SSD stopped working and system restore

[vladiator]

Hi all

I have a new PC with Gygabyte h87m-d3h mobo. I use a Sandisk 128gb SSD to boot my windows 8 and keep certain programs. The PC was put together at a local computer store and worked perfectly well for about 3 weeks. Last night I was installing a game from Steam onto my second drive, a 1TB HDD. It was late so I went to sleep while leaving it on. My power options would put PC to sleep in 3 hours, which was sufficient time for the game to install.

Today when I tried to wake my pc, the monitor would not wake up. So I had to reboot my pc. However, my mobo stopped recognising my SSD and would not boot! I checked inside and everything was connected. Only after I disconnected the hdd and connected ssd to another sata, my PC took me to a screen where it offered me to restore my system.

I accepted, but for the last 30 mins the monitor has been stuck on the screen with Gygabyte sign on it. No options, no animations, just "Gygabyte". is this normal, or does it simply not recognise my SSD again? Should it force it to power off?

Thanks

Both the power and the reboot lights are lit on my case, BTW. CPU, GPU fans are working.

 

[vladiator]

Ok, so I decided to reboot the pc, as it was still stuck on the Gygabyte name screen. Reconnected the SSD and HDD into the original sata connectors and closed the case with the intention to take it back into the store tomorrow for repairs.

Powered the PC once again, went into BIOS and there was my SSD! Happy, I exited without saving and the PC stopped recognising it again! After a couple of power offs, it is not on the Gygabyte scream with a sign saying "Checking disk for errors. This might take over an hour."

Will see what happens.

 

[Cerb]

What specific "Sandisk SSD"?

They still sell their SF-based Sandisk Extreme series, and that reads like a classic Sandforce power saving problem.

 

[VirtualLarry]

What specific "Sandisk SSD"?

They still sell their SF-based Sandisk Extreme series, and that reads like a classic Sandforce power saving problem.

Yep. My Mushkin Chronos Deluxe died within a month, after it started doing that. OP, get a new SSD, preferably one that isn't SandForce.

 

[John Connor]

Crap, I have an Adata Sandforce SSD and never had any problems. Even have one in the laptop.

 

[vladiator]

Hi, thanks.

I have Ultra Plus. What is Sandforce and what exactly is the problem with them?

Will I need to reactivate my Win 8 after I reinstall it on a new ssd? Grr, it annoying to have a new problem after you think you finally got yourself a perfect computer...

 

[Cerb]

Ultra Plus is their 1st Marvell, and came out right at the beginning of this year.

Sandforce made what used to be fast SSD controllers, but they had reliability and compatibility problems all over the place. So far, few to none have been perfect, but SF ones in particular would commonly have issues with sleep modes, like not waking up, or appearing to be bricked.

 

[vladiator]

Ultra Plus is their 1st Marvell, and came out right at the beginning of this year.

Sandforce made what used to be fast SSD controllers, but they had reliability and compatibility problems all over the place. So far, few to none have been perfect, but SF ones in particular would commonly have issues with sleep modes, like not waking up, or appearing to be bricked.

Thanks Cerb.

I just read up on Sandforce and it seems that their problems are same what I have - i.e. my pc automatically went to sleep at night and in the morning it stopped being recognised...

So, does it mean Marvell may have similar problems to SF?

This is my first experience with SSD. I assume the the store will replace it under warranty, but should I upgrade to something else? What can be trusted?

Should I take the whole pc to the store, or will ssd be enough?

 

[Fardringle]

Did you buy all of the parts from the local shop, or did they just put it together? If you bought the parts there, take the whole system and ask them to fix it.

 

[vladiator]

Hi all

I took the SSD to the shop, and they diagnosed it as faulty. They replaced it under a warranty.

Now I have a different problem. I installed Windows 8 onto the new SSD, and installed the GA-H87M-D3H mobo drives from CD and GPU drives from the internet. However, I can only see my new SSD and DVDRom in My Computer - i.e. my data HDD does not show up.

To confuse things further, in boot priorities my BIOS does not show my SSD, but detects my HDD (which is a 1TB WD Green HDDs). My BIOS boot options are shown as 1. DVD Rom and 2. WD HDD - this is what I had when my previous SSD broke. There are no other options in BIOS boot priority options. Nevertheless, the Windows loads with no problems. Under SATA Configurations in BIOS I do however see both the SSD and HDD. The SATA mode is set at AHCI.

To summarise - BIOS appear to detect my data HDD and SSD in Sata Configurations, but only HDD for Booting Options purposes. Windows 8 detects my SSD but not my HDD.

Anyone has seen anything like this before?

 

[vladiator]

Oh, and BTW, my Device Drivers do detect the WD HDD... It says that the disk's drivers are current. But I cannot see it under Computer in Explorer.

 

[Cerb]

Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management, Disk Management under Storage

Do you see the disk there, and does it have a health NTFS partition? If so, right-click it and set/change the drive letter. If not, post a screenshot of Disk Management.

As far as boot order goes, if the HDD does not have a bootable partition, it will try the next device. You can probably change a setting to try other devices, and make it not boot, but if the SSD is the OS drive, it's likely trying the DVD drive and HDD, first, then finding a boot loader on the SSD. Either that, or the 2nd option is actually a category option, and includes the SSD as a 3rd boot device.

 

[vladiator]

Thanks Cerb, it is the second time you are greatly helping me in the last few weeks (the first time I had some issues with my GPU not using the whole monitor)!

Indeed, the HDD was detected under Computer as soon as I assigned it a letter and path. That easy!

I checked my BIOS again and I have:

Under Boot Option Priorities I have only two options to choose from DVDRAM (which is currently option 1) and HDD (option 2). No SSD.

Then, a bit down the page I found a category that says something like Hard Disk BBS. There I can also assign the order of disks - and HDD currently appears first and SSD is the second.

I guess as you said, the PC still looks for other options after it fails to boot from DVDRAM and HDD, and does find SSD. I guess my confusion arises from the fact that when I had my old SSD, I had many more boot options under Boot Option Priorities, including something called UEFI SSD, etc.

 

[Cerb]

What they're doing a lot, these days, is giving you an HDD option, that encompasses all HDDs. So, it will try the optical, then the list of HDDs, which your SSD is part of.

So your boot order is more like
1. DVD
2. SSD, HDD
3. other

That way, you can't do something like have a 1. USB stick 2. SSD 3. ODD, 4. HDD, boot order. I don't know why they've mostly gone that way, but there's probably a technical reason for it.

 

[johny12]

The ultra plus SSD uses a Marvell controller and not sandforce one. SF based sandisk ssds work fine for me, haven't had any issues so far!