Is my Apple SSD spoilt?

[dogs-1985]

I know I shouldn't ask stupid questions.

My iMac spoilt for no apparent reason, and I just wanted to get back the data on the Fusion Drive (SSD+HDD).
I can use apfs-fuse to mount these two storage drive to /mnt, when I read the data insid, the SSD will automatically disconnect itself. Is the Apple SSD spoilt?

Disk

I use the following command.
sudo ./apfs-fuse -d 255 -l -o allow_other -f /dev/sdc /dev/sdb /mnt/

After execute command.

I can navigate to /mnt

Inside the folder private-dir

Sometime load folder root half way then SSD will disconnected itself, sometime can see the directory inside the folder root

Check back the terminal log.

I'm not sure is the SSD reader or SSD problem. I can backup the bootcamp (Windows) drive without problem.

Is there any other way I can try? I just want to get back my photos with my family in Apple partition.

[RJVB]

On Thursday December 15 2022 21:02:55 dogs-1985 wrote: I'm not sure is the SSD reader or SSD problem. I can backup the bootcamp (Windows) drive without problem.

Is the MSWin "drive" an actual separate drive? Sounds like you need to install `smartmontools` and check the SSD's health. But I've already seen drives mounted through FUSE disconnect unexpectedly, and in fact you can disconnect them by force by killing the corresponding process. So it's possible that your SSD contains an error that leads to a call to abort() somewhere in the apfs or the underlying FUSE library code (instead of failing more graciously). FWIW, did you check if your iMac still boots in target mode where the entire machine acts like just an external drive (to be connected over USB nowadays, I presume)? IIRC that requires holding down the `t` key when you turn the machine on, possibly together with the Option or Command key. R.

[dogs-1985]

On Thursday December 15 2022 21:02:55 dogs-1985 wrote: I'm not sure is the SSD reader or SSD problem. I can backup the bootcamp (Windows) drive without problem.
Is the MSWin "drive" an actual separate drive? Sounds like you need to install smartmontools and check the SSD's health. But I've already seen drives mounted through FUSE disconnect unexpectedly, and in fact you can disconnect them by force by killing the corresponding process. So it's possible that your SSD contains an error that leads to a call to abort() somewhere in the apfs or the underlying FUSE library code (instead of failing more graciously). FWIW, did you check if your iMac still boots in target mode where the entire machine acts like just an external drive (to be connected over USB nowadays, I presume)? IIRC that requires holding down the t key when you turn the machine on, possibly together with the Option or Command key. R.

Sorry for late reply.

For the bootcamp drive. I wanted to play some Windows games that time and followed the online article to install Windows system. After my iMac spoilt, I still can backup that Windows partition without SSD. Is smartmontools safe to use to check the SSD health? I scare that smartmontools will write some data to SSD to ensure the device "Healthy".

I didn't force disconnect, even I use the ddrescue backup the SSD and it stop at 767.9MB. I'm not sure the PCIe enclosure problem or what. Here's the command line that I use to backup SSD.
sudo ./ddrescue -n -f /dev/sdb disk.img mapfile -> 767.9MB
sudo ./ddrescue -r3 -d -f /dev/sdb disk2.img mapfile -> 14.1GB
KDE Partitions manager, backup sdb2 -> 560MB

I don't have iMac machine to test the SSD/HDD. My device was iMac 21.5" late 2013. iMac sudden power tripped, so I sent it to repair center (Not an official Apple, maybe Apple authorized or something).
First, they mentioned power supply problem, ask me change the power supply will solve the problem.
Later, they told me that the monitor screen problem. I told them I don't want to repair, just want back my data.
Later, they said no able to backup anything. I asked them take out the SSD and HDD to me.
What can I do, I have no ability to argue with them. They claimed they were PROFESSIONAL.

It doesn't matter if there is really no way to get back the data from those 2 "fusion drive". Thank you very much for your reply.

[RJVB]

On Tuesday December 27 2022 23:02:35 dogs-1985 wrote: Is smartmontools safe to use to check the SSD health? I scare that smartmontools will write some data to SSD to ensure the device "Healthy".

It should be; as far as I know even the self tests are not destructive but only attempt to read from the medium. But if your purpose is only to retrieve data from the drives (instead of reusing them afterwards) you don't need to run those tests.

I didn't force disconnect, even I use the ddrescue backup the SSD and it stop at 767.9MB. I'm not sure the PCIe enclosure problem or what. Here's the command line that I use to backup SSD. `sudo ./ddrescue -n -f /dev/sdb disk.img mapfile` -> 767.9MB `sudo ./ddrescue -r3 -d -f /dev/sdb disk2.img mapfile` -> 14.1GB `KDE Partitions manager, backup sdb2` -> 560MB

I'm not familiar with either of those commands, but I reckon they will report back the amount of data they found on the device. Which can be a lot less than the actual size of the device, of course. In your case it may be worthwhile to use good old `dd` to clone the entire device to a file on disk, and then mount that image.

I don't have iMac machine to test the SSD/HDD. My device was iMac 21.5" late 2013.

Were there Mac Minis with fusion drive? In that case you could try to find one of those as a 2nd hand and put your drives in. R.

[sgan81]

"ReadBlocks failed" sounds like some problem on the drive ... checksum error, unreadable block, ...