[SOLVED] Crucial SSD would not write until firmware update - need advice

FourTet

Honorable
Sep 17, 2016
8
0
10,510
Hi everyone!

I had a weird issue with a Crucial MX300 and I'm wondering if it might be better to ditch the drive.

TL;DR: deleted all partitions from an MX300, after that I couldn't write a new partition table. After doing a firmware upgrade on the drive, it works 'fine'. Should I try to ditch it or try to RMA?

I have a desktop computer that I hadn't used for 2 years as I was abroad and, rather than run a million software upgrades, I decided to wipe everything and re-install windows. After I did this, the primary MX300 was ok, but I couldn't create a partition on the 2nd one. Windows gave an error saying 'Access Denied' and the event log showed an error that said something like 'error deleting encryption data' (the drive used to be encrypted with BitLocker). I tried using gparted live usb and Linux gave the error 'Remote I/O error" when I tried to create a partition. I also put the drive on an external USB enclosure and tried gparted from my laptop and gave the same error ("Remote I/O error").

The SMART data on both drives looked very good (using crystal disk mark on windows), with no values on the old-age or pre-fail counters.

I went to the crucial site to start filling an RMA and saw that there was a new firmware available for the drive, so I installed it and after that I was able to create a partition and it looks like the drive does work fine. I was able to create a partition and write some data to it.

Should I ditch the drive or try to RMA it? Is this ""a common"" issue with crucial drives? I cannot really understand how flashing a new firmware fixed the drive.

Some extra data about the setup:

CPU: intel i7-6800
Motherboard: Asus x99-II (latest stable bios - 1902)
Ram: Ballistix Sport LT 16GBx4
SSD/HDD: 2x Crucial MX300
GPU: GTX 1070
PSU: Corsair 650w - cannot recall the model
Chassis: Corsair - cannot recall the model
OS: Windows 10 / Ubuntu 18.04

Thanks a lot!
ft.
 
Last edited:
Solution
It puts the drive in a locked state.
Diskpart can force the drive to an unlocked state basically by erasing the whole drive, like your firmware update did.
I'm sure linux can as well, I just don't know the commands.

Lutfij

Titan
Moderator
My Cruical drive died after the last firmware update I gave it. It was a Crucial M4 128GB. I decided to move away from Crucial (for the primary/boot drive) and get more reliable brand's SSD's like that from Samsung. I'd say you should contact Crucial and fill them in on what happened. In teh interim period, make sure you've got your critical content backed up in case teh SSD does craok.

Speaking of which, are you on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard? Which OS are you working with?

List specs like so:
CPU:
Motherboard:
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:
 

FourTet

Honorable
Sep 17, 2016
8
0
10,510
Hi popatim! thanks again for your reply.

Can you elaborate a bit? Because I even tried to create a new partition from a different computer running Linux (plugging the drive in an USB enclosure)... Does bitlocker store something on the drive other than the just the encrypted data? (which might prevent Linux from writing to the MBR/GPT table?).


Thanks!
ft.