wake up today to a missing operating system ...

[g1981c]

background on the problem:

* windows 7 ultimate
* 2 X 128GB Samsung 830 SSD RAID 0
* MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard with UEFI BIOS
* 3770K running at stock frequency

this system was running 100% trouble free for several months, on 8GB G.Skill RipJaws RAM.

then yesterday i added 16GB more ram, in the form of G.Skill Ares

with the new ram it booted without problem, and for the first time i was able to render a video in Vegas 11 using XDCAM EX output format - it produced a 4.6GB video, this was on the 24GB ram. on the 8GB ram previously it would crash after rendering about a gig or so worth of video.

so i felt that the ram upgrade is a great success - this was yesterday - today i press the power button to start the PC and it says "missing operating system" ...

the first thing i did was remove the new ram, to go back to the old 8GB configuration - but nothing changed - still "missing operating system" ...

what next ?

 

[Puppies04]

Try pulling the power from both SSDs (pull the S-ATA power connectors) and leave them for 30 mins and try booting again. I had an agility 3 that did that, in the end I had to update the firmware and the problem dissapeared.

 

[Puppies04]

P.S. While you are pulling the power leads just double check that the S-ATA cables are securely pushed in or preferably replace them with new ones just to be sure that isn't the problem.

 

[Bubbaleone]

If you setup the RAID 0 array using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver, there should be an Intel RAID boot ROM option that's accessible by a keyboard shortcut (my Asrock Extreme9 uses "ctrl+i") when you first powerup the PC. The user manual should detail your key combo. Once you're in the RAID utility you can confirm whether or not your striped array is still functional.

If the array is OK then load up your Windows 7 install DVD and run the repair option. When the repair tool first starts it'll scan for any existing operating system, and list it. If the repair tool lists the OS, let it first run in automatic mode and see if it can restore the boot loader. If it fails after the first automatic repair attempt; reboot and run it a second, and even third time if neccessary.

If the array is gone and/or the Windows Recovery Environment repair tool doesn't detect an OS; you're pretty much done. Keep in mind that unless one of the SSD's has actually failed, you can still recover data using standard software recovery tools.

 

[g1981c]

ok i will try unplugging SSDs for half hour first, then i will try going into RAID menu.

one worry i have is that i might have in fact destroyed the SSD a week or so ago when i tried a new power supply ( seasonic platinum 860W, which i am sending back ) and it had extremely poor sata power connectors which required me to use an exorbitant amount of force to seat on the SSDs, and the part of the SSD that has the connectors was flexing like crazy despite my best efforts to keep it straight. it didn't stop working then, but i think it might have gotten damaged - and it feels pretty loose at least on one of the SSDs.

one other thing that is weird is now for some reason the bios shows a splash screen, where before it did not. could this be a sign of something getting corrupted in BIOS ?

i'll keep you updated.

 

[Smoove910]

might want to go in and verify the boot order

 

[g1981c]

i had SSDs uplugged from power for almost an hour, when i plugged everything back - nothing changed.

i also have the SSDs as 1st boot priority.

 

[Ketchup]

i had SSDs uplugged from power for almost an hour, when i plugged everything back - nothing changed.

i also have the SSDs as 1st boot priority.

Is your RAID0 array showing as healthy in the RAID BIOS?

 

[g1981c]

FIXED ! typing this on the undead computer

what happened is when i installed ram yesterday i got this message:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8196/8387676015_659f9757df_k.jpg

and like an id1ot i pressed F2

it then wiped out all my settings, reset them to default and loaded windows.

then today the PC wouldn't start because it disabled RAID in BIOS because it's disabled by default.

it also enabled the BIOS splash screen, which is the default but i had it disabled. the appearance of the splash screen was the clue that it had reset the settings.

i read the mobo manual and it said CTRL+I to get to RAID setup, but no matter how many times i tried i couldn't get in. then i re-read the mobo manual and it said that to get to the RAID setup you must first enable RAID in BIOS.

so i found the settings in BIOS and re-enabled the RAID and voila - it booted straight up - i never needed to go into the RAID menu to adjust anything - merely enable RAID to begin with.

i then installed the RAM again, got the message again and took the picture for you ... only this time i pressed F1 and not F2 which took me to BIOS where i didn't touch anything and just saved and exited.

then just to be sure i shut the PC down, and booted it up again - no problems.

moral of the story - i am an id1iot - next time before wiping all the BIOS settings maybe i should just slow down and think for a second !

thanks everybody !

 

[Puppies04]

Glad you fixed it .