Resolved My New SSD Is Dead

It is an OCZ Vertex VTX450-25SAT3-256G

It suddenly stopped working for no apparent reason.

I am hoping someone can suggest what might have gone wrong so I can avoid trashing another SSD.

Some details follow.

I bought the OCZ SSD over a year ago but opened the package only 9 days ago.

It behaved just as expected through 4 or 5 operations consisting of partition and format using Easeus Partition Master and clean install of my OS.

My OS is Windows Home 32 bit, SP 3.

The last of these clean installations seemed to be going very well. I reinstalled the motherboard* drivers, installed FireFox, Thunderbird, VLC media player, NTI cd/dvd burner, and a number of other programs.

I had tweaked the system to just about the way I like it. including registry hacks to:

Change the order of "search" and "settings" on the start menu,
Get "log off" off the (classic) start menu,
Change the Explorer Sort Order, and
Turn off autorun on drives A** and L (my primary cd/dvd)

I also relettered the drives in the new system so I could use the same shortcuts on both systems.

I was continually switching back and forth between my old installation and my new one by changing the boot order in the bios.

And suddenly for no apparent reason nothing worked: I could not boot into either system. I had shut down by killing the power (I'll stop doing that) but I had often done that with no problems in the past.

I wont go into the details of how I got my old system working again unless someone asks.

Now the OCZ is recognized by the bios but not by Windows or DOS [the file system is NTFS anyway] and it will not boot.

I have found this BBS to be invaluable in the past. I would be grateful for any suggestions now.

Thank you
Robert Leeper

* Intel DG965WH with an Intel Core2 Duo E6320

** I normally keep the floppy disabled in the bios and I don't think autorun works on the floppy anyway, but just to be sure, I turned it off.

 

Interesting reading Reviews on this Amazon Link:http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Storage-Solutions-2-5-Inch-Software/dp/B00CXKRWJ2
It seems to suggest a very high failure rate of this brand of SSD. Neil.

 

Yes. I wish I had read reviews before buying. Interesting that Amazon now offers only a used one for the ridiculous price of $300 or so. I bought mine new for $159.99.

Thanks, Neil. Maybe I'll have better luck with my Kingston Digital 240GB SSDNow V300.

 

That Amazon site was .com.
uk.com and .de (when translated) had very similar and more stinging reviews.
One guy had purchased 26 of them and was not a happy chappie when failures began.
He was using the drives in numerous business comps and a spinning drive in his server.
One guy had a failure in 2 days and then recieved a refurbished unit from OCZ after submitting an RME. Wasn't very impressed as that also failed.
Most guys who had to claim on failed units with OCZ said their action was very speedy. Neil.

 

Well, live and learn. From now on I think I'll [tend to] stick to Samsung, Seagate, Intel and the like.