Internal SSD crash

Hello,

Bad news... Your drive is not recognized in the BIOS; it has become inaccessible...

The real solution is to have backups... especially with SSDs.

Indeed, HDDs allowed for possible data recovery with the binaries found on the disk (a physical medium that spins to be read), but this is no longer the case with SSDs; it's a collection of memory chips where data is organized in a way related to the manufacturer... and for us, it's a real mess... So recovery is very compromised... except maybe in the manufacturer's labs, for a fee...

If it is less than two years old, you can request a replacement under warranty... but it will be empty.

Personally, I have limited trust in these devices... I've burned out four in five years... I would say reliability... Could be better... it's getting there, it's already better... but I take precautions to have a backup plan, with backups... system backups and data backups...

There you go... I empathize.

Well, I looked at the price of the SSD that I burnt, it's 100 €, I'm going to buy another one, I'm not going to wait two weeks.
However, I have another question then.
The reference of the one I had was:

SSD 960GB Solid State Disk Intenso High Performance Sata3/-600

Should I be careful about anything before making my purchase?
I'm hesitating between Samsung and Crucial, I don't know which is better?
If there are better brands, feel free to recommend.

I lost my text, I have to type it again.

I would gladly recommend this one
https://www.amazon.fr/Samsung-870-SATA-interne-MZ-77Q1T0BW/dp/B089QXQ1TV/ref=sr_1_8?dchild=1&geniuslink=true&keywords=Crucial+MX200+1TB+SSD&qid=1632492057&sr=8-8

And this one if your motherboard is equipped with the M.2 NVMe interface
https://www.cdiscount.com/informatique/disques-durs-internes/samsung-ssd-nvme-970-evo-1-tera/f-10768-sam8801643205300.html?idOffre=1022642183&awc=6948_1632492291_4d64fb4b6972f60a1ff3ca6a895501bd&cid=affil&cm_mmc=zanoxpb-_-155280

You can send the drive back to request data recovery attempts for free and also to exchange the drive, which is still under warranty as it is less than two years old.
The trip with the entire PC doesn't seem useful to me; we need to exchange an email with them.

For my backups, all my data is grouped in the drive "D:\My Documents" and subfolders... so I back that up every week to my server using the "Synchback" software, it's automatic.

The system backup is done by Windows, the entire C:\ drive once a month manually triggered... to the same server... Every 6 months, I make a full backup of the server to another drive connected via eSATA.

For that, I boot the PC from a live CD with "Acronis True Image" https://www.commentcamarche.net/telecharger/securite/2465-acronis-true-image/
It is not installed on the PC... I burned the ISO file to the CD and boot the PC directly with it for backups or restores, the operation is done in 8 minutes to the "Backup" folder on the server... you can find the ISO image on the web.

Of course, I've had to use it a few times and I’m very grateful for it..! It has worked well every time... It backs up Linux without any issues... and multi-boot setups...

There are other very famous software options as well... but there are often little things that go wrong; with this one, everything works, even the cloning is perfect, there are no surprises.
It’s possible that I don’t master the others well enough..?? but I remain a fan nonetheless.

I hope I've given you the backup bug... especially since the future will have its challenges.

Yes, that's pretty much it..!

You don't have a server, I don't think that's too much of a problem... if your PC is a tower, you can add an internal HDD and use it to store your backups of all kinds.. If it's a laptop, you need to use an external USB3 drive, that's the fastest system in this setup... and the cheapest. But the backup will take longer than on an internal drive...

A quick solution is to create a 60 GB partition on your SSD... and store your backup there initially... then transfer it to your external drive in the background, even if it takes two hours.

This way, you can do it even on a laptop... It's very fast... and the restore is available and can be reloaded in a very short time... as long as the SSD is not broken.
Let's say after a Windows crash, your PC becomes operational again in about 15 minutes..

If the SSD drive is dead, it needs to be replaced... and you reload it with the backup that is on the external drive...

As a bonus.. The SSD partition for the backup can be formatted to Linux type, in EXT3... this way this partition is invisible in Windows Explorer and protected from accidental manipulation.

The possibilities are often unsuspected...

OK, practice makes perfect... or blacksmith...!

In my opinion, you could create a partition on your 4TB HDD for your backups. I think this disk has some space available. This disk doesn't need to be empty... Nor...

As for the server, yes, it's possible to build a "homemade" NAS in an old tower; there are many topics about this on the Web... and for that, the old PC doesn't need to be a powerhouse...

