Scanner Tales: My SSD failed

[N9JIG]

To lay the groundwork:

My PC is a home-built machine in a Fractal North case, a Gigabyte X670 motherboard, AMD Ryzen-7-7800 CPU, 64GB RAM, a Radeon RX6600 GPU and 2 2TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD's. My son and I built it a year ago. It has worked flawlessly since. It is plenty powerful, has no problem with 3 monitors and runs fairly cool without water cooling.

So, this computer would not start up after being off for a few days as we travelled for the holiday. It would come straight to the BIOS screen. After digging around for a while I found that one of the two identical 2TB NVME SSDs was not being recognized, apparently it was the boot drive.

To investigate further I swapped the two SSDs to make sure it wasn't the motherboard causing the issue. I got the same result, booting to the BIOS with no boot device. I then took the boot drive and put it in a different PC as a second drive, it would not be recognized. It is safe to say that drive is toast. Monday I will need to contact Samsung and get a warranty replacement, in the meantime it is off to Best Buy to get a new SSD, the warranty replacement will be used for other purposes when it arrives in a week or two.

I got a new Samsung 990 Pro 2TB drive, basically an updated version of the original. This will be the new boot drive. I got home and popped it in and started to install Windows 11 from a thumb drive. It took half an hour, maybe a little less. I signed into One Drive and iCloud and my files were intact. I ran Windows Updates and then started reinstalling things like Office, FileMaker and my radio applications. I decided against restoring from my backup disk as there was a lot of fluff on there that I didn't need.

After a couple hours on and off downloading and installing my radio programs (ProScan, Sentinel, programming software for my Icoms and Anytones, ad nauseum), I realized the only things I lost were a few browser bookmarks as the most recent set in Chrome and Firefox were from last year. I only had to reset one password and had to have Bob deauthorize the old ProScan installation from the crashed drive.

I then set up my Com Ports. In my radio cabinet I have a 10-port USB hub that the 8 scanners, my IC-7100 and my AT-D578 are connected to. When I set up the new drive on the computer the Device Manager duly discovered these radios and automatically assigned them Com Ports starting with Com3 and working up. That messed up my system of starting from Com1 and going to Com8 for the scanners and they were already labeled as such. So, I disconnected the scanners and deleted them from Device Manager (go into Device Manager, select “Show Hidden Devices” in the View menu) and then plugged in Scanner #1. When it appeared, I changed it to Com1 from Com3 and also changed the speed to 115200. I then plugged in Scanner #2 and changed it from Com3 to Com2 and again changed the speed. I then plugged in each other scanner in sequence, making sure they were automatically assigned the proper Com Port and then went in and changed the speeds to 115200. I then connected the Icom which duly took Com9 and 10 then the Anytone which became Com 11. Easy Peasy!

A little note here for my Mac friends:

As a Mac person at heart, it was tough for me to switch to Windows full time like I did last year. It was just too cumbersome to have 2 different computers and OS's running on my desk and I needed Windows to run all my radio stuff so I retired my fairly new MacBook Pro from my daily driver to travel use and occasional patio video sessions in favor of a robust PC. While a rebuild like this would have been simpler on a Mac-to-Mac operation with TimeMachine, Windows has really improved its usability factor with Windows 10 and 11 to the point of being almost as good as a Mac.

I had been using Parallels for years on my Macs to run Windows applications and it made my Intel Macs really shine as Windows machines. In fact, my former Intel Mac Mini (last version fully tricked out with tons of memory and storage) into my best Windows machine! When Apple switched to ARM processors Parallels still worked but there were some driver issues, some of the radios or cables I could not get proper ARM drivers for, so I had to run a Windows machine for these. This included any pre-USB scanners like the 996XT, BCT15/15X and older. With the USB-equipped scanners like the 536 and P2 series I prefer to use the USB-1 cable connected to the rear serial port to avoid the front panel USB connector in my rack enclosure for aesthetic reasons. There just is not an ARM compatible driver for these older cables and I do not suspect that there will be.

If they ever do come up with a ARM driver for these and other radios I might switch back to a desktop Mac like a Studio or tricked out Mini. The M4 Mini’s seem like a real killer machine, and it is tempting for sure but the Windows machine is fitting the bill right now. I do miss some of the little Mac things but I can deal with those inconveniences.

 

[garys]

Fortunately SSD failures are rare, but they do happen. HDD fail more often and can be frustrating to try to troubleshoot.

I've had varying luck with Samsung, including horrible results using their program to copy a HDD to a new SSD. In the end I used a different brand of SSD with better results.

