SSD troubles

Mmmm... Cocks...

CRUCIAL 8GB 4X2 D3 1600 DIMM CL9
SAMSUNG E 250GB 850 EVO SSD
ASUS Z97-AR ATX 1150
INTEL BOX INTEL CORE I7-4790K
WD 1TB 3.5 MAINSTRM BLUE HD
GIGABYTE GTX980 OC 4GB WF3 PCIE
CORSAIR 750W CXMOD 80+BRZ ATX PSU

So I started getting this BSOD that quickly began happening moments after starting and using my PC. Google said it was RAM or a drive. I swapped some RAM to no avail. I wanted more SSD space so I went and bought another of the same drive (so now 2 of the 250 Evos above). I did a fresh install on the new drive and wiped the old one. The problem drive seemed to install and play games just fine (and of course my BSOD vanished). But I eventually got to some larger games. Steam threw me a write error when it was trying to "allocate space" for the game initially. Weird. I tried again and the same issue. I tried another game and it was fine. I eventually realized Steam wouldn't let me install any games bigger than about 25gigs. Someone suggested I try moving my own files. I zipped some movies into a large file and moved them onto the drive. No issue, but when I unzipped they were all corrupt. Moving the same zip to my other Evo and everything worked fine. I sent the drive back to Samsung. When it returned it still did the same thing. I tried the drive in my brothers computer and it worked without issue. I tried a different SATA slot and cable and still the same issue.

ArbitraryDescriptor

Mmmm... Cocks... wrote: »

CRUCIAL 8GB 4X2 D3 1600 DIMM CL9
SAMSUNG E 250GB 850 EVO SSD
INTEL BOX INTEL CORE I7-4790K
WD 1TB 3.5 MAINSTRM BLUE HD
GIGABYTE GTX980 OC 4GB WF3 PCIE
CORSAIR 750W CXMOD 80+BRZ ATX PSU

So I started getting this BSOD that quickly began happening moments after starting and using my PC. Google said it was RAM or a drive. I swapped some RAM to no avail. I wanted more SSD space so I went and bought another of the same drive (so now 2 of the 250 Evos above). I did a fresh install on the new drive and wiped the old one. The problem drive seemed to install and play games just fine (and of course my BSOD vanished). But I eventually got to some larger games. Steam threw me a write error when it was trying to "allocate space" for the game initially. Weird. I tried again and the same issue. I tried another game and it was fine. I eventually realized Steam wouldn't let me install any games bigger than about 25gigs. Someone suggested I try moving my own files. I zipped some movies into a large file and moved them onto the drive. No issue, but when I unzipped they were all corrupt. Moving the same zip to my other Evo and everything worked fine. I sent the drive back to Samsung. When it returned it still did the same thing. I tried the drive in my brothers computer and it worked without issue. I tried a different SATA slot and cable and still the same issue.

No idea, but general troubleshooting advice:
If it works fine in other machines, the drive is probably ok.
To rule out the rest of your hardware try another OS on your system via a live boot usb/dvd.

Foomy

What motherboard are you using? some of them have two different sata storage controllers, and so you could use that to test if it's a motherboard defect or not.

But if the drive is working in another computer it's looking like some sort of motherboard failure.

ArbitraryDescriptor

Foomy wrote: »

What motherboard are you using? some of them have two different sata storage controllers, and so you could use that to test if it's a motherboard defect or not.

But if the drive is working in another computer it's looking like some sort of motherboard failure.

Irrespective of your motherboard configuration: They could just swap the drives.

Use the known-good SATA port/cable on the bad drive, put the good drive on the suspected bad combo.

If the problem is the bus/controller, the symptoms should swap drives.

Mmmm... Cocks...

A friend suggested since they were the same drive that I reset my CMOS battery. Sure enough it worked. We'll see how long it lasts though considering my initial problem.

Edit: AHHH never mind. I tried another game and it still didn't work. The game I got excited about had failed every time previously.

I tried ArbitraryDescriptor and the issue has not changed.

ArbitraryDescriptor

Mmmm... Cocks... wrote: »

A friend suggested since they were the same drive that I reset my CMOS battery. Sure enough it worked. We'll see how long it lasts though considering my initial problem.

Edit: AHHH never mind. I tried another game and it still didn't work. The game I got excited about had failed every time previously.

I tried ArbitraryDescriptor and the issue has not changed.

Your drive seems fine in other systems.

Everything between it and your OS seems fine.

Operating system: J'accuse.

Try the live cd thing to confirm. (Optional, but I like to be sure)

https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/try-ubuntu-before-you-install

If you can sling huge files around without Windows, then the problem is software. Which will prompt the following questions:

Do you have a swap file on that drive? That's the only thing I can think of that would be unique to, and shared by, your OS and that drive. (Unless you have symlinks? Software RAID?)

On the shot in the dark front: How "wiped" was the drive? Has it been completely repartitioned?
Is format /mbr still a thing?

Mmmm... Cocks...

I'll try some Linux this weekend, no real time till then sadly. There's nothing on the drive. In fact it was wiped completely by Samsung when I got it back as well. Had to assign it a new drive letter and everything. I formatted it again today as well. No RAID on my system or anything either.
The drive was just going to be the home to a few large games with load times (coughGTAVcough)

dispatch.o

Sorry if this has been done. Remove one of the drives (original one with issues) and do a reinstall of your OS with a single drive. Your master boot record, bootloader and pagefile are probably all still on the bad drive. So even though you're not using it as storage/install space, you're still using it.

SeñorAmor

Since you have a Samsung SSD, have you tried running their Magician software to check the drive for errors and/or firmware updates?

Mmmm... Cocks...

Dispatch, I'll try that. First I'll try cloning the disk over (they're the same drive) and see how it works. If that still doesn't work I'll try a full on reinstall. It'll have to wait till tomorrow or Saturday though.

Senor, yeah magician was my first go to. Both drives are up to date with the same firmware and are healthy. Windows error checking finds no issues either.

Edit:
Okay I wanted to do the cloning on my brothers computer. But it looks like the samsung cloning software will only ever select the main drive. IE I'd have to clone my brothers OS drive. What a shitty piece of software. So I plugged both drives back into my computer and the cloning failed.

Edit: Tried Samsung secure erase on the drive first and it still failed after doing that. Weirdly enough when doing secure erase it saw the drive. Then once it began it said the drive was frozen, to unplug the sata power and replug it. Sure enough it worked. Not sure if that was a fluke or if the drive is finally giving up the ghost?
I suppose this weekend I'll still try installing windows to the old drive.