sooner than it should. For this A55 it says MTBF 1.5 million hours. That's an average. Can they guarantee it works for at least 1.5 million hours? No. No company can.

kubrat said:
Yeah, probably it's a lost cause to try and retrieve data myself but looking at the prices for retrieving that it costs a lot, so maybe I will try that when I save up some money.
Click to expand...
Yes professional Data Recovery is not cheap at all. You have to think and decide whether possible retreival of the data is wroth the price tag or not. This again makes me say this again and I can't emphasize this enough. Have backups. From now on backup everything you really need and can not replace.s

I also checked prices on newegg. The SP A55 1TB is $61 here. The Cruicial MX500 1TB is $79 here. Difference is almost $20 but given the choice, if possible, personally I'd get the Cruicial MX500. If I'm not mistaken the MX500 offers hardware 256-bit encryption. The SP A55 doesn't have that feature.
 
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Satan-IR said:
I hope that works.


This is what I found. If there's a newer revision in which they also incorporated DRAMs ( I doubt it) I'm not aware. The information is from here. They are using some sort of SLC NAND as cashe. It's not a DRAM chip.

https://imgur.com/a/tGn08Wh
View: https://imgur.com/a/tGn08Wh



Yes this drive or the WD Blue are cheaper compared to drives made by others with same capacity but if you look at reviews they're much slower too. If budget's the main factor in your decision why not get this or the WD Blue. Especially if you're going to store data on it and not going to transfer very large files to and it eveyrday the difference in performance can be ignored. All drives fail, no matter make and model. Sometimes you get unlucky and it fails much sooner than it should. For this A55 it says MTBF 1.5 million hours. That's an average. Can they guarantee it works for at least 1.5 million hours? No. No company can.


Yes professional Data Recovery is not cheap at all. You have to think and decide whether possible retreival of the data is wroth the price tag or not. This again makes me say this again and I can't emphasize this enough. Have backups. From now on backup everything you really need and can not replace.s

I also checked prices on newegg. The SP A55 1TB is $61 here. The Cruicial MX500 1TB is $79 here. Difference is almost $20 but given the choice, if possible, personally I'd get the Cruicial MX500. If I'm not mistaken the MX500 offers hardware 256-bit encryption. The SP A55 doesn't have that feature.
Click to expand...
I am in Europe. SSD price difference here is not significant, compared to USA.

The ADATA and Western Digital are the same price as the EVO 870. I didn't know that ADATA is considered of that quality but then again I really know much about SSD brands. A lot of people here value Western Digital - I do have a 1TB WD Blue HDD and I replaced it with the EVO.

I will wait for Samsung's response. Although, I don't want to rely on them keeping my data save - they don't know who is the person who would check my SSD and what kind of person they are. Seems like I have to hope it is completely dead, so that no data can be discovered by their employees.
 
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kubrat said:
I am in Europe. SSD price difference here is not significant, compared to USA.

The ADATA and Western Digital are the same price as the EVO 870. I didn't know that ADATA is considered of that quality but then again I really know much about SSD brands. A lot of people here value Western Digital - I do have a 1TB WD Blue HDD and I replaced it with the EVO.

I will wait for Samsung's response. Although, I don't want to rely on them keeping my data save - they don't know who is the person who would check my SSD and what kind of person they are. Seems like I have to hope it is completely dead, so that no data can be discovered by their employees.
Click to expand...
I'd get the Cruicial I said above instead of the Adata or the WD Blue.

I don't think people at Samsung will try to read data from the drive. Most probably they'd check if the drive is dead and if possible determine if it died of its own accord to decide whether you're elligible for a replacement or whatever their policy is.

kubrat said:
I installed Crystal Disc to scan my other SSD and it doesn't look 100% healthy. Anything I should look for in that information?

https://imgur.com/uJxnWDg
View: https://imgur.com/uJxnWDg
Click to expand...
Don't see anything alarming. How long have you had it? Power On Hours is almost 3.5 years so I'm guessing 3-4 years? I'd say a system (Windows) drive with constant small read and write at 90% health after almost 4 years of work time is OK. Total NAND Writes is almost 13.5 TB. With a 500 GB drive that almost like you have written data to it 14 times over and health is at 90%. Looks good.
 
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Satan-IR said:
I'd get the Cruicial I said above instead of the Adata or the WD Blue.

I don't think people at Samsung will try to read data from the drive. Most probably they'd check if the drive is dead and if possible determine if it died of its own accord to decide whether you're elligible for a replacement or whatever their policy is.


Don't see anything alarming. How long have you had it? Power On Hours is almost 3.5 years so I'm guessing 3-4 years? I'd say a system (Windows) drive with constant small read and write at 90% health after almost 4 years of work time is OK. Total NAND Writes is almost 13.5 TB. With a 500 GB drive that almost like you have written data to it 14 times over and health is at 90%. Looks good.
Click to expand...
Apparently, the drive has been having errors since last year, from the screenshots I provided in response to Ralston18, at the beginning of the discussion. Unfortunately, there were no signs for me.