A few tips:

-- It's better to have a NAS under Linux... it's less complicated than Windows and doesn't take up space over time with updates... Moreover, very few viruses attack Linux.

-- It's better to have two disks in RAID for safety...

https://korben.info/distribution-linux-nas.html

Of course, he can try, but in my opinion, he won't find anything.

1° The disk is not recognized in the BIOS, so it does not exist

2° Disk testing works on HDDs... let's just say that with SSDs it's no longer the same, there's no longer a disk; especially if, furthermore, it is not recognized.

But well..

Hum yes, recovery with testdisk seems impossible to me since I have nothing left in the BIOS.

I looked a bit and I might try to do this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE3Ar53VxtI

But well, I'm not an electronics expert and this seems super complicated to me.
Changing an SSD is fine, but opening it to try to get it working again is beyond my skills.

I went to see the so-called video, very interesting... but in my opinion, it is not intended for all citizens..!!...

Already the SSD not being recognized in BIOS, I believe it does not target those people.
If you open it, you won't be able to send it back for exchange to the manufacturer; they will notice.
In my opinion, you need to be a bit of an electronics expert and out of warranty to venture into this.
Here, the failure was the firmware that changed by itself..?? but there is a wide variety of failures... how does the average person distinguish through a "diagnostic"?..??
Because there are also memory blocks that fail or addressing issues or input electronics..etc..
Then you need to be able to repair...Tools, skills...

I would add a comment... I find that the author easily belittles so-called "no name" Chinese products... should we buy French?? not only does it not exist, but all these products are made in China (all brands); so why turn a blind eye and use such language..?
Of course, there are second-rate products, significantly less reliable and locally for 10 euros... But unfortunately, it’s our fellow citizens who sell them with a high margin and then criticize their own suppliers... In short... it’s blackening others.

Indeed, it's good to be aware of these limits... I see cases where people can't swim and jump into a competitive swimming pool...!!!

Depending on the level of your activities and the work it represents, it might be better not to send your disk... there could be leaks.

In any case, we pay for the brand, but the brand is also required to ensure... at least the reputation of its brand... You're a bit worried about the next two years... I’ve experienced this personally as well, one SSD per year over five years... The suppliers replaced them all without issue... and I was able to restart thanks to my backups... Still, I have trust in a way, reliability is improving and prices are dropping... I have four on four different PCs, including two M.2 NVMe... it's true that it really takes off...
Soon all PCs will be equipped with them... I imagine. So you have to trust... even if your backups don’t support this... we’ll call that caution.

A+++

Ah..! OK... what did you open... the SSD...? That said, it’s not like HDDs; it doesn’t have any mechanics to open in a clean room; an SSD can be opened on the dining table without any risk... You should plead your case with persuasion.

So, to back up your complete Windows + Programs “System”, you don’t need a Windows USB key... But a live CD or live USB with the Acronis ISO burned onto it, go read your personal messages, that’s what your PC boots from and executes the backup.

The image created will be smaller than on the SSD because it is compressed, but not by much.
Do you really occupy all the space of this SSD?? Because many installations only use a maximum of 70GB... so to optimize, you could create a partition close to the size of the system... and you would only save that disk, which is less demanding in volume.

In any case, it would be advisable for you to keep your Samples and other data in a directory on your HDD and treat it like personal data... Your system backup would only be Windows and the programs + a few exceptions...

Ok, I’m going to use Acronis; it seems practical.
Well, I’ll give it a try; it’s not said that I’ll succeed even though it doesn’t seem too complicated.

I’m not using all the space on the SSD; I don’t know exactly how much space I’ve taken up, but I have a very resource-intensive software that I’d like to include in my backup, but it might not be necessary.
What takes up space is mainly the samples used; the software is Superior Drummer 3, and it’s a pain to download; it took me over two days to reinstall everything.
It created folders all over the place, and I’d like to be sure to copy everything properly because it could mess up if I'm missing data, which is why I wanted to integrate everything into my backup, but I think I already have over 300 GB used, so it's going to be a bit heavy.

Ideally, it would have been great if I could store everything on an external drive; I have a 2 TB one, and if I could boot directly from it, it would make things easier.
Isn’t it stupid that you can’t boot from an external SSD at all?

Anyway, if I understood correctly, I can create a bootable USB drive with Acronis and Rufus and have a fairly large backup on an external SSD that I’ll have to restore manually.
The idea of the image seemed practical, especially for everything to reinstall automatically.
But with all I’ve installed, it’s going to take up quite a bit of space; I’ll check exactly how much space my installation takes, but I’m sure I have over 300 GB used.

