Unable to format SSD

[muazamkamal]

Almost an entire day spent trying to get my SSD to work, with numerous attempts. Let me lay down the details before unravelling the long-winded story. (TL;DR at the bottom).

 

Laptop: DELL

SSD: INTEL 256 SATA M.2

Encryption: BitLocker

Enclosure: Some $15 M.2 to USB3.0 enclosure

 

Recently, I hard reset (kill) my frozen laptop. Booting it up, windows did not load, it stayed on the boot logo. I can't boot into any safe modes either.

 

Following that event, I bought an M.2 to USB enclosure. In an attempt to run chkdsk with the drive connected externally (to a different machine). I encountered another wall. After connecting the drive/enclosure, Disk Management won't load ("Connecting to Virtual Disk Service"), as well as "diskpart". At this point, I'm wondering if it's the SSD or the enclosure that is acting up.

 

I figured I should try connecting it to a macOS. Lo and behold, macOS sees the drive with two partitions, with one of them being a System Reserve. I can see all the file structure, Windows, Users, Program Files, etc. After backing up what I needed, I proceed to format it. But Disk Utility throws a "Unable to write to the last block of the device" when trying to format the drive. Similar error when using the terminal. Few hours of trying and googling, changing ports/cables, I decided to use a different laptop with an M.2 slot. 

 

After disassembling the laptop, and installing the "faulty" SSD. Booting up to BIOS, the SSD was not detected in the boot menu. I reinstall it again, but with the same result. Since I previously had created a Windows USB Media, I decided to see if there's anything I do with that. But after booting into the USB, it just shows a blank screen. Still not giving up, I created a Live Linux USB, in an attempt to work with the SSD using Linux this time. Using terminal, both fdisk and parted failed to do anything to the drive. Giving an "Input/output error". At this point, I started to wonder (and also on the verge of giving up), is it due to the fact the drive was encrypted with BitLocker? If so, how was I possible to access the drive (using macOS) without any issue? It's an NTFS drive, so I don't expect macOS to be able to write anything.

 

I'm really lost right now. I even tried writing zeros on it. But at the end of the day, connecting it back to the Mac. Everything is, what seems to be, untouched.

I just want to have a clean drive, that is all I want now.

 

TL;DR,

1. Windows can't load after a hard reset. Neither can safe modes.

2. Can access the drive with macOS.

3. Can't format with macOS nor Linux.

4. Drive is encrypted with BitLocker.

 

Note: The Windows USB Boot Drive might not be created properly. I'll recreate the USB and update accordingly tomorrow. 

[Silentprototipe]

Having to hard reset your laptop may or may not have had something to do with your SSD being like this. It may be corrupted for all we know. Or worst case scenario the SSD is dead

[Tabs]

If the file structure was accessible then bitlocker was not enabled. There's no middle ground with it - it's either encrypting a full partition or it isn't, it's not like EFS (Encrypting File System) which is a feature of NTFS where individual files are encrypted using the user's login details.

 

So, bitlocker is basically a non-issue here since the drive wasn't encrypted if you can access it's file structure. 

 

Lucky for you too - means you saved most of your data, but it sounds like the drive might be kaput now. If it's still in warranty I recommend contacting your retailer, or Intel, about getting an RMA.

[muazamkamal]

Just now, Silentprototipe said:

Having to hard reset your laptop may or may not have had something to do with your SSD being like this. It may be corrupted for all we know. Or worst case scenario the SSD is dead

 

Just now, Tabs said:

If the file structure was accessible then bitlocker was not enabled. There's no middle ground with it - it's either encrypting a full partition or it isn't, it's not like EFS (Encrypting File System) which is a feature of NTFS where individual files are encrypted using the user's login details.

 

So, bitlocker is basically a non-issue here since the drive wasn't encrypted if you can access it's file structure. 

 

Lucky for you too - means you saved most of your data, but it sounds like the drive might be kaput now. If it's still in warranty I recommend contacting your retailer, or Intel, about getting an RMA.

Is this a thing? Having the drive being dead/corrupted, but still able to access it?

[Tabs]

19 minutes ago, themuk said:

 

Is this a thing? Having the drive being dead/corrupted, but still able to access it?

 

There's a lot of potential modes of failure where flash is concerned. It's possible that OSX has some way of overriding - or chose to ignore - the firmware, if it was trying to protect data on a damaged disk.

 

Does diskpart fail to run properly even in a WinPE environment like a windows installer? If you can even get it to run, you could try wiping the partition structure entirely with the "clean" option. It's possible the partition table got very screwy and started causing problems. Alternatively, you could try to update the drive firmware in case it bugged out. 

 

Realistically though, after an event like that - and considering the sheer number of different ways you tried to access the data and rebuild the drive with marginal success - it makes me lean towards the drive having actual issues instead of a specific software (i.e., operating system) or non-drive hardware (like a bad port, failed motherboard etc) issue. 

 

Basically, even if you *could* get the drive fully operational again, I would be very hesitant in trusting it with any important or mission critical data now. 

[muazamkamal]

Just now, Tabs said:

 

There's a lot of potential modes of failure where flash is concerned. It's possible that OSX has some way of overriding - or chose to ignore - the firmware, if it was trying to protect data on a damaged disk.

 

Does diskpart fail to run properly even in a WinPE environment like a windows installer? If you can even get it to run, you could try wiping the partition structure entirely with the "clean" option. It's possible the partition table got very screwy and started causing problems. Alternatively, you could try to update the drive firmware in case it bugged out. 

 

Realistically though, after an event like that - and considering the sheer number of different ways you tried to access the data and rebuild the drive with marginal success - it makes me lean towards the drive having actual issues instead of a specific software (i.e., operating system) or non-drive hardware (like a bad port, failed motherboard etc) issue. 

 

Basically, even if you *could* get the drive fully operational again, I would be very hesitant in trusting it with any important or mission critical data now. 

I just tried in WinPE. Using command prompt, diskpart still won't load with the SSD connected externally (if that matters).

 

Much thanks for the replies and explanation. At least I managed to backup my data. RIP SSD.