Intel 330 SSD fried?

[Gabriel de Bourg]

I am an owner of a Ninja that I bought used and as such didn't get any drives with it. I decided on the new Intel 330 series, as they were very good specs at a good price.
Everything worked fine in the Ninja, until after a shoot where I left the drive sitting in the caddy on the computer over night (as it was 3 in the morning and we didn't have time to go).
I returned the next morning and found everything transferred, phew. But but I had an error message saying that the drive had been unmounted, so I put it into my Ninja... And it didn't register it! I couldn't even format it, to the Ninja I had "nothing" in the drive. It seemed it was dead. I heard that on the 320 series you could get the Bad Context 13x error, where if the drive was unmounted any way that wasn't perfect, it would die on you. Could this be the same here? Because if that's the case, then I'm really scared, as getting unmounted improperly can happen when you pull it in and out of different devices. It seemed to be enough to just have it pulled without the computer unmounting it...

So I wonder, can I do anything to see if I can get the drive working again? Any software, tips? I should mention that I'm a Mac user...
And if not, is this a problem with the 330 drives then? If so, any tips on ones that doesn't do this? Because I can not have this happen again on a shoot!

[Peter Corbett]

I have three fried Intel 520 SSD drives that I was using in my Samurai; 1 x 180gb and 2 x 120gb. I too may have left them connected to my Mac Pro overnight, but I can't be sure on that. All I know is that after half-a-dozen uses, they won't mount on a PC, Mac or Samurai. I got the material off before they were nuked, but it was a close call.... three times a close call.

The only drives that have been bullet-proof have been my original 320-series Intel and the 500gb WD spinner. I've been so pleased with the (now obsolete) 320 series, I've bought a bunch of used and overstock 160gb and 300gb 320-series for future use.

I can say this that if your SSD dies in your Samurai it is gone for good. My supplier put it on the test bench and said it would be replaced.

[Gabriel de Bourg]

I had TWO more drives die on me, all with unmounting issues. First the drives caused errors on different computers like Error 10810, when Finder can't open because of an external device, had the drive not being recognized and then the computer crashing during the unmounting stage. Then when unmounting, if there's been any problem, the whole drive just dies.

I called Atomos about it and they want to replace my dock, plus they recommended some new drives for me, I'll see which ones I get!

[Jack Zhang]

Both the 330s and 520s have a controller by Sandforce instead of Intel. They are NOTORIOUS for firmware bugs that could result in data loss. This proves that as much as they tried, Intel's firmware is just as buggy as the other Sandforce drives.

I'd recommend Samsung controller drives at the moment. You can also make your own decision by heading to PC Perspective's SSD decoder: SSD Decoder V4.0 | PC Perspective

[Bill Thomas]

I had the same thing happen to me with a OWC 3G Electra SSD (Sandforce controller) in March when I left it to transfer overnight. The drive became unmountable and unrecognizable by my MBP after this. It did complete the transfer though and OWC did replace the drive. Before and after this I would never unmount the drive by pulling it out of the dock but by disconnecting the dock/cable from the computer. This recommended procedure I read somewhere a ways back. And now I also never leave the drive to transfer overnight, SSD or spinning HD. In the 6 months since then I've never had another problem. Knocking on wood.