I Have a problematic SSD

fusion-drivepartitionssd

I didn't know how to give this question a better title since I have no idea what happened to my SSD.

I was using this SSD in my MacBook Pro set up as a DIY fusion drive with the MBP original HD.

One day my computer stopped booting and I was able to format the original HD but the SSD stopped working completely, I wasn't able to do anything about it anymore. I couldn't erase, partition, repair or anything I have thought of doing, until I decided to try and "fuse" the two drives again and it worked. The SSD was readable and I could write data on it just fine.

Until the day it stopped working again and trying to make the fusion drive is not working anymore.

When the OS X starts it shows the message:

The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. Initialize…
Ignore Eject

Here is what I get in Terminal:

diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                                                   *512.1 GB   disk0
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         499.2 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *498.9 GB   disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk1s2
                                 B181693D-440D-4DDB-9B37-09DF805FF3A5
                                 Unencrypted
/dev/disk4
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *184.1 MB   disk4
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk4s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Google Chrome           184.0 MB   disk4s2

sudo gpt -r show disk0
Password:
       start        size  index  contents
           0  1000215216

EDIT 01

I have tried this:

sudo gpt create -f disk0
sudo gpt -r show disk0
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34  1000215149         
  1000215183          32         Sec GPT table
  1000215215           1         Sec GPT header

sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk0
sudo gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 999805509 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0
disk0s2 added
sudo gpt -r show disk0
       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6         
          40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640   999805509      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  1000215149          34         
  1000215183          32         Sec GPT table
  1000215215           1         Sec GPT header

diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *512.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         511.9 GB   disk0s2
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         499.2 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s3
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *498.9 GB   disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk1s2
                                 B181693D-440D-4DDB-9B37-09DF805FF3A5
                                 Unencrypted

diskutil unmountDisk disk0
Unmount of all volumes on disk0 was successful

diskutil verifyDisk disk0
Started partition map verification on disk0
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Checking for an EFI system partition
Checking the EFI system partition's size
Checking the EFI system partition's file system
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: -69766: The partition map needs to be repaired because there's a problem with the EFI system partition's file system
Underlying error: 8: POSIX reports: Exec format error

diskutil repairDisk disk0
Repairing the partition map might erase disk0s1, proceed? (y/N) y
Started partition map repair on disk0
Checking prerequisites
Checking the partition list
Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required
Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map
Error: -69697: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size
Underlying error: 5: POSIX reports: Input/output error

Best Answer

You may need to be a little more clear and expand on the phrase "...the SSD stopped working completely" What, exactly did you do to determine that? What were the sysmptoms? How long has it been acting up? (etc...) Having said that, experience dictates that often times drives of all types just stop working.

I have even had drives that stopped working start working again when I try something else. Similar to what you did in re-creating your fusion drive.

I would be willing to bet the SSD is toast and needs to be replaced. And considering how SSD prices have dropped you can get a big SSD and use it entirely as a stand alone drive and the other drive as "overflow."

You could try rebooting in recovery mode and running disk utility on the SSD. And even a third party disk repair utility. But the drive working intermittently (or at this point not working more than it is working) is a sign that you need to replace it.

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