How to initialise or format SSD ?

[harlansmart]

Any advice welcome,

Having some trouble with a Samsung 850 Pro 1TB SATA SSD that decided to stop showing its OS X volume (grey circle with line) at turn-on and at the same instance started hanging terminally while trying to boot to Win 10.

P/N: MZ7KE1T0
Model: MZ-7KE1T0

The data is/was non-critical so just a full re-format is fine, but the SSD now also won't allow itself to be formatted, the volumes also can't be mounted (a small ~100GB Win 10 and a big ~900GB OS X volume).. and I can't initialize them to mount them or repair / first aid them when requested by Disc Utility

Have tried to repair / first aid, restore to the disc, format the disc (from different OS Versions from El Cap --> Catalina)... tried to format & intialize the disc and it's volumes in terminal, tried to install an OS to the disc, tried to format in WIN 10 (it appears to mount for a split econd then disappears repeatedly).

Tried it in a ORICO USB3.0 dock, in the SATA port in Mac Pro DVD tray, in the SATA port on backplane board, and inside a MacBook Pro 9,1 but still can't format the SSD or mount it's volume - starting to think, at a guess the SSD's firmware or bios is corrupt?

Disc and volumes appear in Terminal diskutil list and Disk Utility but not in 'About the Mac' or 'System Report'.

Should be (is) under 10 Year Worldwide Warranty but I bought it used from (a well known Forum Member) and have no receipt, seller isn't responding, Samsung Worldwide RMA Team told me to contact Samsung New Zealand RMA Team who told me to contact Samsung Australia (as the SSD was apparently distributed via an Australian Retailer)..

Heres the patient backside..

His front, write on them so I know what I have inside them...

Terminal shows the disc but the APFS OS X and WIN 10 volumes cannot be mounted..

Disk Utility shows the disc, doesn't let me format, erase, restore to it...

The OS X Volume can't be mounted...

The WIN 10 volume can't be mounted...

Disc doesn't appear in 'About this Mac' (here in Mac Pro)...

Disc doesn't appear in System Information in Mac Pro...

Can't restore another formatted disc to it...

And can't erase it, have tried every combination in Disk Utilities from El Capitan ---> Catalina

 

[Brian33]

I wouldn't worry about mounting the volume(s). Not being able to Erase it (repartition it) is the bigger issue! I'm not expert but it seems like a serious problem with the storage device itself.

You certainly have been thorough; the only other thing I can think of is to try 'diskutil eraseDisk' and/or 'diskutil zeroDisk' from Terminal. I would think the GUI Disk Utility probably uses diskutil behind the scenes so I doubt it will work any better, but it might be worth a try. Type 'man diskutil' for details.

 

[chabig]

Your computer thinks the disk is not writeable. Until that’s changed you won’t be able to do anything with it. Is there any kind of physical write lock in that drive? Have you installed any Samsung drivers or extensions—remove them and try again. You might have to resort to Samsung software, probably on Windows, to work with it.

if you are able to get it working again, reformat with Disk Utility to erase all traces of any Samsung installed software.

 

[Fishrrman]

Do you have access to a PC?
Can you try erasing it there?

I've read that when an SSD fails, it can sometimes "fail to" becoming "read only".
Better than going completely "dark" on you (as is often the case).

 

[harlansmart]

Hi Fishrrman,

Thanks for your reply, 'yes', have tried from WIN 10, to no avail, it will mount and be visible just for a split second, not long nought to do anything with it unfortunately.

Do you have access to a PC?
Can you try erasing it there?

I've read that when an SSD fails, it can sometimes "fail to" becoming "read only".
Better than going completely "dark" on you (as is often the case).

[automerge]1572313734[/automerge]
Thanks for the response chabig,

It's just an ordinary SSD, theres no physical 'LOCK' on it, like you get with some memory cards... because right now neither of the 2 Operating Systems/Volumes can be mounted theres no way to verify if any Samsung software is installed, doubt there is, have never used any Samsung software afaik and have erased the disc a few times fully.

Can't mount the disc long enough in WIN 10 to run any Samsung software, tried that i.e. downloading some Samsung tools in WIN 10 but being unable to properly mount the disc meant that didn't help.

Your computer thinks the disk is not writeable. Until that’s changed you won’t be able to do anything with it. Is there any kind of physical write lock in that drive? Have you installed any Samsung drivers or extensions—remove them and try again. You might have to resort to Samsung software, probably on Windows, to work with it.

if you are able to get it working again, reformat with Disk Utility to erase all traces of any Samsung installed software.

 

[harlansmart]

Hi Brian33,

Using terminal to erase gives ‘Error: -69877: Couldn't open device'

i.e.

diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ 850PRO1TB /dev/disk3

Using terminal to zeroDisk gives, and maybe I've done this command wrong, or didn't have proper disc privileges etc but it is writing thousands of 'y'... occasionally the light on the ORICO Dock flashes (where the SSD we're working on is sitting) but am unsure if anything useful is happening but just letting it run...

diskutil zeroDisk JHFS+ 850PRO1TB /dev/disk3

I wouldn't worry about mounting the volume(s). Not being able to Erase it (repartition it) is the bigger issue! I'm not expert but it seems like a serious problem with the storage device itself.

