SSD / SSDs die after use in external USB enclosures

Dragos Cretoiu

Honorable
May 13, 2013
2
0
10,510
When I first bought a SSD drive, I thought I can use it as an external drive. So, I got an external harddrive enclosure and after using it for short periods of time for a couple of days, I went at work and attempted to back-up the work computer harddrive. I left it connected to the USB port for several hours, unattended, and when I got back, Total commander was showing that the file copy process stopped because the ssd was no longer recognized. Then, I tried connecting the harddrive in every way possible, with all usb adapters and even directly to the SATA port of the motherboard, without success. Windows does not see the attached USB or BIOS won't boot. This was a Solid-State Drive (SSD) Corsair Force Series 3 2.5" 60GB, SATA, CSSD-F60GB3A-BK.
A few days ago, I attempted, with another SSD, an OCZ this time, in another USB 2.5" USB external enclosure, to back-up a laptop hardrive. The same happened. After a couple of hours, the backup process was interrupted because the SSD was no longer visible in the drive manager (Windows). As the first one, the SSD is no longer useable in any way. I have to mention that the drive worked fine for almost a year inside a desktop system.
Do you know what is wrong with using SSD in external USB?
Do you know what should be replaced on the SSD PCB in order to get the SSD running?
I don't want to RMA the drives due to possible sensitive data, unless I drill myself holes in every memory chip :)
Dragos