SSD Not Detected Anymore

[Timman_24]

So, I woke up this morning to a BSOD. I restarted and it said it couldn't boot into windows. I went into the BIOS and my SSD is not showing up. I moved it to another sata port and changed the wire to no avail.

Am I pretty much screwed? I've only used it for about 6-7 months. I've never had a HDD fail on me and this is pretty disheartening as I had some semi-important data on there.

I'm going to pick up a Sata to USB cable and hopefully get back some data, but I doubt it.

Any quick fixes that may have caused it? If not, I will RMA, sell that SSD, and be done with them until they become more reliable.

[ua549]

What was the BSOD? Is the system fully protected from power anomalies, not just spikes?
Have you tried it on another system? It is possible that the formatting is messed up.

IMO SSD's are more reliable than rotating media. I have 2 of them (one with heavy server use) and have not encountered a single error. Prior to SATA, I used to go through a 2½" PATA drive in a month or two - all under warranty.

[Timman_24]

I put the computer to sleep and went to bed. I woke up to BSOD. I believe when the computer went to access the essential data it wrote to the SSD before sleeping, it did not find it and popped the BSOD. As for formatting, I don't see how that would cause the BIOS to not detect the SSD.

I do not have a UPS, but it is on surge protection. Everything else works fine in the house, so I do not believe that to be the problem.

[taggart6]

Have you tried clearing the BIOS? I've had issues before when my BIOs was flaking out over my CPU and I had to clear the BIOs to get it rebooted up. Obviously not the same thing, but maybe something happened with the MB.

[James]

First suggestion: If possible, connect the drive to another known good system. See if it shows up there.

[Timman_24]

I just hooked it up to my laptop using a SATA to USB connector. It will not recognize the drive. I plugged just the connector into the computer without the drive and it recognizes the connector. I then plug the drive into the connector and it disappears.

I've heard some SSDs had problems coming out of S3 sleep. Could this be the issue? If so, is this an RMA situation? OCZ forums say to never sleep or hibernate a SSD system as a precaution.

[ua549]

I hibernate my OCZ drive on my notebook quite often. I make sure the cache is flushed before hand. I've never had an issue.

[Timman_24]

I hibernate my OCZ drive on my notebook quite often. I make sure the cache is flushed before hand. I've never had an issue.

Make sure you are running 1.32 firmware or you could have issues. The forums are flooded with people having the same issue. Some get it on day one and others get it 6 months down the line. It kicks the SSD into "panic mode" and only a lucky hotplug or RMA will fix it.

[ua549]

I don't see the firmware version listed in device manager. Where is it located?

[Timman_24]

I don't see the firmware version listed in device manager. Where is it located?

You may need to download OCZ's SSD tools to check your firmware, you can upgrade through the same program suite unless your SSD is the boot drive. Then you have to do it through a linux boot up device or some other way.

[Timman_24]

I just got windows going again on my new HDD I picked up today. I got a Seagate 1TB Barracuda Black label. Nothing fancy just 7200RPM. Surprisingly, I notice very little difference in the boot time. It actually boots faster than when I had the SSD through the bios (not into windows though.) I don't have all my programs reinstalled yet, but I'm not feeling too much difference.

I'll probably hold off on getting a new SSD anytime soon. I'll RMA the one I have and most likely sell it to recoup some of the cost of my downtime and replacement, or I may throw it in my Netbook or PS3 for kicks.

I'll revisit SSDs when they are big enough (for the price) for me to put my games on there

EDIT: Also, I am beginning to sync my important files to Amazon S3 on a weekly basis, so this doesn't happen again.

[CrystalMeph]

I just got windows going again on my new HDD I picked up today. I got a Seagate 1TB Barracuda Black label. Nothing fancy just 7200RPM. Surprisingly, I notice very little difference in the boot time. It actually boots faster than when I had the SSD through the bios (not into windows though.) I don't have all my programs reinstalled yet, but I'm not feeling too much difference.

I'll probably hold off on getting a new SSD anytime soon. I'll RMA the one I have and most likely sell it to recoup some of the cost of my downtime and replacement, or I may throw it in my Netbook or PS3 for kicks.

I'll revisit SSDs when they are big enough (for the price) for me to put my games on there

EDIT: Also, I am beginning to sync my important files to Amazon S3 on a weekly basis, so this doesn't happen again.

If you don't see any difference in boot times between a 7200rpm HD and an SSD then something is not set up\configured properly. I have upgraded my Asus G73 laptop from a 7200rpm Seagate HD to an OCZ Vertex 2 a year ago. My boot times on the standard HD were about 45 seconds. After switching to the SSD the boot time was reduced to 18 seconds.
One word of advice I can give you is don't mirror\ghost your HD onto an SSD. You will end up with exactly the same boot times as your old mechanical drive (I tried that myself just to prove a point).

[ua549]

My OCZ Vertex 3 drive is running firmware 2.06.
2.09 is out but I'm not having any issues so I won't update.

[Geforce255]

My OCZ Vertex 3 drive is running firmware 2.06.
2.09 is out but I'm not having any issues so I won't update.

I've never touched the firmware on my Revo, never had any issues so I've left it alone. I don't keep anything important on the SSD, but it would be a real pain to have to reinstall windows, office and all the games.

[vertices]

My OCZ Vertex 3 would cause my system to BSOD about once every 12 hours. It was a common issue affecting many. 2.09 fixed all that for me.

SSDs are so much faster than a HDD. I'm surprised you don't notice it Timman. Huge difference for me.