I'm having an issue where my SSD seems to have started failing after a system freeze caused by my RAM filling up. I'm using Arch Linux with KDE and have 16GB of RAM plus zram enabled (no swap). I had a lot of applications open, like a bunch of Firefox tabs and a VM, which led to my RAM maxing out. When this happened, the system froze, and I had to power it off after waiting for about 10–15 minutes. Since then, my system struggles to boot, the SSD isn't always detected, and I'm getting I/O errors. I've even had issues running 'fsck' and reinstalling Arch. I'm wondering whether the system freeze and forced shutdown could have triggered this SSD problem or if it was already failing. Has anyone experienced similar issues with NVMe drives failing under load?
3 Answers
It's unlikely that your SSD actually failed at the same time as your RAM issue. It sounds more like you could have corrupted the SSD due to the forced shutdown. I suggest booting from a live installer to check if the SSD shows up (try running "lsblk") and then run "fsck" to see if it can fix the corruption. Remember, leaving it running in a bad state for too long, like while you grabbed your phone, can lead to data issues. If that doesn't work, you might need to reinstall, or if the SSD is truly toasted, you should consider getting a new one. Ouch.
I’ve found that zram can be problematic when your RAM is completely full. You might want to consider setting up a swap file or partition instead; it could help prevent similar issues in the future.
Did you have any swap configured on your system? I'm curious if your system was actively swapping, which might have put a lot of stress on the disk during those high writes when your RAM was maxed out.
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