Screenshot-12.png


I've had the Sandisk since June of 2019, so 4.5 years.
 
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kubrat said:
Apparently, the drive has been having errors since last year, from the screenshots I provided in response to Ralston18, at the beginning of the discussion. Unfortunately, there were no signs for me.
Click to expand...
Sometimes there are signs that if noticed might point to an imminent failure. Somethimes they just happen with no warning. I hope you get a replacement from Samsung.

kubrat said:
I've had the Sandisk since June of 2019, so 4.5 years.
Click to expand...
Yes that makes sense and the drive looks OK no worries there. I would backup anything important on it regardless.
 
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The same thing just happened to me, Samsung EVO 870 SSD bought at nearly the same date, dead at nearly the same exact time too, very strange. I unplugged my PC to dust it and encountered this exact problem. If I wait long enough with it plugged in I'll boot and see 100% load and can't access anything on it.
 
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twalker892 said:
The same thing just happened to me, Samsung EVO 870 SSD bought at nearly the same date, dead at nearly the same exact time too, very strange. I unplugged my PC to dust it and encountered this exact problem. If I wait long enough with it plugged in I'll boot and see 100% load and can't access anything on it.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear you also experience the same problem.

Is this also your storage SSD, meaning your OS is running on another SSD?

You can try some of the things I tried myself but I am not an expert and I don't know if those are not going to make things worse for you. I tried the following as a last resort:

1. As suggested by user SkyNetRising, try plugging the SSD with USB sata adapter (I bought an SSD/HDD enclosure) and see if it can be accessed that way.
2. I am not sure if it's allowed to post a video but I tried what was suggested here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZ1dswQTXs&t=196s
If a moderator needs to delete the link, please do. I apologize in advance.

I guess, maybe don't try anything and just contact Samsung support to see what will they reply. Unless you really need to retrieve the data on that SSD.

If the data on it is not important to you, then just contact Samsung and you will probably arrange to ship the SSD to them, so they decide whether they reimburse you or send you back the damaged SSD, without any reimbursement.

​

 
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yossibac said:
Sorry, I meant had eventually 🙁
Click to expand...
The only way I was able to ''access'' the corrupt SSD was by using USB sata adapter, or specifically in my case I used SSD/HDD USB enclosure.
I tried checking via disk management but it got stuck on ''loading'' due to the corrupt SSD.

Pretty much all my tries lead to a dead end. I hope to send the SSD to Samsung by the end of this week and see what they decide.
 
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kubrat said:
Sorry to hear you also experience the same problem.

Is this also your storage SSD, meaning your OS is running on another SSD?

You can try some of the things I tried myself but I am not an expert and I don't know if those are not going to make things worse for you. I tried the following as a last resort:

1. As suggested by user SkyNetRising, try plugging the SSD with USB sata adapter (I bought an SSD/HDD enclosure) and see if it can be accessed that way.
2. I am not sure if it's allowed to post a video but I tried what was suggested here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTZ1dswQTXs&t=196s
If a moderator needs to delete the link, please do. I apologize in advance.

I guess, maybe don't try anything and just contact Samsung support to see what will they reply. Unless you really need to retrieve the data on that SSD.

If the data on it is not important to you, then just contact Samsung and you will probably arrange to ship the SSD to them, so they decide whether they reimburse you or send you back the damaged SSD, without any reimbursement.

​

Click to expand...
Yes it was just for game storage, nothing important thankfully. How can I get into contact with support? I've had some trouble tracking it down.
 
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kubrat said:
The only way I was able to ''access'' the corrupt SSD was by using USB sata adapter, or specifically in my case I used SSD/HDD USB enclosure.
I tried checking via disk management but it got stuck on ''loading'' due to the corrupt SSD.

Pretty much all my tries lead to a dead end. I hope to send the SSD to Samsung by the end of this week and see what they decide.
Click to expand...
You seem to have done everything I would
As drive is not present in the BIOS
Take the SSD out and connect to a different PC, as sometimes a specific PC would have a problem with a specific hard drive.
Connect to a different PC via USB hub
I have two types of USB enclosures, One with power supply and one without power supply
I would have tried them both, but I think that with the power supply is probably safer.
Sorry you had lost data
 
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yossibac said:
You seem to have done everything I would
As drive is not present in the BIOS
Take the SSD out and connect to a different PC, as sometimes a specific PC would have a problem with a specific hard drive.
Connect to a different PC via USB hub
I have two types of USB enclosures, One with power supply and one without power supply
I would have tried them both, but I think that with the power supply is probably safer.
Sorry you had lost data
Click to expand...
Yes, I tried the SSD on my laptop, using the Orico enclosure I linked to couple of posts ago (it does have a power supply). Unfortunately, the same thing happens when I try to access disk manager or try to access the data on the SSD - it gets stuck on loading.