In my opinion, it's not a big problem...

-- Acronis will create a Backup File of about 200 to 250GB I think, for your 300GB

-- Your backup can very well be sent to your 2TB external drive, you just need to choose it as the destination in Acronis when doing the backup...

-- Booting directly from it or from an external HDD is not possible (or very complicated)
But you boot your PC from the live CD/USB with Acronis, and it manages the whole operation... so your disks are completely free during this process... it mainly avoids having the disk with the operational OS to handle the backup... It is not really free in that case...

-- However, this backup on a USB external drive will be slower, it will depend on the speed of the USB connection and the transfer speed of the drive... It's a bit slower, that's all.
It's better to be plugged into the power outlet during this process...

There you go, be quiet... no stress.

Well, I ended up using AOMEI Backupper, which seemed pretty good and simple; it was quite fast.
If it works, I'm amazed; I'm not sure how long a restoration can take or if it's really reliable, though.

Actually, I have almost 1 TB used on the SSD; that might be a bit much, but still, there are things I haven't reinstalled, so it'll be fine like this.

How long can you keep a backup like this?
I hesitated to do a disk cloning, but it seems a bit more technical... .
If I had a clone, would that allow me to boot directly from it?

-- So a backup can be kept for a very long time... Except with SSDs, it's a bit different, it's a memory card that eventually deteriorates... It's advisable to plug this SSD in at least after two years, for a few hours, or a day, to maintain and refresh the memory content... I've never had the chance to verify this.

-- AOMEI seems very good too... but I've had surprises during the restore... I have to say that I'm on Multiboot, and that's where I was missing pieces... It might be me who doesn't know how to use it well...??? In any case, I abandoned it for that, Acronis doesn't give me these problems...
So I invite you to try "Restore" on another disk, just to check...

You are not working on CD live in that case, are you?? AOMEI backup is installed on the disk of the PC to be backed up...?

It's good to know, for now I've only made one backup that I've stored on the HDD but I planned to copy it to an external SSD as well that I use from time to time especially for transferring files. (I hope it doesn't fail right away, I've had it for almost two years but it hasn't been used much)

I found AOMEI quite good mainly because it's really very easy to use, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have bad surprises if I need to restore one day and it's certain that it will happen.
I'm tempted to try it out but would I need another PC then?
If I try it on the HDD, wouldn't that pose a problem?
Otherwise, I could try creating a virtual machine, I don't know much about it but it seems practical for testing and I think I could manage with tutorials.

Otherwise yes, I installed AOMEI on the disk I backed up but that might not be a good idea ... There's a function that allows you to create a bootable CD or USB stick, I suppose that's what's called a Live CD?

I wonder if it's the same as a Windows 10 boot USB, I might need it anyway for restoration, I don't know, by the way if anyone knows if there's a difference please feel free to let me know! ^^

You have to stay positive, SSDs are evolving and I believe I was still in a bit of a prototype phase..?? and also that I didn't have much luck... With the law of numbers, it can't happen to too many people..

-- Of course you can try AOMEI's "Restore" on an HDD... You can even create two partitions on the same hard drive... with Windows on the first and your backup on the second... You format the first one and restore from the second to the first and you'll see if it works...
I'm aware that my backup had some odd stuff... and maybe I don't know how to do it well... Because there are plenty of people who use it successfully...

-- The AOMEI live CD is more of a safety net in case the disk crashes, because the famous software would no longer be available... and this CD allows you to restore to a brand new disk..
It's not the same as Win 10... because they can't use Microsoft files, all of this is under license, so they manage to take everything that is authorized... and the rest with other free software, to create this system; it's often WinPE or bits of Linux.

Yes, after that it's less robust than the good old HDDs, but when I see how quickly it opens my programs and my VSTs, I'm not going to complain.

I'm going to try to do that; I'm not too familiar with partitioning, but I should manage.

Okay, so I really need to use the AOMEI creation tool; it works with WinPE indeed.
I had created a Win 10 boot USB to reinstall everything, and I thought that with that, I could go recover a backup. I'll keep it just in case, and I'll buy another USB stick.

Well, I think I know everything I need; I still hope the new SSD won't crash right away because when you don't know much like me, it can quickly lead to panic. ^^

I wish you a good day, and thanks for your help; it's nice of you.