MX300 2TB reports bogus capacity

[temporary16]

Hello, One of my CT2050MX300SSD1 started reporting a capacity of ‭42949672956 (= hex 0xFFFFFFFF + 1) sectors, which is obvisouly bogus, and for instance the drive cannot be accessed with windows 8 and linux because both OSes apparently try to read beyond the previous max usable capacity. I wrote down the previous capacity (usable sector count), is there a way / tool to teach the Disk about its limits again? Thanks!

[targetbsp]

Have you tried doing a PSID revert on it in storage executive?  This will reset the drive back to a factory state (it's actual intended purpose is if you forgot the drive encryption password)

I've never heard of this before though.  I'd be prepared for this being maybe being a hardware failure!

[temporary16]

The drive is barely a year old, has only accumulated 3.5TB written data, is not encrypted, and at least with Win10 it's still possible to access it (Win10 apparently blindly trusts the GPT data and does not touch the device beyond the GPT-set limits).    To me it looks like the internal ROM which kept the factory-set capacity was erased (hence FF's everywhere).

So, to repeat the question, is there a tool which can program the original capacity back into the drive? The same way the factory does it?

[targetbsp]

Nope.

user actions you can take are to factory reset the drive (as I described above).  Or flash the firmware if there's a newer one than you had .  Otherwise it's RMA time.

[HWTech]

Is your MX300 firmware up to date with the latest  version of M0CR060?  Some of the earlier firmware is known to cause issues with this model SSD, but I've never seen this problem occur before.

You could use the Linux "hdparm" tool to change the Host Protected Area which might help you.   Otherwise, I don't think there are any consumer level tools available.

I personally would pull any data from the drive and update the firmware if needed, then do a PSID reset or a Secure Erase on it which of course will erase the SSD and reset it to factory defaults.   If it doesn't resolve the issue, I would get it exchanged under warranty since we've never seen this type of issue before.

[temporary16]

I updated the firmware, problem persists (as expected TBH).  Can't do PSID Reset, as it's not encrypted and Storage Executive says it's not supported.

I'll try secure erase next.

[targetbsp]

Secure Erase requires the drive to still be in ATA Security rather than Microsoft eDrive mode.  This won't be the case if it's ever had a modern verison of Windows installed on it and a PSID revert will be the only way to reset that.  That it's got no encryption keys set is irrelevant as to whether you can do a PSID Revert or not.

[temporary16]

There's no Windows on it, never has been, just 1 GPT partition covering the entire disk with an ext4 filesystem. And Storage Executive says it cannot do PSID reset, because "Drive 3: Encryption is not supported."

Also, can I do RMA without the original packaing (which no longer exists)

[targetbsp]

I'd have thought it's fine.  I'm not sure where int he world you are but in the UK at least (and I would imagine the rest of the EU?), no-one can demand a faulty item is in original packaging for a warranty claim.  Just that it's returned in suitable packing to prevent damage in the post.

[HWTech]

Yes, you can do an RMA on it without the original packaging.

FYI, I'm assuming the MX300 is connected to an internal controller since you updated the firmware on it.   It is best to perform a Secure Erase while the SSD is connected to an internal controller or eSATA port as many USB controllers won't allow all of the required commands to pass through it.