When specific types of internal failure are detected many drives will go into a read only mode to preserve existing data. This is typically not reversible. Any operation on the drive could have triggered this detection. As such drives usually fail without warning or apparent cause this isn't really an unusual failure.
use the diskpart commands first then use the hp tool. i just did this for a flash drive that i couldn't get diskpart to restore or the various 3rd party tools to restore, and now i have access to it again.
The rates of failure would depend greatly on the manufacturer and specific device. It is pretty hard to kill an SSD with writes but SD cards are a different animal entirely. They are more cheaply made and are not as reliable.
Hi there
just depends on how often they are used -- a lot of writing / erasing will kill them quicker than reads.
I have an HP proliant microserver where I use an internal micro SD card to store the Linux boot partition -- the micro server boots from this -- card is around 2 years old and no failures. I need to boot this way as the server hardware will only boot from an SSD (which I use instead of a DVD in the DVD slot) if the server is iHP's internal proprietary RAID mode (which isn't good on this server as it's essentially poor software "Fake RAID" from a slowish chipset).
The microsd card will boot when the server is in either RAID or AHCI mode --set in the BIOS initial setup on the server - and after kernel is loaded the rest of the OS runs from the SSD. I use the 4 HDD bays as 2 sets of RAID 0 HDD's in software mode (Linux software RAID is VERY FAST --much faster than the HP built in version !!!).
The server will boot from one of the HDD slots but I keep those just for data. The SSD is fast enough -- the boot loader is quite small so using the micro sd card to boot and start the kernel load doesn't take much time at all and is only reading.
This server runs as a NAS server using CENTOS 7 --- runs just fine.
So I'd suspect the SD micro cards are highly dependent on erases and writes - so if you back up the data regularly there shouldn't be any problem if they get broken -- and they apparently do.
Problem is probably worse when these are used frequently in Mobile phones as the phones can get quite warm when in constant use - especially the more modern phones with quite powerful CPU's enclosed in a small case so poor cooling.
BTW these servers are brilliant for NAS boxes -- quite small with micro cube factor and have 4 HDD bays -- really cheap - I have one just sitting under my TV - they run 24/7 for weeks on end with very little noise and are extremely reliable - if you get over the slightly unconventional way I boot it. Run any Linux or even Windows on them then you can install anything you want - easily - they make excellent cheap NAS devices - much simpler than those more expensive QNAP boxes with proprietary software.
Cheers
jimbo
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