I keep all of my data on an external SSD and back that up every month. That way if I suffer a catastrophic failure of my computer I'll have all of my data and can switch to my laptop until I sort it out.

I don't upload anything to the "cloud" because I believe once you do that it ceases to be your data and belongs to whoever owns the servers where it resides. While they may let you use it, at some point they may not.

 

[Scan125]

A little off topic other than SSD drives are generally reliable.

However one has to realize their are clone drives etc. imitating other reputable makes and also not having the storage they claim. This is usually seen on USB drives as opposed to internal drives.

The problem with these drives with custom firmware to fool the user AND the OS that is xGB/xTB in size. Many have only a fraction of this capacity and you don't find out in real life till bang! Best case bang is the that the OS refuses/*raps out. Worst case is when the fake drive WRAPS and overwrites all you previously store data on that device.

There is a utility call ValiDrive which will generally validate that the storage a drive has is actually there.

See: GRC | ValiDrive

I hope and trust that the likes of Samsung, Crucial, Adata, ..... will kill these *astards off and flush the supply chain but in reality it can be a "whack a mole" game that sadly is very rarely won.

 

[N9JIG]

There is a YouTube channel (Computer Clan) that has covered these scam devices in an entertaining fashion. I try to purchase my critical products from reputable sources like MicroCenter and BestBuy, even if I end up with a lemon I can return it easily.

The radio programs were pretty easily reinstalled. For some reason OneDrive did not retain the installers I had saved for things like my RT Systems and Icom software but I was able to download them without issues. I wonder if OneDrive strips .exes or something from a Documents folder???

 

[n0xvz]

I wonder if OneDrive strips .exes or something from a Documents folder???

It shouldn't. I've saved some .exe files to OneDrive from time to time.

 

[garys]

I miss having a MicroCenter store less than an hour away from where I lived.

There is a YouTube channel (Computer Clan) that has covered these scam devices in an entertaining fashion. I try to purchase my critical products from reputable sources like MicroCenter and BestBuy, even if I end up with a lemon I can return it easily.

The radio programs were pretty easily reinstalled. For some reason OneDrive did not retain the installers I had saved for things like my RT Systems and Icom software but I was able to download them without issues. I wonder if OneDrive strips .exes or something from a Documents folder???

 

[N9JIG]

I miss having a MicroCenter store less than an hour away from where I lived.

You and me both brother! When I lived int he Chicago area we had two MicroCenters within an hour as well as a Frys (when they were good!). Before that we had ElekTec, CompUSA., Computer City and some others in the area.

These days I have to drive to L. A. or Denver to go to MicroCenter (been there, done that!). I think the market in Phoenix is large enough to support a MicroCenter, we are almost twice as big as Denver, Indianapolis and Cincinnati and they all have stores.

When Best Buy is your best local option you know you are in a computer parts desert!

 

[TGuelker]

Found this on AliExpress for a couple bucks




Bought it way before 2TB drives were available knowing it was fake.

ValiDrive states it is off by a few megabytes

SANSUMG

 

[Ubbe]

There are different types of SSD drives. The "normal" one that has each cell be a zero or a one that are extremely reliable and quick, but also very expensive. Then there are those that make a cell half charged between zero and one to add one more storage bit and are probably the most cost effective that still has a high reliability and life span. Then you have those cheap SSD's that add a third and forth bit, that seems insane to do but they somehow makes it work but are slower in access time, less reliable and have much lesser life span. Always pay the extra money to get the dual bit drives if you value your data.

They make the same trick with standard magnetic platter drives, to write a second magnetic track on top of the standard track to increase storage space using the same hardware and cost, that also are much less reliable, so stay away from those drives as well.

/Ubbe

 

[krokus]

For those not aware, SpinRite, also from GRC, can help save/refresh non-spinning media, too. Run a level 2 surface scan, and it forces a refresh of the storage. This is not a re-write of the data, so it does not affect the number of writes the media can handle.

Do not run non-spinning media on a level 3 scan, as that does two rewites of the entire storage. (Inverts data, writing it that way, then inverts again, back to original format, and writes that.)

 

[a727469]

There are different types of SSD drives. The "normal" one that has each cell be a zero or a one that are extremely reliable and quick, but also very expensive. Then there are those that make a cell half charged between zero and one to add one more storage bit and are probably the most cost effective that still has a high reliability and life span. Then you have those cheap SSD's that add a third and forth bit, that seems insane to do but they somehow makes it work but are slower in access time, less reliable and have much lesser life span. Always pay the extra money to get the dual bit drives if you value your data.