You certainly have been thorough; the only other thing I can think of is to try 'diskutil eraseDisk' and/or 'diskutil zeroDisk' from Terminal. I would think the GUI Disk Utility probably uses diskutil behind the scenes so I doubt it will work any better, but it might be worth a try. Type 'man diskutil' for details.

 

[harlansmart]

This is the detail of the disc and it's volumes provided by diskutil info:

h-pro:~ h-pro$ diskutil list disk3

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk3
1: EFI 209.7 MB disk3s1
2: Apple_APFS 895.0 GB disk3s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 129.0 GB disk3s3


h-pro:~ h-pro$ diskutil info disk3

Device Identifier: disk3
Device Node: /dev/disk3
Whole: Yes
Part of Whole: disk3
Device / Media Name: SSD 850 PRO 1TB

Volume Name: Not applicable (no file system)
Mounted: Not applicable (no file system)
File System: None

Content (IOContent): GUID_partition_scheme
OS Can Be Installed: No
Media Type: Generic
Protocol: USB
SMART Status: Not Supported

Disk Size: 1.0 TB (1024209543168 Bytes) (exactly 2000409264 512-Byte-Units)
Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Read-Only Media: No
Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (no file system)

Device Location: External
Removable Media: Fixed

Virtual: No



(disk3s2 is the 895GB OS X Volume)

h-pro:~ h-pro$ diskutil info disk3s2

Device Identifier: disk3s2
Device Node: /dev/disk3s2
Whole: No
Part of Whole: disk3

Volume Name: Not applicable (no file system)
Mounted: Not applicable (no file system)
File System: None

Partition Type: Apple_APFS
OS Can Be Installed: No
Media Type: Generic
Protocol: USB
SMART Status: Not Supported
Disk / Partition UUID: 67ABCDD6-4F0E-47EC-9715-0E04E4806CA1
Partition Offset: 209735680 Bytes (409640 512-Byte-Device-Blocks)

Disk Size: 895.0 GB (894999986176 Bytes) (exactly 1748046848 512-Byte-Units)
Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Read-Only Media: No
Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (no file system)

Device Location: External
Removable Media: Fixed



(disk3s3 is the 129GB WIN 10 volume)

h-pro:~ h-pro$ diskutil info disk3s3


Device Identifier: disk3s3
Device Node: /dev/disk3s3
Whole: No
Part of Whole: disk3

Volume Name: BOOTCAMP
Mounted: No

Partition Type: Microsoft Basic Data
File System Personality: NTFS
Type (Bundle): ntfs
Name (User Visible): Windows NT File System (NTFS)

OS Can Be Installed: No
Media Type: Generic
Protocol: USB
SMART Status: Not Supported
Volume UUID: 68967E30-E09D-4C01-B7AE-6E36556EAFD1
Disk / Partition UUID: C59B61CA-B0BA-435F-AEA6-C47800DC65D6
Partition Offset: 895210225664 Bytes (1748457472 512-Byte-Device-Blocks)

Disk Size: 129.0 GB (128998965248 Bytes) (exactly 251951104 512-Byte-Units)
Device Block Size: 512 Bytes

Volume Total Space: 0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Units)
Volume Free Space: 0 B (0 Bytes) (exactly 0 512-Byte-Units)

Read-Only Media: No
Read-Only Volume: Not applicable (not mounted)

Device Location: External
Removable Media: Fixed

 

[harlansmart]

And tried partitioning it, got the ‘Error: -69877: Couldn't open device' again:

h-pro:~ h-pro$ diskutil partitionDisk /dev/disk3 GPT JHFS+ New 0b

Started partitioning on disk3
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Error: -69877: Couldn't open device
(Is a disk in use by a storage system such as AppleRAID, CoreStorage, or APFS?)
h-pro:~ h-pro$

 

[harlansmart]

Booted into Windows 10, the disk will show up for a few (like 2-3) seconds then it disappears again, repeatedly this process cycles every 20 seconds or so, it is not showing up long enough to do anything in Disk Management.

It pops up as Disc 2 / Volume E with its Windows 10 120GB Healthy Active Primary Partition showing along with the 200MB Mac EFI and an ~850GB OS X partitions.

Sort of running out of ideas, bit of a pity if this Samsung 1TB 850 Pro SSD isn't useable anymore.

 

[Fishrrman]

Sounds to me like your options for this particular SSD drive are:
1. Return it for replacement under warranty (if it's still under warranty)...
or
2. Throw it into the trash. You'll probably get nothing more from it.

 

[Brian33]

I agree it's probably dead. You've tried everything.