Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsCRC error after two years - Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, CT2000MX500SSD1
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2021
CRC error after two years - Crucial MX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD, CT2000MX500SSD1
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SUMMARY NOTES
This Crucial MX500 2TB SATA 2.5 Inch SSD, used as the primary drive for a Windows 10 laptop, purchased in July 2019, became unreadable at the end of May 2021.
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I purchased this SATA SSD in July of 2019 for installation into a Dell laptop computer. This SSD seemed fine until a couple weeks ago. A couple weeks ago this Crucial SATA SSD began to report a CRC (cyclic redundancy error) when the Macrium Reflect backup software I used tried to run its automated clone backup of it. Thankfully Macrium Reflect reported this problem using Windows 10 notifications. I repeatedly tried again to make a backup/clone using the various options that the Macrium Reflect software provides, all of which failed. Finally, I tried the free version of AOMEI backupper (which I DO NOT recommend because the free version is severely limited and it is annoying "nag ware", with pushy "upgrade" popups no less). Despite the annoying AOMEI backupper's features, it was able to make a compressed backup, not a live clone like Macrium Reflect does. Unfortunately, I had not followed the three (3) copies, including backups rule. Of course Macrium Reflect destroys the clone when starting to make a new one. I realized the situation was an emergency, so I hurriedly purchased an additional 2TB 2.5 inch traditional HDD, and another 2TB 2.5 inch SATA SSD, from amazon for rush prime delivery. I suspected that I could lose a terabyte of irreplaceable work data at any moment. After an arduous and complex process, using a 2nd computer and the AOMEI compressed backup as a data source, after many hours of work, I was able to build a full live copy of the 1TB of laptop data onto a different 2TB SATA SSD. I was just in time! The next day, the Crucial MX500 2TB SATA 2.5 Inch SSD was no longer readable. Via a 2nd computer, the Windows disk management utility showed the partition's contents as "RAW", and not NTFS format. Although I was able to get my data safely to another SSD, the process was arduously complex. The process even involved using command prompt utilities to rebuild the main partition's Windows boot record. The laborious process was quite nasty. The process took many hours, with each data coping stint involving about a 3 hour wait to copy 1 TB of data to and/or from each 2TB backup drive.
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Although I was able to save my data, I suspect that it was only because the Macrium Reflect disc cloning software warned me of impending doom that I didn't lose over 1TB of precious digital documents and other data files. CrystalDiskInfo could not detect any problem with the drive before its contents became unreadable.
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Notably, using a 2nd computer, a desktop machine, I was able to use the command line "diskpart" utility to delete all the partitions from the unreadable Crucial MX500 2TB SATA 2.5 Inch SSD, and the create an all new GUID disk, and a single large "simple volume". After that I used a "long format" on the volume to lay down a new NTFS file system, which took about 2 hours, and the drive is now readable again. However, I no longer trust the drive and will not be using it to store data that I might lose. The drive is now relegated to serve as a tertiary backup disc, to store data for which other copies exist. Neither CrystalDiskInfo nor the Crucial SSD utility report any indication that the drive recently became unreadable.
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I'm not sure whether to conclude that there isn't ANY such thing as reliable disc storage, or to blame Crucial (a Micron brand), specifically.
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My recommendation to anyone/everyone is that one cannot buy just a single data disc. One has to buy the main disc, a 2nd disc for automated frequent backup, and a 3rd disc for less frequent manual backup in case the primary and secondary both become unusable (which happened to me). Without 3 copies of mission critical data, it could all be gone in an instant.
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This is the wonky, trepidatious, world of computer data storage, buyer beware!
