Dead Transcend 240GB M.2 SATA SSD
Posted: October 12th, 2020, 17:35
Hi guys!
I have a 240GB Transcend M.2 SSD (SATA interface), model TS240GMTS820S ( https://www.transcend-info.com/Products/No-749 ) mounted in M.2_2 slot (the one designed for SATA 3 M.2's) in an Asrock AB350m Pro4 motherboard (updated to most recent bios).
It was working OK until I decided to update it's firmware. I recently downloaded the support application from Transcend "SSD Scope" ( https://www.transcend-info.com/Support/Software-10/ ) and at first run said it's available an update for my drive and offered to download it. Unfortunately I didn't resist temptation.
The downloaded package contains an .iso file (a bootable image), a PDF file (instructions) and a copy of unetbootin. You're supposed to format an USB drive as FAT32, label it "TRANSCEND" and burn the .iso on it with unetbootin. Then boot from it.
It boots a Tiny Core Linux distribution, the Transcend's updating program starts automatically. All I had to do was press "Update". It showed a progress bar for 20-30 seconds, then it said "Update successful". After that it shut down the computer.
On restart it got stuck for 50-60 seconds or more in "press DEL to enter bios" screen showing an "A2" error. Then entered in UEFI BIOS configuration (by itself, no DEL pressed). And, what do you know, my SSD is no more detected by BIOS. In the Storage configuration tab there is only my other drive, a Toshiba HDD, which does not have a boot partition. Transcend SSD vanished.
After I managed to put in another drive with a boot partition and boot from it, it seems that Windows still does detect a drive (kind of). In "Disk Management" it shows Disk 1, Unknown, Not initialized, but can't initialize it (it shows "A device which does not exist was specified")
In "Device manager" it shows as an "Unknown device" drive.
The only tools I tried that can see a drive there are Victoria and HDDScan, but as size 0. Transcend's own recovery app "RecoveRx" doesn't see it.
My first thought was to try and re-update the firmware but, of course, Transcend's updater can't see the drive either.
My question: is there any way to bring this back? Are there any tools to try?
Could a specialized service do something with it? Should I buy a M.2 adapter and try to read/write to it that way (I'm thinking maybe by updating it became incompatible with my motherboard, or something, I don't know). I'm not trying to recover the data on that drive, the firmware update instructions said that will be erased. I just want to have back the SSD as a functional device.
Many thanks in advance!
I have a 240GB Transcend M.2 SSD (SATA interface), model TS240GMTS820S ( https://www.transcend-info.com/Products/No-749 ) mounted in M.2_2 slot (the one designed for SATA 3 M.2's) in an Asrock AB350m Pro4 motherboard (updated to most recent bios).
It was working OK until I decided to update it's firmware. I recently downloaded the support application from Transcend "SSD Scope" ( https://www.transcend-info.com/Support/Software-10/ ) and at first run said it's available an update for my drive and offered to download it. Unfortunately I didn't resist temptation.
The downloaded package contains an .iso file (a bootable image), a PDF file (instructions) and a copy of unetbootin. You're supposed to format an USB drive as FAT32, label it "TRANSCEND" and burn the .iso on it with unetbootin. Then boot from it.
It boots a Tiny Core Linux distribution, the Transcend's updating program starts automatically. All I had to do was press "Update". It showed a progress bar for 20-30 seconds, then it said "Update successful". After that it shut down the computer.
On restart it got stuck for 50-60 seconds or more in "press DEL to enter bios" screen showing an "A2" error. Then entered in UEFI BIOS configuration (by itself, no DEL pressed). And, what do you know, my SSD is no more detected by BIOS. In the Storage configuration tab there is only my other drive, a Toshiba HDD, which does not have a boot partition. Transcend SSD vanished.
After I managed to put in another drive with a boot partition and boot from it, it seems that Windows still does detect a drive (kind of). In "Disk Management" it shows Disk 1, Unknown, Not initialized, but can't initialize it (it shows "A device which does not exist was specified")
- Disk management 04.png (3.79 KiB) Viewed 24778 times
- Disk management 02.png (3.61 KiB) Viewed 24778 times
In "Device manager" it shows as an "Unknown device" drive.
- Device manager 01.png (4.47 KiB) Viewed 24778 times
The only tools I tried that can see a drive there are Victoria and HDDScan, but as size 0. Transcend's own recovery app "RecoveRx" doesn't see it.
My first thought was to try and re-update the firmware but, of course, Transcend's updater can't see the drive either.
My question: is there any way to bring this back? Are there any tools to try?
Could a specialized service do something with it? Should I buy a M.2 adapter and try to read/write to it that way (I'm thinking maybe by updating it became incompatible with my motherboard, or something, I don't know). I'm not trying to recover the data on that drive, the firmware update instructions said that will be erased. I just want to have back the SSD as a functional device.
Many thanks in advance!
