SDD Broke

[Metspitzer]

I have Win7. It was working fine. I plugged in my Ipod Classic and
it hung a couple of times trying to run Itunes. I have unplugged the
Ipod, but now the computer will not boot. I can access the bios, but
when I try to boot, the HD light shows continuous red. No safe mode
prompt. BTW the HD is an SSD drive.

Suggestions

 

[Paul]

I have Win7. It was working fine. I plugged in my Ipod Classic and
it hung a couple of times trying to run Itunes. I have unplugged the
Ipod, but now the computer will not boot. I can access the bios, but
when I try to boot, the HD light shows continuous red. No safe mode
prompt. BTW the HD is an SSD drive.

Suggestions

When you access the BIOS, is the SSD shown by name in one of the
BIOS screens ? The BIOS "detection" steps, include asking for
the name of the hard drives. The name of your SSD, tells you the
thing is not completely dead.

Do you keep backup images of your SSD ?

That's part of owning an SSD. If it isn't backed up, it's sure to break.
Murphy's law. If you have a broken SSD, and it's under warranty, when
the replacement shows up in a couple weeks, you just restore from your
backup.

*******

You can boot something else, like a Linux CD and test the device there.
See if it is visible. If it's visible, and you can see some files on it, then
it could be that something needed to make it boot, is busted. If no
partitions show up at all, or Linux can't even detect the hardware, it
could have suffered a firmware failure.

Another alternative, is to move the SSD to one of your computers that
does boot. Connect it to a SATA port, connect up the power, then turn
on the PC and see if it's visible in Windows there.

If the OS on the SSD is Windows 7, and you have a retail DVD, booting
that DVD may have some boot repair options. If the OS is WinXP, and you have
a CD which matches the Service Pack of the installed OS, you could try
a repair install (this may require uninstalling any optional versions
of Internet Explorer first). But first, I'd want to do a little bit of checking,
to see if there is anything left to repair. If the hardware is
completely dead, some of the other fixes won't work.

In short, there are plenty of things to try, besides hand wringing
In fact, there are too many things to try... What you attempt next,
could depend on whether you have some Linux CDs, or another working
computer to use for debugging. Plug it in somewhere else, and test it.

I wish all these SSDs came with a diagnostic program. But I suppose
that is asking too much of their manufacturers.

Paul

 

[Metspitzer]

I have Win7. It was working fine. I plugged in my Ipod Classic and
it hung a couple of times trying to run Itunes. I have unplugged the
Ipod, but now the computer will not boot. I can access the bios, but
when I try to boot, the HD light shows continuous red. No safe mode
prompt. BTW the HD is an SSD drive.

Suggestions

Update:
Ocz Tech support suggested resetting the Cmos. After resetting, I got
a prompt to pick last good config. The hard drive light stayed red. I
am getting an RMA for replacement.

Thanks everyone

 

[Metspitzer]

Update:
Ocz Tech support suggested resetting the Cmos. After resetting, I got
a prompt to pick last good config. The hard drive light stayed red. I
am getting an RMA for replacement.

Thanks everyone

I tried to put the drive in an XP machine and the machine won't boot
at all.

 

[Paul]

I tried to put the drive in an XP machine and the machine won't boot
at all.

That happened to me once, when a drive was missing the MBR or master boot
record at Sector 0. On that computer, I had just erased sector 0, using
an eraser program. And when I went to reboot, the BIOS wouldn't do anything while
that drive was connected. Connecting the erased disk to a different computer,
I could work on it. So that was a BIOS issue.

An alternative, is to use a computer with AHCI driver for the SATA ports.
That makes "hot swap" or "hot plug" an option. In that situation, you leave
the SATA port power connector connected to the drive, and turn on the computer.
(That means, the SATA drive will be spinning when the computer powers on.)
You leave a SATA data cable, dangling from the hard drive. Once the computer
finishes booting from the regular boot disk, you then plug the other end
of the SATA data cable, into the motherboard SATA port that supports AHCI
and hotplug.

AHCI would be a more common feature, ready to go, on a Windows 7 system.
Normally, users don't set up their WinXP machines for AHCI, as it takes
extra work at installation time (set BIOS to AHCI, press F6 during install,
offer AHCI driver to the Windows installer).

You can do the same thing with a SATA docking station, but before I would
use a dock, I'd want to make damn sure the power is off on the hard
drive, before popping it out of the dock like a piece of toast
Some of those docks or trays, treat the drive like dirt.

Yet another alternative, would be a USB to SATA enclosure, plus your
busted SATA drive. Plug in the USB enclosure, after the OS is finished
booting, and you can try accessing it.

HTH,
Paul