So I think I burned out a nice 1TB SSD

[Kenny B]

Yeah, I was trying to copy large some files over to it and in this process a family member removed the drive from the side connector and closed down the computer (a 2020 MacBook 16" screen). AFter that, I could never get this drive working correctly to the point that it just sits and spins (or whatever it does) with the little light flashing.... all the while the drive feels very hot to touch. It's a rather small drive, about half the size of a harmonica (nice musical reference).

I tried doing DiskFirst Aid, Erase, format, etc. and nothing seems to work, I believe the drive is cashed.

Need help or advise on what to do next. Maybe look for a better quality drive (however this one cost me $100 at least.

[mikehalloran]

SSDs don't spin. If external, it might have a fan.

You don't really give us enough info but I'm guessing that you have it mounted in an external housing. I'd get the drive out of there, put it in a dock then see if you can re-format it in Disk First Aid.

A SATA III SSD is as fast as a USB 3 connection. There's nothing to be gained by using anything faster. For diagnosing, I'd get something like this.
https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B075GJ3P3B/ ... le_desktop
Check your cable. USB-C is a port, not a protocol. USB 2 or USB 2 over USB-C will slow things down quite a bit. USB 3 or USB 3 over USB-C is as fast as the drive can handle.

Unless… If the unit is still under warranty, see if you can exchange it for another.

Don't bother with so-called drive utilities — they're APIs for Disk First Aid. Whatever you do, never, ever, ever try to "optimize" or "de-frag" an SSD. They don't work like HDDs.

[Kenny B]

Mike, I actually have one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0758 ... UTF8&psc=1

Which may be something that can read the drive if I can figure out how to hook it up.

This is the drive that is giving me problems: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V1 ... =UTF8&th=1

Looks like I paid $139 for it back in September 2020. Says: Interface: USB 3. 2 Gen 2 Type-C, backward compatible with USB 2. 0
Limited 3 Year Manufacturer

I had it plugged into the MacBook using the USB-C port with the USB-C to USB-C cable.

[mikehalloran]

Mike, I actually have one of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0758 ... UTF8&psc=1

Which may be something that can read the drive if I can figure out how to hook it up.

This is the drive that is giving me problems: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V1 ... =UTF8&th=1

Looks like I paid $139 for it back in September 2020. Says: Interface: USB 3. 2 Gen 2 Type-C, backward compatible with USB 2. 0
Limited 3 Year Manufacturer

I had it plugged into the MacBook using the USB-C port with the USB-C to USB-C cable.

That's an inexpensive flash drive and cannot be hooked up to that Sabrant multi-connector — no point in taking it apart. When these cook, they're dead.

I have a couple 2TB versions of these that I bought for testing and found them way, way too slow to be useful for anything except exchanging files with others. Too bad because I liked the price. There's a lot of 1–2TB flash storage out now. Marketing loves to post the connection speeds but the actual data transfer is less than half the speed of SATA III SSDs. Except for the pair I bought directly from China, I've returned the others that I bought from Amazon.

If you can get it to show up at all in Disk Utility, try formatting it FAT 32 (that's a big If). If you can achieve that, it's useful for sneakernet. Many of these large flash drives cannot be formatted any other way.

Since Amazon lists a 3 yr warranty, contact them. They can put you in touch with the US distributor for an exchange or they can handle it themselves. I've never had a problem with that.