What does it look like?

I'm having boot issues and OS Hang issues with my new SSD install. The OS is Vista.

The problems started with the OS hanging when it went into suspend mode. On reboot, I would get a 'Boot manager not found' error. A second reboot resolved the issue.

Today, for the first time I got a Disk failure error.

For any HDD I've ever seen fail, there have always been error events in the system log leading up to the failure, either read time out errors, or disk controller errors. There is nothing like this in my system log. That makes me suspect this is an OS issue.

Related, It looks like my SATA ports are hard configured as master or slave. I thought this config had gone the way of the dino. The reason I mention it is that I had my SSD plugged in to a slave port (port 2) when I installed the OS. Once I noticed this, I swapped connectors so the SSD was connected to a master and the issue disappeared for a week. Could this be the reason I am having these issues now?

Strange.

I think you might see the master/slave thing if your SATA mode is IDE rather than AHCI or RAID (RAID is just AHCI unless you've actually configured it).

NOTE: Look up HOW (and IF) to switch from IDE to AHCI before you do it. If you just do it in the BIOS, it probably won't boot.

But yes, the SSD does sound like it's dying. I've seen similar.

Speaking of...

I am thinking about getting a new laptop in the somewhat near future... I will most likely get a 13" macbook pro, maybe a 15". The 13" model has 2 hard drive options either a 5400rpm drive or a SSD drive, the 15" has a 7200rpm option or SSD... However, i think i want a 13" as i currently have a 15, and a 13 would be easier to travel with.


For those of you in the IT field, how often are you guys seeing SSD's fail? Traditional platter type drives have been around for a long time, and their failure rates are almost nill.. While SSD drives are faster, and consume less power, if their real world lifespan is not comparable to a platter style drive, then i would personally forgo some speed in lue of a longer lifespan... Thanks.

Not often. Platter drives fail a hell of a lot more. I've had one SSD die on me in about 3 years. In the same amount of time, I've had, oh, what would you say, Peter, about 300 hard drives fail? Granted, the SSD that died was consumer grade, and the HDDs were mostly enterprise, but that's not a great sign. None of the enterprise SSDs failed.

To compare apples to apples, we had to have the hard drive in my wife's old Macbook replaced 3-5 times over 3 years (and the HDD in my Macbook Pro at least once). The SSD I had that failed lasted for about a year.

FWIW, last week Windows started reporting hard disk errors on the drive in our Toshiba laptop, which is maybe a year and a half old. We've been fortunate with our home desktops though and I've never had an internal drive go bad. Ever. Shocking, really.

We had a brown out that killed a WD external drive once though.
Luckily it was the only thing that died.

luckly i have never had a HD fail on me.... The thing i really dislink about laptops is the lack of control of components used. One would think Apple would use higher quality components than other companies due to the premium they charge. However, i don't think they use any better components than any of their competitors... the main reason i buy their pro line is for the aluminum case...

I've been building and maintaining computers for friends and family now for over 10 years. In that time the number one component i've seen fail is actually power supplies.
Second to that, hard drives and third i would say is memory sticks.

This past year a friend's build worked for about 10 months before his first OCZ Vertex 2 SSD died. The replacement identical unit died about 6 months later (this past March). I since had him buy a Corsair (just to change the brand), however my own OCZ Vertex 2 was bought before his original one and mine is still going just fine.
In my experience (although limited to say a place like Dell) i don't believe the SSDs have failed anymore than a HDD, but the HDD do have moving parts which makes them more susceptible to failure because of that aspect.

From what i've seen when a SSD starts to die; typical symptoms have been OS lockups, especially and more frequently during startup and eventually to the point where the BIOS reports no formatted disc or no bootable disc is found.
Moving that SSD to a working system would usually do nothing which is to say you would not even see the failing drive in Win Explorer if it is that damaged.

Most warranties are good for 3 to 5 years on these though and most companies are good about replacing the drive with the same IMO.

Yeah, I had no problems getting a warranty replacement on my failed SSD.

Sadly, it doesn't matter what quality hard drive you use, they're all similarly bad. Even the enterprise drives... they just behave differently when they encounter an error. Honestly, when you think about it, it's a miracle the things work at all...

Well, that doesn't make me happy. I guess I'll contact OCZ. It's disappointing to see a drive fail so soon, but I know it happens.

Ken, Thanks for the info on IDE vs SATA mode. I believe that I did set up the drive as IDE. I'll have to look.

I've had good luck with HDDs in my computers. The thing to remember is the importance of keeping plenty of backups, both incremental and clones of the drive, both on and off site (at home and at work). External drives are cheap and fast, so backing up isn't that painful. If you do lose a drive, it doesn't take long to get back to work, even if you boot off an external drive while waiting for the replacement.

I have a 60GB Vertex on my HTPC for close to three years. A Vertex 2 on my home computer for about 2 years. A Vertex 3 on my work notebook for about 6 months and is now on my home computer for about 4 months. Finally a Samsung 830 on my work notebook for about 4 months.

All still run perfect, in fact never any issues.

Bastard! You took all the good ones.