They make the same trick with standard magnetic platter drives, to write a second magnetic track on top of the standard track to increase storage space using the same hardware and cost, that also are much less reliable, so stay away from those drives as well.

/Ubbe

Ubbe, great info. Do you have an example of some dual bit drives by manufacturer? Or ones that should be avoided? Or maybe an easy way to tell the difference when buying?… thanks

 

[garys]

The closest thing to me that isn't Best Buy is Discount Electronics, but they sell mostly refurb or used Dell products. Which makes sense since Dell is right down the road from me.

You and me both brother! When I lived int he Chicago area we had two MicroCenters within an hour as well as a Frys (when they were good!). Before that we had ElekTec, CompUSA., Computer City and some others in the area.

These days I have to drive to L. A. or Denver to go to MicroCenter (been there, done that!). I think the market in Phoenix is large enough to support a MicroCenter, we are almost twice as big as Denver, Indianapolis and Cincinnati and they all have stores.

When Best Buy is your best local option you know you are in a computer parts desert!

 

[Ubbe]

Ubbe, great info. Do you have an example of some dual bit drives by manufacturer? Or ones that should be avoided? Or maybe an easy way to tell the difference when buying?… thanks

For Samsung SSD they have a Q in their name for those quadruple bit QLC technology drives to avoid that makes it 4 times bigger in capacity, probably 8 times or more less reliable and at least 4 times less life span as each cell will be written to 4 times more often compared to a drive of similar size using one bit technology that also use more defined states, either on or off. You have SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC types that are single bit, dual bit called multi, triple bit and quadra bit technology to use more data info from one single memory cell.

Try and install as much RAM memory as possible and don't use a temp folder or swap file on a SSD drive that will wear it out prematurely.
Use a program that reads each cell and writes it back, on another place on the SSD drive, to discover bad data. If installation files and data files are never touched and left for years they can start to lose its stored energy, and platter drives loose magnetism, and a disk health software can update that energy and could be done maybe once a year. That's one single write and only prolongs the life of harddrives regardless of type and will discover bad cells or weak magnetic media surfaces that will be flagged as bad and not used again.

You probably have to google the list that people collects with info of all platter drives, which ones that are "real" and which that are "fake" and works like recording two songs on a cassette tape without erasing it, then trying to pick out what belongs to what song by going from if it's a song in major or in minor. Those HDD's are called SMR, shingled magnetic recordings, and should be avoided and only used as backup and for storage and not used for operating systems or for data that gets written to disk a lot. "Normal" drives are called CMR, conventional magnetic recording. Here's one list: List of known SMR drives

/Ubbe

 

[a727469]

Again, great info. Interesting that no samsung on smr list but as you say the q versions are worse. I never considered this when I looked at ssd drives.. On the old mechanical drives I did think about reads and writes but somehow never thought about this on the ssd.
Of course all of this makes sense as far as how they try to increase capacity without much cost but reducing long term reliability.
Thanks for taking the time to explain! I really learned something.

 

[BinaryMode]

Be advised that if you have two hard drives connected to the computer at the same time you install Windows it could inadvertently put the bootloader on the second drive. As a member of many tech forums over the years I've seen this scenario play out many times.

I'm a backup freak and three quarters let me tell you. Every two months or so I boot up Clonezilla (not related to the Mozilla) via Ventoy (look it up). I then clone to the external 2 TB NVMe drive housed in an NVMe enclosure made by Sabrent connected via USB C (which if memory serves is USB 3.2 - it's fast). I like Clonezilla because it's free, open source software, allows me to clone a drive using FDE (Full Disk Encryption) and it gets the job done every time with no BS proprietary crap. You can even run Clonezilla from a server, but that is an entirely different subject altogether.

So, that's the whole drive clone from one internal 2 TB NVMe to another 2 TB NVMe. I have two Hitachi enterprise grade HDDs (actually four) that are meant for downloads and other miscellaneous stuff. These two drives as well as the other two SATA connected SSDs are switched on and off by a 5.25" drive bay hard drive selector switch made by Kingwin. So when I want to backup the one 2 TB platter to the other 2 TB platter I switch the other on upon PC boot and use a marvelous donation-ware software called FreeFileSync. This will allow me to mirror the contents of one HDD to the next. When I'm done the backup 2 TB platter is powered off via the Kingwin HDD selector switch in hopes to mitigate any effects that may happen from a power surge my UPS can't handle or a PSU nightmare scenario that takes everything out. Granted the SATA connectors are still connected though so that may be a factor trying to mitigate a surge or PSU surge of some sort...

