Mitsu3000gt
11-12-2015, 03:09 PM
The SSD in question is a 4-5 year old Crucial M4 256GB (Windows 7). I have done the firmware update a year or two ago for this SSD.
Yesterday I was just browsing the internet, and updating a game (stored on the SSD). I noticed my update slowed to a crawl, and my computer slowly became completely unresponsive. I couldn't click on anything except the Windows 7 Start button, and I couldn't shut down the computer. I originally thought my internet cut out, because webpages stopped loading, and my game update stopped, but my computer ended up freezing. I couldn't even get into the task manager. It behaved like it was just running from whatever was in the RAM, not the SSD. I've never seen anything like this happen before in the several years I've had the computer. Double-tap of the hard power button did not do anything either (that normally initiates a shutdown same as going START --> Shutdown).
Eventually I had to do a hard reset (held power button down). When the computer booted back up, I got a black screen and it asked me to insert bootable media and press enter. I go into my BIOS and sure enough, it can see all of my stroage drives and my optical drive, but no SSD (where of course the OS is stored). Several more reboots do not fix the problem, the SSD simply is not recognized. I shut my computer down again, wait 20 mins, try again, and by some miracle it asks me if I want to start windows normally or boot in safe mode. I started windows normally and so far so good, zero issues since.
What do you guys think - is my SSD on it's last legs or was it just a freak error? Should I run an error-check or any other diagnostics on the SSD? I know some SSD's are sensitive to instant power-downs (had a similar non-discovery issue a year ago when I accidentally turned off my power bar with the computer running, but several power cycles fixed the issue), specifically the Crucial M4, however a separate issue caused my need for a hard shutdown.
I see I can get a 256GB Samsung 850 Pro for about $170, along with a 10 year warranty, so I won't be that upset if I need a new SSD, but I don't want to go through the trouble of replacing it 'just because'.
Thanks!
EDIT: Started googling the issue at a broad level, and most links bring me to people describing the identical issue, and often after some sort of power outage. Also a lot of them seem to be with Crucial M4's. The drive has been flawless for so long, I wonder if it's finally just dying after 4-5 years of fairly hard use.
Yesterday I was just browsing the internet, and updating a game (stored on the SSD). I noticed my update slowed to a crawl, and my computer slowly became completely unresponsive. I couldn't click on anything except the Windows 7 Start button, and I couldn't shut down the computer. I originally thought my internet cut out, because webpages stopped loading, and my game update stopped, but my computer ended up freezing. I couldn't even get into the task manager. It behaved like it was just running from whatever was in the RAM, not the SSD. I've never seen anything like this happen before in the several years I've had the computer. Double-tap of the hard power button did not do anything either (that normally initiates a shutdown same as going START --> Shutdown).
Eventually I had to do a hard reset (held power button down). When the computer booted back up, I got a black screen and it asked me to insert bootable media and press enter. I go into my BIOS and sure enough, it can see all of my stroage drives and my optical drive, but no SSD (where of course the OS is stored). Several more reboots do not fix the problem, the SSD simply is not recognized. I shut my computer down again, wait 20 mins, try again, and by some miracle it asks me if I want to start windows normally or boot in safe mode. I started windows normally and so far so good, zero issues since.
What do you guys think - is my SSD on it's last legs or was it just a freak error? Should I run an error-check or any other diagnostics on the SSD? I know some SSD's are sensitive to instant power-downs (had a similar non-discovery issue a year ago when I accidentally turned off my power bar with the computer running, but several power cycles fixed the issue), specifically the Crucial M4, however a separate issue caused my need for a hard shutdown.
I see I can get a 256GB Samsung 850 Pro for about $170, along with a 10 year warranty, so I won't be that upset if I need a new SSD, but I don't want to go through the trouble of replacing it 'just because'.
Thanks!
EDIT: Started googling the issue at a broad level, and most links bring me to people describing the identical issue, and often after some sort of power outage. Also a lot of them seem to be with Crucial M4's. The drive has been flawless for so long, I wonder if it's finally just dying after 4-5 years of fairly hard use.