Yes, it sucks I can't access any of my documents. I will be learning data backup the hard way.
I hope to at least get some sort of reimbursement from Samsung, for the SSD. I will probably find out by the end of the month.
 
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Update:

As I mentioned previously, I was in contact with Samsung support.

I did explain to them the problem and they opened an RMA ticket. I explained the problem and send pictures of the SSD, as per their request. Eventually, this lead to them sending me a free Shipping label via UPS, so that I could send them the SSD for evaluation.

As I've already mentioned, my SSD was still in warranty, thus them deciding to at least check the SSD.

So, I send them the SSD and it was there within three days, after which, apparently, after checking the SSD they decided that I am eligible to be send another working Samsung EVO 1TB.

Their evaluation was very quick and a little bit vague, because within less than two days of them receiving the SSD, they send me a message that they shipped an SSD to me. They didn't say what they concluded or what SSD they are sending me (whether it's a brand new, refurbished, the old one).

The message basically included my RMA ticket information and no explanation on their side. Thus, I had to contact their support team again, to confirm I am being send a working SSD and not just my old (in case they decided that the problem with the SSD is my fault).

Anyway, I received the SSD couple of days ago and I installed it on my system. I was hoping that they will send me my old SSD back, so I can eventually try to recover my data with the help of a specialist. However, Samsung do not want to send the SSD. Anyway, I did check the new EVO with Samsung Magician and Crystal Disk and am adding screenshots from them:

https://imgur.com/a/cfIuF19
View: https://imgur.com/a/cfIuF19


https://imgur.com/a/m6T5iva
View: https://imgur.com/a/m6T5iva


https://imgur.com/a/FdmoKvN
View: https://imgur.com/a/FdmoKvN


https://imgur.com/a/C1djV6M
View: https://imgur.com/a/C1djV6M


https://imgur.com/a/RBGAfNn
View: https://imgur.com/a/RBGAfNn


https://imgur.com/a/CTmUwVZ
View: https://imgur.com/a/CTmUwVZ


https://imgur.com/a/OCoDgxW
View: https://imgur.com/a/OCoDgxW



One thing I want to mention is that I reinstalled Windows to just start in fresh (I know I didn't have to do that in order to add the new SSD). I formatted the new SSD and gave it a new volume name, so it would appear in file manager.

However, I reinstalled Windows again (I thought I had some problems with my GPU drivers) and to my surprise the new SSD had to be formatted and given a volume name again, even though I already did that the first time.
My other installed SSD doesn't have to be formatted or given a name again, since I did that almost five years ago, when building my PC.

Why the new SSD has to be formatted every time I reinstall Windows, in order for it to appear in the file manager with the C Drive SSD?

Feel free to ask me any questions and let me know if I need to provide more info, like screenshots etc.

Thank you!
 
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kubrat said:
Why the new SSD has to be formatted every time I reinstall Windows, in order for it to appear in the file manager with the C Drive SSD?
Click to expand...
This depends on, how you do windows install procedure.
Windows can be installed in
clean install mode or​
upgrade install mode.​
​
In clean install mode - OS drive gets wiped and all partitions recreated.
This is preferred mode.
 
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SkyNetRising said:
This depends on, how you do windows install procedure.
Windows can be installed in
clean install mode or​
upgrade install mode.​
​
In clean install mode - OS drive gets wiped and all partitions recreated.
This is preferred mode.
Click to expand...
I always do a clean install.

After first installation of an SSD I never had to format it again, give it a volume name etc. if Iwas reinstalling Windows again (clean installation). As I mentioned I reinstalled Windows twice since I received the new EVO from Samsung. I delete all partitions of the two disks during installation.

However, my other SSD appears in file manage but the new SSD does not.
 
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SkyNetRising said:
Can you show screenshot of that?
Also screenshot from Disk Management.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)
Click to expand...
Sorry, I guess I didn't explain well.

What I mean is that after reinstallation, when I open file manager and go to This PC, only the C Drive SSD is present there and the D Drive SSD (Samsung EVO) was not present. I already formatted it so it is showing now. I will add an image - red arrow shows the place where the drive was missing from (only C Drive was there).

https://imgur.com/a/sVwNEZi
View: https://imgur.com/a/sVwNEZi


But (since I had to reinstall Windows second time after receiving the new Samsung SSD) the SSD was not showing again, so I had to do the following for it once again: New Simple Volume>Assign Drive Letter>Format this volume with the following settings (choose file system, allocated unit size, Volume Label etc.), Perform a quick format.

It seems like this will happen with the Samsung EVO every time I reinstall Windows.
 
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kubrat said:
so I had to do the following for it once again: New Simple Volume>Assign Drive Letter>Format this volume with the following settings (choose file system, allocated unit size, Volume Label etc.), Perform a quick format.
It seems like this will happen with the Samsung EVO every time I reinstall Windows.
Click to expand...
Probably just needed to assign a drive letter.
No need to reformat secondary storage.
 
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