It's my Kingston SUV500 480GB SSD installed inside a USB3.0 casing. Everything is working fine previously. Today, out of a sudden, it decides to kaput. Windows Explorer > This PC shows a phantom drive icon. You can tell straight away that it is not normal.

CrystalDiskInfo this morning.


Windows Disk Management says the partition has turned raw. I fire up TestDisk utility asap to recover my files. Thank god, the files are still listed and can be saved. I thought maybe it's the partition table that has gone wrong. I try to fix the partition table after reading and watching various guides using TestDisk (which I have high success rate with it in the past). Based on the hint, it says my drive is GPT EFI. Dunno why it suggest that when the SSD is only used as a typical external storage. I've tried Intel/PC mode too because that is the most common selection based on all the guides. However, all attempts fail to fix the partition.

TestDisk tested with "Logical" or "Primary", then "write".


After a deep partition search that took hours. Dunno why it shows FAT16 when the SSD was formatted in NTFS:


In Disk Management, I delete the whole volume and create a new partition from scratch. However, it cannot be formatted with a message "Windows cannot format the volume because the volume is offline. Please try to online the volume by assigning a drive letter or path to the volume first." Weird. It is online though. I assign a letter to it but still it cannot be formatted (with the same error message).

I try the SSD on a Linux Ubuntu rig (different PC). It also cannot detect the drive and mount normally.

I do a badblocks check following this guide on Ubuntu. It takes forever. After 5 hours, I decided to cancel the check. It seems it has progressed 30% but the report generated is a whopping 1.7GB file. I believe that contains the bad sector positions (a long list of numbers in that file). Kindly correct me if I'm wrong.

I wipe out the volume and create new partition with GParted. Everything goes smooth here.


Dunno why it says 81.48MB used when there are only 2 files worth 3MB in it (I copy 2 images with the size of 3MB total into it for testing).


Then SSD seems working fine now in Linux. I can copy files into it.


Well mounted and working fine.


Ubuntu Disks built in SMART self-test and info. The reallocated sector count is worrying though (higher count than this morning, 32 to 64):


I plug in the SSD back into my main Win10 rig. The SSD cannot be used just like the initial situation. Windows Disk Management says the drive is not formatted (although it was formatted in GParted just now). Back to square one.


I use the SSD in my Linux system again. Surprisingly, it can be used over there. The files are still inside (the 2 images that I copied earlier). It just won't work in Windows. I don't know what's going on here.

I cannot say the SSD itself is OK because the SMART data shows it is not OK. Is this the sign of a failed SSD?

Other things that I have tried: Swapping a different USB SATA case.

I spent the whole Sunday checking out this issue. I hope someone can assist me. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Feb 28 2021, 10:03 PM

How old is the SSD?

Why does age matter? Approx 2 years old. You can see the hours in the screenshot. It's normally used once a week for my data backup, and also emergency retrieval of files once in a while.

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Feb 28 2021, 10:11 PM

I have Samseng SSD failed just after 4 months of use.

First off, your USB 3.0 casing no issues ka?

no issue. i have tried with different hdd inside the case and also try the ssd on different case.
if the case is the issue, it will not work in linux too.

IMO, just send it from RMA trying to fix it yourself is frustrating

.............oh, just run windows CHKDSK on the disk, probably MFT corruption.

not possible because cannot enter the drive letter. example: chkdsk x: , that x is not possible.

This post has been edited by Skylinestar: Mar 1 2021, 07:56 AM

Welcome to the world of SSD... unfortunately SSD failure is more scary than HDD as if often showed no sign of why and when it is gonna happen. I used to had a work laptop which I swapped the HDD with SSD. Those early days low capacity SLC drive with dram cache some more. Even that failed suddenly around a year or so. Luckily I backup everything when it started to hang occasionally whenever I arrived at work (never shut down). I never expected the drive to fail though, therefore I just back those autocad files that I needed just in case. The ssd was only half filled (60GB).

The same situation as mine. Kingston SSD as well.
Work only in Linux, cant be read in Windows. Still havent found any solutions TT

Remove the SSD out and connect it directly to a motherboard, do a Secure Erase might help to return it to default factory settings. Initialize the drive and repartition after that could fix the issue. If still failed, send it back to Kingston for a warranty claim.

try to use fdisk to clear the partition then format.

Hmm? Cannot assign drive letter?
You mean you cannot highlight Disk 3 Partition 1, right click, select Change Drive Letter and Path and assign a drive letter directly?

The SSS gone case. Confirmed. I have 3 Kingston A400 240GB units that has same problem after 1.8 years. End up RMA them all. The /K motto of banning Kingston SSD is very true indeed.

waw slc die also easy shocked me

i trust skylinestar press before. he know he doing

From my experience, most of the time SSD fail without any warning.

I dunno if I should buy conventional spinner hdd or ssd for backup storage. My super duper old hdd are still working today. But I have experienced 2 dead Kingston ssd already.

If I were u, I would simply fully erase the SSD (after backup all the data).
If the problem still persist after that, I would not use that SSD again. (it may cause more troubles than u can imaging