External APFS-formatted SSD failure on new Mac Studio M2 Max

Hi there, I have just purchased and been using a Crucial X10 pro 4TB SSD. I formatted it on my Mac Studio M2 Max as APFS, with two volumes. I have been copying photos to it with great success. Then suddenly the last folder copied from card had erratic and incomplete files in folder, I tried trashing the folder and copying again and received error "Finder can't complete operation because some data in "DCIM" can't be read or written".

It was the DCIM folder on the SSD which could not be read or written, and then the SSD unmounted. I restarted, it appeared briefly and disappeared. Tried restarting again, no longer visible.

It is visible in disk utility as "unmounted" and does not mount when attempted.

Running First Aid on ONE of the volumes came up with this response:

Running First Aid on “SSD berkman 4TB” (disk7s1)

Checking file system and repairing if necessary and if possible.

Volume is already unmounted.

Performing fsck_apfs -y -x /dev/rdisk7s1

Checking the container superblock.

Checking the checkpoint with transaction ID 3149.

Checking the space manager.

Checking the space manager free queue trees.

Checking the object map.

Checking volume /dev/rdisk7s1.

Checking the APFS volume superblock.

The volume SSD berkman 4TB was formatted by storagekitd (2236.141.1) and last modified by apfs_kext (2236.141.1).

Checking the object map.

error: (oid 0x34d348) om: btn: dev_read_finish(3461960, 1): Input/output error

Object map is invalid.

The volume /dev/rdisk7s1 with UUID 65C324D7-09AB-4BD9-B273-6E6969F93721 was found to be corrupt and cannot be repaired.

Verifying allocated space.

The volume /dev/rdisk7s1 with UUID 65C324D7-09AB-4BD9-B273-6E6969F93721 could not be verified completely.

File system check exit code is 8.

Restoring the original state found as unmounted.

File system verify or repair failed. : (-69845)

Operation failed…

Running First Aid on the other volume came up with this successful response (no data was yet written to this volume)

Running First Aid on “Studio Time Machine” (disk7s2)

Checking file system and repairing if necessary and if possible.

Volume is already unmounted.

Performing fsck_apfs -y -x /dev/rdisk7s2

Checking the container superblock.

Checking the checkpoint with transaction ID 3149.

Checking the space manager.

Checking the space manager free queue trees.

Checking the object map.

Checking volume /dev/rdisk7s2.

Checking the APFS volume superblock.

The volume Studio Time Machine was formatted by storagekitd (2236.141.1) and last modified by apfs_kext (2236.141.1).

Checking the object map.

Checking the snapshot metadata tree.

Checking the snapshot metadata.

Checking the fsroot tree.

Checking the extent ref tree.

Verifying volume object map space.

Verifying allocated space.

The volume /dev/rdisk7s2 with UUID C191BA63-9375-472A-925F-B59ABCFCF677 appears to be OK.

File system check exit code is 0.

Restoring the original state found as unmounted.

Operation successful.

For some reason the second healthy volume could not be mounted in Disk Utility.

It seems bizarre a new SSD should fail shortly after purchasing and formatting, especially only one volume of two on the same SSD. Before going to the manufacturer, just wanted to check if anyone has ideas about whether there is something I should have done in SSD setup on the Mac end?

And any suggestions on how I might access the files on disk, or is it really lost as "corrupt" shows in the First Aid report for one of the volumes?

Any third party file retrieval options, especially since clearly one of the volumes is apparently "ok"

And of course I will follow up with the SSD manufacturer if there is nothing I could have done better on the Mac end.

Using new Mac Studio M2 Max.

There were several thousand image files being written, renamed, and some files trashed.

SSD was attached via a 10gbps hub. Same behaviour now if attached directly.

Thanks for any insight!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]