Question KingSpec 1TB SSD went into "read only" mode after OS crash ?

[dmitrykkkk]

I have a KingSpec 1TB SSD drive that went into hardware readonly mode. I tried re-partitioning disk under different OSes, diskpart, parted, diskutil, etc and they always 'think' operation went successful, but in fact nothing has changed on the drive and it still has the old partitions ?

 

[USAFRet]

I have a kingspec 1TB SSD drive that went into hardware readonly mode. I tried re-partitioning disk under different OSes, diskpart, parted, diskutil, etc and they always 'think' operation went successful, but in fact nothing have changed on the drive and it still has old partitions

How old is it?
How much TBW?

Being a KingSpec I hesitate to ask, but...warranty?

 

[dmitrykkkk]

How old is it?
How much TBW?

Being a KingSpec I hesitate to ask, but...warranty?

It was laying dorm last year, pretty sure no warranty and was working as system drive for about a year. Don't really think it is damaged, likely (hopefully) it's a false positive.
Is it really a brick now?

 

[fzabkar]

Can you show us the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo or GSmartControl?

 

[dmitrykkkk]

Can you show us the SMART report with a tool such as CrystalDiskInfo or GSmartControl?

Looks bad enough. Power On Count does not look right through.

I wonder if that Critical Warnings value could be erased to see what happens - how fast drive will set warning flag back again

 

[fzabkar]

Bad sectors usually show up as non-zero values for Media and Data Integrity Errors (0x144D88 = 1330568 ).

https://www.google.com/search?q=0x144D88+in+decimal

Available Spare should be 0x64 (= 100% decimal) for a new error-free drive. This value should decrease as bad sectors are replaced with spares. The current value of 0xB7 corresponds to 183%, so this is weird. I suspect that the number has dropped to 0 and then become negative. 0xB7 would then correspond to -73%.

Edit:

In CrystalDiskInfo you can use Edit -> Copy to capture the raw data for the SMART / Health Information Log.

Bit #3 of the Critical Warning attribute is defined as "If set to ‘1’, then the media has been placed in read only mode".

0x08 = 0b00001000 <- there is a '1' in bit #3​

Strangely, bit #0 is defined as "If set to ‘1’, then the available spare space has fallen below the threshold". This bit is currently 0.

This is the NVMe standard:
https://nvmexpress.org/wp-content/uploads/NVM_Express_Revision_1.3.pdf

 

[dmitrykkkk]

Available Spare should be 0x64 (= 100% decimal) for a new error-free drive. This value should decrease as bad sectors are replaced with spares. The current value of 0xB7 corresponds to 183%, so this is weird. I suspect that the number has dropped to 0 and then become negative. 0xB7 would then correspond to -73%.

Strangely, bit #0 is defined as "If set to ‘1’, then the available spare space has fallen below the threshold". This bit is currently 0.

Yeah, slightly strange. I wonder if there is a way to clear those attributes or at least critical warning one - to start using it again and see how quick controller would raise the flag again?

 

[fzabkar]

See if GSmartControl provides additional information via SMART logs rather than just reporting the SMART attributes. To me, a value of 0xB7 is a firmware bug, but maybe the logs have extra info.

As for clearing the SMART data, you would need access to factory tools or at least some tool that understands the Vendor Specific Commands for this particular flash controller.

Have a look here:

http://vlo.name:3000/ssdtool/

Many of these tools are data destructive, and their instructions are in Russian. I have no experience with these tools.

 

[randyh121]

it will work in safe mode

 

[dmitrykkkk]

it will work in safe mode

what does it mean, please?

 

[Pextaxmx]

I don't think this drive would be reliable even if you can somehow undo the read-only mode... If I were you, I would copy all the important files and burn it into ashes (to protect your data) and invest in a new drive. Really not worth the efforts IMO unless you are simply curious.

 

[dmitrykkkk]

http://vlo.name:3000/ssdtool/
Many of these tools are data destructive, and their instructions are in Russian. I have no experience with these tools.

Thanks mate. nvme secure erase did the trick, the drive is no longer in readonly, but still shows as unhealthy. Will play with it for a while and see what happens.
Thanks a lot for your help - appreciate it.