Argon One M.2 SSD not working

ARGON ONE (V2 and M.2) DISCUSSION
1

I use a Argon One M.2 case with a Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB). Standard settings no overclocking.

I can boot from SD Card with no issue but I am getting problems when trying to use the M.2-SSD

  1. Raspberry Pi Imager (on the Raspi 4) is not completing when I try to write a Raspi OS Image to the SSD.
  2. I am getting kernel panic when I write the image with Raspberry Pi Imager on a Windows10 PC and then try to boot from this SSD.
    I use the M.2 SATA board connected with a USB-A to USB-A on the windows PC.
    So far I tried the following:
  • I used a Kingston SA400M8 240GB SSD (B&M key) and a WD Blue SA510 1TB SSD (B&M key).
  • Used a standard Raspi Power supply (15W) and a Argon Power supply with 18W
  • I measured the voltage on the cap next to the M.2 boards USB connector and it shows 5.1V on the Raspi PS and 5.35V on the Argon PS,
  • I used a USB3 A to USB3 A cable (which I used to write the image on the Windows10 PC) to connect instead of the USB3 bridge
  • I tried both ways on the power jumper (default and always on)

All the above tests did not work.
What shall I do?

Best regards

2

What I found was the easiest way to copy a configured OS to the SSD was to boot without the USB jumper in place, then connect the jumper to the SSD in the M.2 and use the SD card copy utility. Also, have you configured the Pi to support booting direct from USB before it looks at the MicroSD slot?

3

Thanks Jon,
Meanwhile I used a powered USB hub and things are working.
So I think everything is configured correctly.
My doubt is that the power supply through the Raspi4 USB port is marginal. It would be great if the M.2 expansion board could be powered directly from the USB-C input.

4

@Ganymed can you please advise how did you fit the SA510 ? I am unable to… See my topic Argon One M.2 Case compatibility with WD Blue SA510

5

I’m in a similar predicament. I have 3 Raspberry Pi 4Bs and 4 Silicon Power m.2 SATA SSDs of 256GB. All will boot via SD Card fine, but I can’t get any to boot to SSD without the SD Card.

I’ve tested two SSDs using “h2testw.exe” and the drives are 100% original and OK.

Tried copying SD card to SSD as per instructions (SD Card = /dev/mmcblk0 and SSD = /dev/sda) but fails and system freezes. Must have power turned off and Argon restarted. If SD card is not inserted it never sees the SSD and I get Kernel Panic error and freezes again. I must remove the SSD base and, using a USB 3.0 cable, have Windows reformat it.

I tried using “dd if = /dev/mmcblk0 of = /dev/sda bs = 1024k” but after a while I get “dd: error writing ‘/dev/sda:’ No space on device 1640 + 0 records in; 1639 + 0 records out. 1718755328 bytes (1.7GB, 1.6 GiB) copied 38.4028s, 44.84MB/s”

If I then reboot using SD card, Raspbian boots fine. But I get a brief message in top left of scrren saying “Error: SSD not ejected” and Soon reports “No Superblock”.

I tried using Raspbian Stretch, Bullseye and Bookworm, 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and received similar errors each time. I also tried using a USB 3.0 cable, but got the same errors.

It seems the Argon One m.2 will happily boot from SD Card and recognise the SSD drive, but won’t boot from it. Interestingly, I performed the same boot from USB on a 2.5 inch Crucial MX500 SSD in an external USB case, and it worked fine.

Can someone tell me what my problem is? Is the Argon One m.2 unit faulty, the USB dongle, or have I been using the wrong version of Raspbian?

So far, my Argon One M.2 experience has not been the success I’d hoped for. This means that I’m not able to set up the 4 units I’d hoped to buy and give them as Christmas Gifts.

Thanks for any assistance you can give.

6

Have you run the “Bootloader” on your Pi4s before all this?

Find it on the Raspberry Pi Imager under:
Choose OS > Misc utility images > Bootloader > SD/USB/Network Boot

You probably want the “USB Boot” version. This makes an SD card that you use (once only) to set the OTP bits necessary for the Pi4 to boot from where you want. Sorry if you already know this/have tried this.

Instructions on using the Bootloader SD Card you have made using RPi Bootloader, seen here:

You then replace the Bootloader SD card with your OS attached via USB. It’s very easy!

After use, keep the Bootloader SD card you made to one side, for modifying other Pi4s in future?

7

Yes. I followed the instructions in the included manual, and those on the Argon40 web site.

Ran bootloader. Then removed the SD card and replaced it with the Raspbian one and rebooted. When Raspbian loaded and I tried to access the M.2 SSD it said it hadn’t been ejected properly. At that point I kept receiving a sequence of similar messages until Raspbian froze and I had to perform a cold boot.

I then took the SSD to my Windows 10 PC and used AOMEI Partition Assistant to perform a thorough check. Which was OK. I reformatted the drive and kept getting the same issue, until I reformatted it as NTFS.

Raspbian then saw the drive, but when I tried to copy the SD to the SSD I got errors while trying to copy the1st partition.

I’ve used both the USB dongle and 3 different USB cables with the same poor results. All are readable from my PC, and Raspbian sees the drive and it can be used to store files, but I can’t copy the SD card.

I’m about to try a separate RPi 4B and external M.2 SSD enclosure (awaiting delivery) to see it the issue is with my Raspberry Pi, Argon M.2 enclosure, or Silicon Power SSDs.

I’ll post results when the enclosures arrive. Meanwhile I’ll try a separate RPi 4B and the M.2 base with USB 3.0 cables. Fingers crossed.:crossed_fingers:

8

Well, I just finished tackling this problem from another angle, with success.

As I stated earlier, I used another Raspberry Pi 4B, installed Raspbian OS Bullseye and attached the Argon One m.2 case bottom section to it via USB cable. In that configuration, I used the SD Card Copier utility to transfer the SD Card to the SSD drive.

When I tried this on the Argon case, I got errors and system panics. On my 2nd system, I successfully transferred the SD Card and, after removing it, got the Raspberry Pi to boot into USB/SSD 1st time.

When I installed the base back into the Argon One and attached the USB adaptor, I immediately got errors and the system froze.

I removed the USB adaptor and used the USB 3.0 cable as I’d done previously, and, blow me down, it booted from the USB M.2 SSD into Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye.

I can only conclude that the USB Adaptor (dongle?) is faulty. I thought I’d eliminated that as a possibility previously. However, I suppose that I got confused and used the USB cable when the M.2 SSD was corrupted, and that subsequent reformats fixed it. Mea Culpa.

So, I won’t bother you folks further with my problems. I’ll just get on to enjoying a much faster boot and, from comments I’ve seen, greater reliability than the SD Card offers.

Anyone with similar issues, please check the USB Adaptor by using a USB 3.0 male-male cable. If that works, then there may be a batch of faulty adaptors out there.

Bye for now and thanks.