Bought the 480gb version of the corsair neutron XT series. Awesome drive. But recently I noticed my games stuttering a bit. Decided it was time to format and clean install everything. That is where everything has been going wrong.

I have tried formatting the drive with a USB windows installer, CD windows installer. I installed windows into my second SSD and tried formatting it through that but it always fails. Went into admin tools and storage and it just keeps saying that windows cannot complete the task. I installed the Corsair Tool box. Smart check fails. Try and do a secure wipe. It succeeds but does nothing. I have tried resetting windows, going back to an earlier build. Now the drive works fine when I load into it. But where is gets really weird. If I go and try delete anything off the drive. When I restart its like it never happened. I cannot install programs. Tried uninstalling programs but as soon as I restart. They are there like I never did it.

If no one has any suggestions I am going to open a support ticket. But I am leery about doing an RMA, because the drive has very sensitive information on it. Passwords and tax stuff. As I stated before. I try and delete it, but it comes right back when I restart.

The only option I see that is left is to dban the thing.

Please help and thank you for any advice or tips. Thank you and have a nice day.

well that sucks ......

Yes.  I though all you ever did was a QUICK format for SSDs  then Partition as needed.  They do not have blocks or tracks a HDD.  I could be wrong.  The call the MFG or USE their tool for the model of SSD you have.  I believe Corsair has a good support group

Firmware is up to date.
Tried the corsair software and secure wipe feature succeeds but it does nothing.
This is what the check disk popped up with.

If a secure erase and diskpart both failed, then it's a bum drive and you need to return or RMA it.

Have you called Corsair Tech Support group yet?  1-888-222-4346

If you managed to erase the drive with a command prompt that is good.
 
Boot from a Microsoft DVD or USB stick. It should give you all hard drive options to install your operating system. Find the SSD drive and choose to delete it. This will wipe the drive and all backup/supporting partitions. Then once that is done format the drive. Then try and install Windows.

KenMcC
Tech Support or Forums? http://forum.corsair.com/v3/forumdisplay.php?f=188 

Tried their forums and as a just incase I also posted the same thing here. I actually got more help here than I did over there. Go figure lol. EVGA community is just awesome imo. Trying tech support and they just advised things I have already done. Thank you for the phone number, will call today before work.
 

rjohnson11
If you managed to erase the drive with a command prompt that is good.
 
Boot from a Microsoft DVD or USB stick. It should give you all hard drive options to install your operating system. Find the SSD drive and choose to delete it. This will wipe the drive and all backup/supporting partitions. Then once that is done format the drive. Then try and install Windows.

Technically the command prompt succeeds. So did the Corsair Toolbox wipe, that succeeds to. But they do nothing and once I reboot. The SSD is back to where I started like nothing happened. When I tried from not only a cd but usb, the delete gives no errors but does nothing as well. The format option just fails and gives me the error code 0x80070057.
 

KenMcC
Quick format as it is not a HDD and therefore has no Sectors

I try that and it just states that it is unable to format the drive.
 
Thank you again guys.
 
I haven't tried using a different sata cable yet. Doing that now. But I am just going to throw this out there and see if this could be an issue. When the time changed for daylights savings time. My computer did not update and I went to try and update it. I couldn't find the update option so I just manually changed it. Could that have caused it to "lock up" some how?
 

You could always try flashing the latest firmware onto the thing, but it's a shot in the dark. Most likely there's a serious defect with the hardware, and at this point even if a new firmware update did fix it I'm not sure I'd trust the drive anymore with my data. 

Update:
 
Corsair has exceeded my expectations. Given the sensitive information on the SSD. They gave me the option to destroy the SSD and shipped out a replacement. Of course I had to prove that it was destroyed which was quite fun lol. Then sent out a replacement very quickly. Truly why I have been a customer of theirs since 2006 but will continue to be. This is the type of support and product that led to my EVGA/Corsair only build. 
 
Also, oddly enough, nothing even remotely worked to wipe the SSD.
 

rjohnson11
+1 for Corsair support on this as I believe almost all SSD manufacturers want the item back for an RMA.

Which I was more than willing to do but not without destroying it first of course.