OCZ Vertex SSD (Indilinx Barefoot 3) not recognized in BIOS

[Repair123]

I have an OCZ Vertex 256GB SSD (Model VTR1-25SAT3-256G) with an Indilinx Barefoot 3 controller which suddenly stopped being recognized in the BIOS (of any computer).

As I understand it, this should be an easy problem to fix by using PC-3000 (with an SSD addon?) to fix the firmware using this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxrg_helKLE

I'm wondering if there's any other options to fix the firmware. I'm in Canada and PC-3000 is very expensive considering I'd only be purchasing it to fix one drive.

[pcimage]

Why don’t you just take/send it to someone who has the kit and knows how to use it?

Recovery Force for example, they’re in Canada.

[fzabkar]

Start by measuring the onboard voltages. Next, check whether the SSD can communicate in "safe mode" or diagnostic mode, or whatever is applicable for this controller.

I could help you with the voltage test points if you could provide detailed photos of the PCB.

[Repair123]

Why don’t you just take/send it to someone who has the kit and knows how to use it?

Recovery Force for example, they’re in Canada.

I'd first like to attempt to do this myself, I do find this type of thing interesting. Recovery Force is actually just a short drive away so I may end up resorting to that, but we'll see.

[Repair123]

Start by measuring the onboard voltages. Next, check whether the SSD can communicate in "safe mode" or diagnostic mode, or whatever is applicable for this controller.

I could help you with the voltage test points if you could provide detailed photos of the PCB.

I don't currently have a working multi meter but yes, shorting the 2 pins at J3 gets it into technological mode (it shows up as BAREFOOT3-FACTORY-ROM).

Please see attached for the PCB pics.

Attachments

[fzabkar]

The power supplies are located at the bottom left corner of "VertexBack.jpg". Given that you are getting the "BAREFOOT3" ID, the voltages are probably OK. In any case your photos are too poor to work with.

[Repair123]

Why don’t you just take/send it to someone who has the kit and knows how to use it?

Recovery Force for example, they’re in Canada.

I replied to your message first but it hasn't shown up yet so I'll post it again:
I'd first like to attempt to do this myself, I do find this type of thing interesting. Recovery Force is actually just a short drive away so I may end up resorting to that, but we'll see.

[Repair123]

The power supplies are located at the bottom left corner of "VertexBack.jpg". Given that you are getting the "BAREFOOT3" ID, the voltages are probably OK. In any case your photos are too poor to work with.

Thank you for your help, sorry about the image quality, here's 3 more attempts at that area. I have managed to acquire a very cheap multimeter for testing.

Attachments

[fzabkar]

Can you measure voltages V1, V2, V3 and pins 1,2,3 of U19?

Can you confirm whether the marking code on U19 is "JB-"?

Can you provide the markings on the "3x buck regulators" IC?

Attachments

[Repair123]

V1 is 3.010V
V2 is 1.000V
V3 is 1.519V
U19 Pin 1 is 0.000V
U19 Pin 2 is 5.087V
U19 Pin 3 is 2.528V

U19 Marking:
J B-
EA520

3x Buck Regulators IC Marking:
TPS
652510
T1 271G2
AZC6

[fzabkar]

Those voltages are OK.

References:

TPS652510, Texas Instruments, 4.5V to 16V Input, High Current 3A/2A, Synchronous Stepdown 3 DC-DC Converters With Integrated FET:
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tps652510.pdf

RT9166-25PXL, Richtek, 2.5V, 300mA Ultra-Fast Transient Response LDO regulator, marking JB-, SOT-89:
https://www.richtek.com/assets/product_file/RT9166=RT9166A/DS9166A-24.pdf
http://www.s-manuals.com/pdf/datasheet/r/t/rt9166%2C_rt9166a_richtek.pdf

Richtek marking information:
http://www.sacpower.net/uploadfiles/200781814055738.pdf

[pcimage]

@OP..

With respect, you do realise that the PC3000 SSD “firmware fix” (as you call it) is no such thing?

It’s only a temporary “workaround” to gain access to the data in “safe mode” via a software built translator and data access via Data Extractor through the Indilinx utility in PC3K SSD.

This requires time-consuming imaging (a software translator is many many times slower than the inbuilt translator in the SSD) thus tying up both pc3k flash and a data Extractor channel for a considerable length of time.

[Repair123]

With respect, you do realise that the PC3000 SSD “firmware fix” (as you call it) is no such thing?

It’s only a temporary “workaround” to gain access to the data in “safe mode” via a software built translator and data access via Data Extractor through the Indilinx utility in PC3K SSD.

This requires time-consuming imaging (a software translator is many many times slower than the inbuilt translator in the SSD) thus tying up both pc3k flash and a data Extractor channel for a considerable length of time.

I did not realize that, I thought the translator could be written back to the drive so I could attempt to boot from it (even if it was super slow). The drive has TrueCrypt full disk system encryption so files wouldn't be available in the Data Extractor. Just imaging to another drive may not work because I actually did have a full disk dd image backup of the drive but I found that restoring that image to another drive resulted in an unbootable system disk with most files missing/damaged... which may be because there's 2 bad sectors which I had dd skip over. The drive was working without problems though despite the bad sectors before and after the backup was taken.

Does this still sound like a scenario that PC-3000 can fix?

[pcimage]

PC3000 DE can handle Truecrypt decryption "on the fly" with the password.

Have you tried mounting your clone with Truecrypt drive mounter from a working system, rather than trying to boot from it? Very odd that just two bad sectors should cause so many issues!

[COD]

Depends of Your DDI setings there is posibility that 1-st sector is modyfied.
Mount this image with True Crypt to a working system and than use R-Studio or software like this.

[Repair123]

PC3000 DE can handle Truecrypt decryption "on the fly" with the password.

Have you tried mounting your clone with Truecrypt drive mounter from a working system, rather than trying to boot from it? Very odd that just two bad sectors should cause so many issues!

Good to know PC-3000 can decrypt TrueCrypt partitions!

If I attempt to boot from the clone, I see the TrueCrypt bootloader and when I enter the correct password a Windows loading screen is shown where it says things like "Attempting repairs...", and eventually goes into a recovery mode where I attempt to access C: in the command prompt but it says it can't access it because the disk is RAW.

If I attempt to mount the clone using VeraCrypt (TrueCrypt compatible) on a working machine using the "Mount Without Pre-Boot Authentication..." option, the drive will mount but it gives a warning about an unclean filesystem and offers to run chkdsk. chkdsk then takes 5 hours, moves many things to a found.000 folder, and the drive capacity shows as 52GB used when the drive should have about 230GB used. None of the important files are available in this 52GB.

[mr_spokk]

Make a new clone and do NOT run checkdisk

[Repair123]

Make a new clone and do NOT run checkdisk

When I do this, the correct amount of disk space used is shown, but I'm unable to navigate to many of the directories due to the error:

[Folder Name] is not accessible.

The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

[rogfanther]

Try with RStudio for example

[Repair123]

A scan with R-Studio 8 only finds about 63GB but none of the important files are available.