SSD Not Detected Anymore

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08-29-2011, 01:19 PM
Timman_24

SSD Not Detected Anymore

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.
08-29-2011, 02:20 PM
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.
08-29-2011, 03:17 PM
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.
08-29-2011, 03:40 PM
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.
08-29-2011, 05:00 PM
James

First suggestion: If possible, connect the drive to another known good system. See if it shows up there.
08-29-2011, 05:04 PM
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.
08-29-2011, 05:22 PM
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.
08-29-2011, 05:50 PM
Timman_24

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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.
08-29-2011, 07:05 PM
ua549

I don't see the firmware version listed in device manager. Where is it located?
08-29-2011, 07:10 PM
Timman_24

Quote:

Originally Posted by ua549

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.
08-29-2011, 08:22 PM
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.
08-30-2011, 02:33 PM
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.
08-31-2011, 04:05 PM
Geforce255

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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.
08-31-2011, 08:33 PM
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.
09-01-2011, 04:39 PM
Timman_24

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

Don't get me wrong, I noticed it for sure. Especially when I had numerous programs beginning on startup. However, once the system gets started it is a little less noticeable since Win7 pre-caches your most used programs.

I guess my point is, I was surprised how easy it was to go back to a HDD for the OS. I will definitely be going back to a SSD, but I think the big benefit for me is when I can put my steamapp folder on a SSD, which will be quite some time seeing that it is 400GB haha.

After going to a SSD and then going back to a HDD, I'm not sure it was worth the extra money at this point for me. The 4 month failure does leave a bad taste in my mouth, so I may be a little bias right now :D

What would be nice is if Steam allowed multiple storage locations for the steamapp folder which you could choose upon downloading the game. Or, better yet, let me choose to move the games between locations. Say, if I want to store Dead Space on my HDD archive when I am not going to be playing it and then click "move to SSD" for when I am planning to play it more often.
09-01-2011, 04:40 PM
Timman_24

Also, I applied for the RMA and will be shipping it today or tomorrow. OCZ makes me pay for shipping both ways... Kind of lame to do with all the problems they have been having. Hopefully they send me a Vertex 3 :) :)
09-01-2011, 06:02 PM
ua549

FWIW I have not had any issues with my Vertex 3 running firmware 2.06.
02-23-2012, 08:03 PM
armchairnavigator

6-7 months is pretty good

>

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

6-7 months lifespan for ocz ssd is pretty good - the average life of an ocz ssd for me is about 4 months, after which you get the inevitable drive not detected by bios. crap knows why anyone bothers with them.
02-23-2012, 08:04 PM
armchairnavigator

Quote:

Originally Posted by ua549

FWIW I have not had any issues with my Vertex 3 running firmware 2.06.

hmm, know issues with a ocz ssd ? you only way i know you can have no issues with one of those is that you never got round to installing it !
02-23-2012, 08:43 PM
ua549

Quote:

Originally Posted by armchairnavigator

hmm, know issues with a ocz ssd ? you only way i know you can have no issues with one of those is that you never got round to installing it !

I hav 2 that have been running 24/7 for the past 6 months on my server with ~50 I/O's per second and on my notebook with more than 10 I/O's per second.

Perhaps you should stay in your armchair because you know not of what you speak!
02-24-2012, 12:30 PM
CrystalMeph

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

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).
02-24-2012, 12:39 PM
ua549

SSD's must be formatted on a 4k sector boundary for top performance.
02-24-2012, 08:50 PM
Timman_24

It is all subjective. I couldn't care less about boot times since I sleep my computer, which is why 15s vs ~30s maybe twice a month isn't a big deal.

I'm now on an Intel SSD and haven't had any troubles, but it has only been going for about 2-3 months.
03-02-2012, 02:19 PM
bldegle2

couple of points here, first, a ghosting/image install DOES NOT replicate spinners boot times, I have done many an image and at least an equal amount of 'fresh installs', boot times becomes ripping fast with an image, just the same as a fresh install..

The trick to ghosting properly lies in the way you do it, first, obviously, your spinner OS must be tight, no errors, defragged, all things CLEAN...then, image to the SSD WITHOUT formating the SSD, have it factory RAW or do a secure erase just before install or imaging, the imaging softwares now automatically align at install, DON'T format before install like with a spinner, you would do that only if the SSD is used as a storage drive...it takes me a total of maybe 45 minutes this way versus all day with updates and programs and data infusions...

Also, it is hit and miss with the sleep/hibernation function using an SSD, there is more than enough evidence of failure coming out of sleep/hibernation for me to disable it, one less thing to worry about..YMMV

Third, I am on the bandwagon RE: reliability...my first SSD (Vertex 3 120GB Sata III) went bellyup after about 45 days in my main rig, the second one has been nice since the RMA replacement, but I can not totally trust it after the first go round...

On the other hand, I slammed a SandDisk Ultra Sata II 120gb SSD (the notebook is Sata II only) , again properly cloned, and it has been a dream since day one, saturating the Sata II bus with 287+ reads and 267+ writes, this with an AMD based system, so it really smokes considering an 8 to 10% overhead on the 300 standard...

The next time the OCZ fails, I am switching brands, OCZ may sell a lot of SSD's because of performance and price, but their failure rate claims of only 1% overall is total bunk...their customer service rocks, at least it did for me the couple of times I needed to use it (ram back in the day, SSD now)...

I will bet in another years' time a lot of these current SSD's will be failing, I see many going strong for 6 months or a year, then whammo bammo out of the blue, my first one at least failed a slow miserable death rather than instant lockout, saved all the data, tried for weeks to get it to cooperate with secure erases, reflashing current firmwares more than once, 4 separate OS fresh installs, updates, program loads, at least an equal amount of loads of the original image from the 74gb Raptor it replaced, it just kept getting more and more funky, finally, I was completely locked out and I tried everything..

Just my several cents worth, I am loving the speed, but is the worry worth it down the long road?? In my world, before I got the Sandisk SSD, I only had handled 2 SSD's, one failed, so that is a 50% failure rate within two months, add the Sanddisk for the lappy, and that figure drops to 33%, still abnormally high...

On a side note, hot unplugging and replugging may bring the SSD back, grab your data, get a replacement...

The best part of the about all this is that, just like seat belts, pretty soon everyone will be doing backups, it should be a requirement included with the OS, automatic, no choice in the matter...

just sayin'....

laterzzzzzz.........