£1200/($2000) High-End Workstation upgrade

[mfenn]

I have had my computer running all day with the 1TB HDD and I haven't had any instances of the mbr corruption/startup repair so it is almost definately the SSD causing the problem. Just to cover everything, is there any chance the intel SATA 3 controller on my mobo or the SATA cable could be the culprit? My motherboard/SSD isolation test isn't accounting for factors like this.

It is possible, but given the symptoms you're experiencing, I doubt the mobo or SATA cable is the culprit.

Anyway... my plan is to do the following:

Clone 128GB SSD --> 1TB HDD

Get 128GB SSD REPLACED --> Use 1TB in the meantime

Clone 1TB --> NEW SSD

As I've explained before, DO NOT CLONE YOUR SSD TO YOUR HDD. You almost certainly have subtly corrupted data outside of the MBR that WILL bite you in the ass later on. The SSD DOES NOT KNOW that the MBR is special in any way. It is just more data from the SSD's point of view. There is NO REASON that the SSD would only corrupt the MBR. It's simply the symptom that you noticed.

Please don't take offense, but I am really trying to get this message through to you.

I am concerned about one thing: "Partition Alignment"

If I don't get it right, it seems like I can suck a lot of performance out of the SSD. Is this true, is this easy to work around? According to this calculator and assuming my Crucial M4 has a NAND Erase Block Size of 512kBytes, NAND Page size of 4kBytes. It will be aligned by default...

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/other/157

(for SATA drive, Partition offset = 135266304 file allocation unit size = 4096)

Windows 7 does align the partitions properly when you do a clean install to an SSD. The alignment will be preserved with a full disk image from an SSD to another SSD. It will not be preserved if you do a clean install to an HDD or in an intermediate imaging to the HDD.

Alternatively I can reinstall everything in a week or two when I get a replacement SSD. I really do not want to wait this long before I can start using my computer again. Also, should the replacement SSD also be faulty (not ruling anything out!) I would be set back even further. I need a solid backup/imaging practice that I can rely on

I so desperately want to get on with rebuilding my programs/settings/favourites/desktop/toolbars/plugins without the thought that everything is temporary.:thumbsdown: Besides the headache of "mbr corruption" I am content with the performance and stability of my new build. Any other issues have been identified, evaluated and resolved in the past week. My components operate at low temperatures and run fast as hell! I just need to get this data corruption sorted and then I'll finally be able to start using my computer properly.

If you deal with the retailer (as you should be doing since you just bought the products), you should not have to wait very long at all to get a replacement. I would just use your OS in a "non-optimized" state while you wait. Then put your energy into a fresh install on the new SSD. Make an image of that when you're happy with it and you'll have a known good backup that you can restore to anytime.

I've been where you are, and did what you are planning to do. In hindsight, it was not worth it. Do what I am suggesting instead.

 

[schmutz06]

thanks mfenn. Another day with zero crashes/corruption on my 1TB HDD, it is now a lot easier to blame the SSD (fingers crossed I am not overlooking a dodgey cable/mobo controller)

For peace of mind I will do as you have advised and use my system in a temporary state until the SSD is replaced. I would have liked to make some progress rebuilding my install on the HDD and then transferring it to the SSD but cloning/alignment seems like too much hastle. I hope the ebuyer returns team are able to recreate the problem so they are able to qualify me for a replacement. As it stands I don't think there is a definative way to get the SSD to corrupt data which is a pain.

 

[mfenn]

thanks mfenn. Another day with zero crashes/corruption on my 1TB HDD, it is now a lot easier to blame the SSD (fingers crossed I am not overlooking a dodgey cable/mobo controller)

No prob.

For peace of mind I will do as you have advised and use my system in a temporary state until the SSD is replaced. I would have liked to make some progress rebuilding my install on the HDD and then transferring it to the SSD but cloning/alignment seems like too much hastle. I hope the ebuyer returns team are able to recreate the problem so they are able to qualify me for a replacement. As it stands I don't think there is a definative way to get the SSD to corrupt data which is a pain.

I'd suggest being nice at first, but if they drag their asses or pull any shenanigans, then be absolutely firm with them. The squeaky wheel gets the grease after all.

 

[schmutz06]

I set up the return this morning and it is being picked up tomorrow. According to the support member it will take 3-5 working days which isn't too bad. I have noticed the Crucial M4 has an optional firmware update which I never tried. After reviewing the firmware spec, I don't think it addresses my problem any way.

 

[mfenn]

3-5 days turnaround isn't too bad. At least Britain is a small country so you don't have to worry too much about shipping time :awe:

 

[schmutz06]

Update: my Crucial M4 SSD has been tested and confirmed faulty. I am getting a replacement

Thank you for your help mfenn. Once I have all of my essential software installed and configured I'll make a backup image. Is it ok to store backup images on a large hard drive without messing up alignment?

