Can SSD partitions get corrupted due to poor power while PC is off?

[Overloke]

I've always had HORRIFIC luck with M.2 form-factor SSDs. My first one was DOA, the second one that I put in my partner's PC corrupted and lost its boot table (was able to recover data and format it), and now the THIRD M.2 I've ever used (pre-installed laptop M.2's excepted) has just corrupted its partition table tonight, apparently while the PC was off.

 

Last night, my partner was using it as normal, no problems at all, playing games, on Netflix, the usual. Shuts it down over night. She goes to turn it on today and whoops, won't boot. It tries to run Windows Startup Recovery, and fails. I had an M.2 enclosure, so I put it in that and plugged it into my PC. The main data partition was marked as RAW, meaning it had corrupted. Both sfc /scannow and chkdsk failed - they couldn't even begin to run. Nothing had been done to the PC overnight, the case hadn't been pushed or knocked, and I'd definitely installed the SSD correctly when I was swapping out the second failed M.2.

 

As I was pulling the PC apart, I noticed a few things:

1. The power board that the PC was connected to looked about twenty years old. I'd also remembered previously that it made MAD sketchy noises when I was plugging things into it.
2. The power cable running into the PSU was loose, on the PC side. I could pull it out with one hand without needing to steady the desktop with the other.

Now, since the second M.2 fiasco, I've been taking weekly backups of my partner's PC to my NAS, and it's in the process of being restored now. If it works, I've made a promise to myself to buy my NAS all the nice things it deserves - no more JBOD made up of mismatched 3.5" and 2.5" drives! There's even an SSHD in the mix!

 

I've also swapped out the power board and power cable with better ones, but we won't know how she runs until the restore finishes and I plug everything back in.

 

The only thing I can think of happening is somehow the dodgy power caused issues over time. Maybe not even noticeable while the PC was running. Another reason I think this is the case is because my partner's OLD desktop - admittedly using 3rd- and 4th-hand 15-year-old parts, including SSDs - suffered almost identical SSD partition corruption problems, and they were 2.5" SATA drives.

 

Does anyone else have any thoughts or ideas? If this M.2 gives up the ghost again after the restore, I think I'll just need to accept that I'm cursed by the M.2 Gods and be forever stuck with 2.5" SATA SSDs forevermore.

[OddOod]

Kind of maybe ish yes it can happen. 
What make and model were these M.2s? 
Also, what exactly is a "power board"? Because it's possible that wonky power borked it on boot, not while it was off. And if you are concerned about power, I'd highly recommend a UPS. Cyberpower makes some bangers in the 1500VA range for only 120-150$

[Overloke]

36 minutes ago, OddOod said:

Kind of maybe ish yes it can happen. 
What make and model were these M.2s? 
Also, what exactly is a "power board"? Because it's possible that wonky power borked it on boot, not while it was off. And if you are concerned about power, I'd highly recommend a UPS. Cyberpower makes some bangers in the 1500VA range for only 120-150$

I don't remember what the make and model was of my first one. It was just a bad drive, pure luck of the draw. The second one (the original one I got for my partner's desktop), was a 1TB Silicon Power P34A80. It's now living in one of my servers that I'm not too concerned about. I got it because my mate said he had no problems with Silicon Power SSDs, conveniently not mentioning that he meant 2.5" SATA drives. The third one (the one that shit the bed tonight) is a 2TB Crucial P1 that was originally part of some Simplecom external M.2 adapter that I took from work.

 

A power board, in the Australian terminology, is one of these: LINK - also known as a surge protector (although not all power boards have surge protection built in). The board I was using, as I said, looked about 20 years old and made zapping noises when I was first getting everything set up and plugged in.

 

I have considered buying a UPS for our machines. However, space is at somewhat of a premium (even though I know they are small), and I HOPE the problem will be fixed just by cleaning up the connectivity we currently have, with the new board and cable.

 

It definitely makes sense that it could've corrupted at time of power on instead of while it was off.

[OddOod]

Thanks for the new australianism! As an american I've always called them power strips. Some do have surge protection and I call those surge protectors. 

As for SSD quality, I'm surprised that the Crucial had a problem as they are actual NAND manufacturers. Though shucking it from an external drive might mean that it was low quality. 



 

[Overloke]

Hah, no problem. I have a ton of them.

 

As I said, I think the problem was very likely dirty power. One of the original 2.5" SSDs that was experiencing corruption problems was my first server SSD, and I never had a problem with that. Now the 1TB Silicon Power is in its place in the server, and I have no problem with that either.

 

I don't think the Crucial one was low quality. We initially bought it for a customer, he ended up not needing it, it floated around the office in its enclosure for about two years, I took it home, removed it, and put it in my partner's desktop, and it's been fine for the last, I don't know, two months or so. I think you were spot on with "Something sketchy happened at time of boot", and I think that 'something sketchy' was probably 'the power cable was hanging really loose in the PSU socket and probably sent a bajillion micro power spikes in half a nanosecond'.