In addition to that, I also backup the small but important stuff more often to various media up to and including EMP/CME proof DVD/RW and Blu-ray BD-RE optical media. Then that is all kept in four fireproof safes. Such data would be my bookmarks that I have collected over 18 years or so (I really need to clean those up) Keepass database backups, financial records and whatnot. Keep in mind most of the data (especially the bookmarks) are all encrypted. Either using the 7Zip archive or a combination of that and something else I found on Github (GIT: Global Information Tracker). I used to use Truecrypt containers but I got away from that. I should go back to that, but 7Zip encrypted executable archives seem pretty decent so far.

In addition to that I DO use the cloud. But all the data going there is also encrypted. I, like the previous poster mentioned, do not trust someone else's server infrastructure. Forgetaboutit. I utilize Amazon AWS S3, Bunny CDN, Mega and Box for real small stuff. Yes, LOL! ALL THAT! LOL! And no, I don't like NAS (fire disaster scenario) unless it's for Jellyfin and I don't run cloud backuping software on my PC. I manually upload the stuff.

So yeah, I have backups abound because I hate being really pissed off losing my data when I'm no dummy and could have prevented that. No fool am I! I've read so many stories over the decades on one tech forum after another of how a user had all their data completely hosed and I refuse to be that dumb - REFUSE! Besides, today's digital data is like yesterday's papyrus or stone tablet (Information Technology). It all falls into the same classification of: IMPORTANT. When's the last time you developed film...?

And last but not least, I also use M-DISC optical media which supposedly lasts a thousand years (how they come to that conclusion I don't know, but whateves). Believe it or not, I have all of Wikipedia on an M-DISC using something called WikiTaxi with specific instructions that disk (which holds other things) be placed in my casket upon my last breath on this rock that bear magma below and starvation, disease, cruelty and maliciousness above...

I prefer Micron products, i.e. Crucial. Read all about 'em. I have yet to have trouble with their storage medium offerings. Not saying that can't happen, it can, and duds do roll off the assembly line. That's what gets me with all those Newegg and Amazon reviews. The bipedal Neanderthal chimp pant-hoot is thick in some of that, and it's a pain having to weed through those types of reviews looking for the REAL general consensus about the common denominator user experience with the product. I don't understand the social influence of Samsung products. My clairvoyance tells me to avoid them and their smartphones... In my opinion of course.


Now why oh why is everything marketed as "Evo," "Origin," or "Hero?" Next thing you know everyone will want to wear Niki crap... Social Norms and social influence mean NOTHING to me. Did I make mention about my very elaborate and unorthodox approach to data backups? LOL!

Just some non-GMO food for thought. (No, GMOs CAN be good to feed a populace, but I digress)...

 

[a727469]

You know it is frightening how much I am like you on backups. My photos and data are in 4 places including a disk kept in my car. I also have complete disk backups using Drive Snapshot which has helped a lot when I mess up something in Win11.

It is also frightening how many people have lost data. My wife belongs to a club where this year 4 people out of about 100 have mentioned they lost pictures or documents not backed up. And those are only the ones who would talk about it.

 

[BinaryMode]

My photos and data are in 4 places including a disk kept in my car.

If that is optical media you don't want to do that. Optical media must be kept in a cool, dry, dark place and never write on the back of the disk its self. Always use a sticker of some type or write inside the jewel case.

I don't know about your car, but during the Summer when I enter my car I feel like I'm entering inside of a volcano. For that reason I never kept my jump start battery in the car as heat can destroy a Li-Po battery or worse, create a thermal runway. I always have to lug the thing between the house and car and I keep it by the front door for that reason so I never forget to take it with me. It's a real pain, but I don't want my battery backup going South. And knowing my luck it'll happen right when I need it. This goes for Winter too. I never keep the portable jump start battery in my car when the temperatures are as sucky as the Summer. Fall is fine though.

So, unless you live in a Mediterranean climate, LI-Po batteries (even those containing iron) need to be kept from extreme heat and cold. And optical media has to be treated very well indeed. Cool, dark and dry place. I have a couple of those old small, like 2"? optical disks in my dresser drawer that I made some two decades ago and on them contain Netscape or Mozilla Suite browser bookmarks and PlayStation Game Shark game saves. To this day I can still read those disks on my computer.

 

[a727469]

Yes you are 100% correct on temperature etc. etc. My garage is heated and temperature in summer is ok but I did not mention I also keep a copy in a safety deposit box updated quarterly and encrypted in icloud..that’s all I can do🫤😀