 

[mfenn]

Update: my Crucial M4 SSD has been tested and confirmed faulty. I am getting a replacement

Thank you for your help mfenn. Once I have all of my essential software installed and configured I'll make a backup image. Is it ok to store backup images on a large hard drive without messing up alignment?

Sounds good! Glad you're getting it fixed.

The images look just like normal (albeit large) files to everything except for the backup software. The partition table including offset information is maintained inside the image itself, so you don't have to worry about them being manhandled.

Note that you will want to use the "backup" and "restore" and not "clone" feature of the backup software.

 

[schmutz06]

I'm getting the replacement SSD tomorrow.

I have been using a 1TB HDD in the meantime for the past week and it has been a flawless experience until tonight when guess what? The computer crashed (while I was using it for a change) and got stuck in a startup repair infinite loop on the 1TB HDD. I repaired it manually using the bootrec /fixmbr command.

Yes, they are sending out a new SSD tomorrow and the problem has reoccured without the SSD in my system. I have no idea how they deemed the SSD faulty, perhaps it was - but it was not the SSD causing my corrupt MBR problem.

I should be completely stumped at this point since I was certain the SSD was causing the problem but I think I know what the actual cause is now.

The system has been fine all week while I have been waiting for my replacement and only yesterday I installed a pirated copy of MS office with a funky "activation" patch which also activates the operating system. The next day I get stuck in a startup repair loop for the first time. Office was one of the first applications I installed every time on the SSD as well as activating windows via the patch. So now I believe it was a simple software problem and not hardware.

The frustrating thing is that I have so many applications/plugins/patches/updates/drivers to install every time I make a new OS installation it has been almost impossible to isolate a single item as the culprit. By chance I didn't install MS office early on this time, and this just happens to be the cause by the looks of things.

 

[mfenn]

Hmmm, yeah I wouldn't be surprised if your pirated copy of Office has a virus or rootkit in it. Probably should mention that next time. Probably should also stop pirating software as well.

The fact that your SSD contents were reverting to a previous state makes me think that you did in fact have a faulty SSD though. It just wasn't causing this particular problem.

 

[schmutz06]

Hmmm, yeah I wouldn't be surprised if your pirated copy of Office has a virus or rootkit in it. Probably should mention that next time. Probably should also stop pirating software as well.

The fact that your SSD contents were reverting to a previous state makes me think that you did in fact have a faulty SSD though. It just wasn't causing this particular problem.

I reckon so too. Yes I should have mentioned software rather than focusing entirely on hardware problems but since I had just installed a lot of new components it was a lot easier to blame the hardware. Added, I have never had significant software issues before so I don't tend to look far beyond obvious driver problems and things.

 

[schmutz06]

My replacement SSD arrived this morning and I have been rebuilding my OS. I just had a scare returning to the computer (yup, another crash while I wasn't at the computer even though I'm using it 95% of the time it's on) the mouse/keyboard were not on and my displays were coming up with "no video signal". No peripherals were receiving anything from the computer but it was on (fans/lights all active)

A simple restart and I'm up and running again. If it had launched into startup repair I would be tearing my hair out! new SSD, and I haven't installed any special "activation" patches which I now believe caused my problem. phew. I was in the process of installing automatic windows updates/restarting back and forth. I will assume there was a conflict of some sort with the automatic update/scheduled restart.

 

[mfenn]

Sounds good.

My advice now is to backup early and often! You should have plenty of space on your HDD to store several images. That way, you can easily revert if you mess something up without having to start from scratch. Once you are happy with your system, make the "golden" image and keep that.

 

[schmutz06]

I'm creating a backup right now on one of my data drives. I am using macrium reflect x64 free. I have used all default settings, to note that means:

medium compression
intelligent copy

I noticed some things like the paging file are not copied when using "intelligent copy" - this won't cause any trouble?

Also, it is performing two operations. One for the system reserved 100MB partition and another for the main C: drive partition of the SSD. The Windows 7 installation created these two partitions by default so I'll assume it's all good!

Also out of curiosity reading/writing to the SSD to often seems to be bad practice and capable of degrading it's performance significantly. Will creating frequent backup images cause any problems of this nature?

 

[mfenn]

Both of those settings are fine. Intelligent copy basically only copies the sectors that are needed to restore the system. The actual contents of the page file are not needed after the system is shut down, which would probably happen if you needed to restore.

There is a lot of misinformation on the Internet about SSD lifespans. Basically, the short answers are:

Yes, every write you do to an SSD shortens its lifespan.
No, you don't need to alter your usage patterns. The SSD will last over 5 years even under a "heavy" desktop workload.