2 SSDs installed, 2 failed drives.

[mr_malkovich 0]

Hi all. I'm using a 2009 Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion, and Windows 7 via Boot Camp, which I'm on primarily. I have 8GB of RAM and I upgraded to a 480GB Mushkin Calliston SSD to speed things up a few weeks ago. After two weeks I started experiencing Blue Screens Of Death. My friend tested the drive using SmartUtility on the Mac partition and the drive came up as failing.

Mushkin sent me a new one. I installed it and tested it with SmartUtility. It passed, no problems. I went through the requisite day or two of reinstallation purgatory, and I just got done. I tested the drive on SmartUtility... and it's failing. 2 reallocated sectors. I called Mushkin, who had me download and run CrystalDiskInfo on the windows partition. CDI also notes two reallocated sectors but calls this "100% good". Mushkin support says it's nothing to worry about, as long as the number of bad sectors doesn't increase.

I took a chance on an SSD because I use Microsoft Outlook for my business, which I run exclusively from my laptop. I can't lug around other drives, I need a fast, reliable system drive and that's it. I read somewhere that Outlook and SSDs don't jive well together. Is this true? Is two bad sectors nothing to worry about? What are the chances that this is NOT a problem with my laptop or the programs I'm running? It seems hard to imagine that I'm doing anything with my computer on the kind of scale that could wear out two SSDs within days of installing them. What is going on?

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can provide here.

[MRFS 20]

> I read somewhere that Outlook and SSDs don't jive well together. Is this true?

I doubt that very much.

One theory worth testing -- by way of trial-and-error --

is the possibility that your version of Boot Camp

has a bug deep in its I/O logic.

To test this hypothesis, I would suggest that you

pull that SSD and try to cable it to a vanilla

Windows 7 system e.g. via USB cable and

external adapter.

It can be any drive letter OTHER THAN C:,

because you'll want that vanilla Windows 7

system to detect this SSD as a secondary

"data" drive.

> It seems hard to imagine that I'm doing anything with my computer on the kind of scale that could wear out two SSDs within days of installing them.

It's statistically possible that you are suffering

from 2 back-to-back "infant mortalities":

Infant mortality is the phenomenon by which

brand new computer hardware will simply

fail within the first 30 days of manufacturing,

or even less.

Thus, if you have experienced an instance

of "infant mortality" with this second SSD,

the Windows 7 test I mentioned above

should tell you a lot, one way or the other.

Specifically, if you observe the same types of errors

with a vanilla Windows 7 PC, then it's probably infant mortality;

if you do NOT observe the same types of errors,

it's more probable that your version of Boot Camp

has a bug deep in its I/O logic.

Also, the freeware Partition Wizard is a truly excellent

software program, so try to download and install it:

it has quite a few features which should detect and

report any errors in your file system:

http://partitionwizard.com/

[Kevin OBrien 57]

Generally speaking, certain SSDs will show bad sectors, although its not normally a problem. Flash wears out and can fail through its normal course, which many SSD controllers mask. You have a lot of over-provisioned space in that SSD (32GB) which two bad sectors as you noticed didn't even make it budge on health.

Now on the SSD-specifically, I can't comment on the quality or reliability of it. We don't cover smaller sub-tier SSD brands on the site since they generally can't match the support and in most cases quality of the manufacturers making their NAND, controllers, etc in-house.

http://www.storagereview.com/buying_an_ssd_the_brands_that_matter

[mr_malkovich 0]

Thanks for your input, guys. I will download Partition Wizard and I will try MRFS' advice too. When I hook the SSD to another computer, what should I be looking for? More bad sectors appearing? Should I be using it constantly or is it sufficient to plug it in and let it sit?

What are the chances that I could have infant mortality on two drives back to back? Seems very weird.

By the way, since my last post to you guys, this SSD has found 2 more bad sectors, bringing me to 4. Mushkin told me to keep an eye on the drive and send it back in if it goes above 4 bad sectors. But man... oh man... I really don't want to unless it's a given that this thing is going to fail. The downtime it causes my business makes me want to tear my own head off.

[mr_malkovich 0]

which features of partition wizard should i be running to test the drive for errors?

[Kevin OBrien 57]

If you have an external drive with a lot of stuff on it, copy a lot of files onto the new SSD. Get it close to filling up and check for bad sectors again.