SSD Failure?

Came to switch on my PC (Win7 Pro 64-bit) this evening and was greeted with:-

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"

The Pc will boot from the Win7 disc and it offers to install.

Luckily, my PC is configured as:

C: Win7 and Programs only.

D: DVD R/W

E: Data

F: Copy of E: Data (I use a Batch file to copy what I want from E: to F: on a regular basis)

It also so happens that when I built the PC I fitted a 64 GB SanDisk SSD but later decided to up it to a SanDisk 128 GB. So not having wiped the original 64 GB SSD, I have just put that in and the PC boots fine.

So my diagnosis is a failed SSD C: drive. It is just under 3 years old, which is likely still under warranty.

The question is, since it looks like I will be replacing the SSD, which make should I use? I obviously would rather pay for quality/reliability here.

Many thanks in advance for your comments/suggestions.

Cheers!

ps I am logged in on my wife's pc, luckily I remembered my Password!

Try repairing the Master Boot Record using the Windows System Recovery tools. Your data will not be overwritten. If this doesn't fix it, try using SanDisk's toolkit. The problem is almost certainly that Windows cannot make sense of the MBR.

Edited by deleted (Mon 09-May-16 22:35:07)

What kind of size are you looking for ?

Samsung evo/pro 850s or above are great i have two 500GB in raid on my pc right now

I can also recommend Hynix have 1 in my laptop and 1 in the wifes and they run great both 250GB models

novatech have a cracking deal on them right now

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/components/harddr...

Edited by epyon (Tue 24-May-16 20:03:37)

i would say it is a windows problem more than hardware, if there is nothing on the drive you want to keep if rumster suggestion don't work, try cloning the working drive to none working drive, Macrium reflect is good for that.

My first SSD a corsair 120GB force 3 is 4 years old and still have no problem and do a lot fo reading and writing as I store video files on it.
Do the bios still recognise the drive?

If you do have to go for a new drive, and you do not mind paying a bit more then I recommend the Corsair Neutron XT, I have the240GB version, it cost about £78 on amazon

I have had no problem with it at all and if you do corsair is pretty good, I had a problem with my old force 3 one in that the firrmware update went belly up, sent it back and had a new one back after me having it for over 12 months.

Aria are selling 500GB SSD's for £130.

In reply to a post by epyon:

Samsung evo/pro 850s or above are great i have two 500GB in raid on my pc right now

I too have a 500GB Samsung Pro 850. Excellent performance, no problems to date, though only 1.89TB written so far.

In reference to techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all...:

At first I was pristine
Untouched and unwritten
And completely unaware
Of the life that I'd be livin'
But then you locked me in this case
A spectacle for all to see
And in that moment I resolved
Not to let you get to me

First we were six
All SSDs
Just lab rats in the crosshairs
Trying to cope with this disease
Electrons tunnel through our cells
With every write we slowly bleed
But all you seem to care about
Is the specs that we exceed

Go on, now watch
The gigs add up
An endless stream of files
Just to see if we'll get stuck
As one by one my friends around me slowly fall
Do you think I'll follow
Do you think I'm gonna hit the wall

Oh no, not I
I will survive
As long as I know how to write
I know I'll stay alive
I've got all my cells to give
And a persistent will to live
I will survive
I will survive, yeah yeah

Thousands of cells retired
All just to keep me whole
And still spares in reserve
So I don't lose control
I outlasted all my rivals
In this endurance race to death
And I won't lie
It puts a twinkle in my eye

And now you see me as somebody new
I'm not that chaste, naive virgin
Tryna prove something to you
'cause I took all of your best shots
Without a single error shown
You know I've written way more data
Than all of you have ever known

Go on, now watch
The gigs pile up
More senseless random files
Just to see if I'll get stuck
SMART money says that I've got miles in the tank
I ain't gonna stop now
And you can take that to the bank

Oh no, not I
I will survive
As long as I know how to write

I tried repairing the MBR without success and could not get SanDisk's Toolkit to run.

I too am convinced that it is a MBR issue but for the moment on hold until I am 100% sure that I can wipe the SSD and take it from there.

I did eventually get the SanDisk's Toolkit to run, whilst it did not help me with the issue, it did tell me that my usage of the drive was minimal. So it was not related to the drive being used as the page file.

Cheers!

In the early hours of 10th May I decided on a Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB from Novatech.

A bit of a stab in the dark really as to brand, but I decided that the solid metal case would be better than the rather flimsy plastic of the SanDisk, which easily flexes in my fingers.

Time will tell....

Cheers!

In the early hours of 10th May I decided on a Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB from Novatech.

A bit of a stab in the dark really as to brand, but I decided that the solid metal case would be better than the rather flimsy plastic of the SanDisk, which easily flexes in my fingers.

Although using a utility start Boot CD I could see the SSD whilst the pc's BIOS couldn't.

At the moment all seems ok. I did have a bit of fun after reinstalling Win7 64bit Pro when I started to have file ownership issues with the files on D: and E:

But that seems OK now.

My major worry was that on the C:drive I had HMRC PAYE data which for reasons sort of unknown had own were not backed up. I say sort of unknown since the data was backed up OK until I think an HMRC update restored the location to the default, which was on C: I normally have all my data on D: and routinely back up to E: Luckily the HMRC's default data folder was, although hidden, available via the Utility Boot CD and I was able to recover my position.

What has surprised me is the time taken for both Outlook2007 and Windows 7 to index the search facility. Over a week in fact.

My other issue is that whilst watching my batch-file copy data from D: to E: is that some folders cannot be copied. This I think relates to the length of paths + file
names. I can see me having to spend some time renaming files etc...

Cheers!