Problems with SSD and external HDD

[tehnicalx]

So a little while back I got myself a 128gb SSD (Corsair Force LX). It worked great, no problems at all. I installed windows 10 on it plus some programs that I frequently use. Everything else that needed storage (pictures, programs that I would use rarely, music, project files) would go on my old 1tb HDD that I used before the SSD that I bought.

Now the problem rose a few weeks back. I was doing work on my computer, had to leave for a second. I left the computer running. When I came back, moved my mouse and clicked on a few things, everything was not responding (even windows explorer). So I was like, what the heck, restarted my PC and it got stuck on the windows loading screen. It just loaded and loaded nothing happened, so I restarted my machine again. This time the error diagnostics came up and that froze as well.

So now I installed windows 10 on an empty HDD that I got from a friend of mine. Hoping that I could get all my data off the SSD to my main HDD that I used. Windows that I just installed (on the new HDD) got stuck on the loading screen. I shut downed my PC, opened it up and pulled out my SSD. (I figured that the SSD was screwing up something). Booted up my computer and it loaded windows.

I searched for solutions but didn't find fixes. I tried one thing: my computer was running and then I plugged in my SSD, rescanned disks from diskmgmt.msc. Disk management found the SSD but it froze my computer instantly. I don't know where to go from here.

Also I'm having trouble with my 1tb external disk, windows recognizes it, but it doesn't show up on "My computer". It shows up in disk management but with a yellow exclamation mark.

Maybe these two issues are caused by the same problem.
Please help me!! 🙁

My specs:

MOBO: ASUS P5P77D LE
CPU: Intel i5-750
GPU: Radeon rx 280x
DDR: DDR3 (don't know the manufacturer)
PSU: 600W 80plus silver
STORAGE: 1tb SAMSUNG HD103SJ, 1tb WD10EADS-00M2B0, and the Corsair force LX

 

[Boogieman_WD]

Hey there, tehnicalx.

What you've mentioned about the SSD could point to an SSD issue or a cable/port problem. So I'd recommend that you give it a try with a different SATA port and cables (data and power), or better yet - with a different computer, to see if the same thing happens. You could also download an SSD diagnostic tool, just to check its SMART data and see if anything alarming shows up.
As for the external drive, however unfortunate it might be, it could be a not related issue. Again, I'd advise you to go through the basic troubleshooting steps. Try it with a different computer and with a different USB cable. Check the SMART data (without running any tests for now), to see what's the situation.
The yellow exclamation means that the device is not working properly and this could be due to various reasons. One of them could be related to a faulty or old USB driver, another could be a faulty USB cable, or USB port.

If you have better results while testing the drives with a different computer, this would mean that it could be a motherboard related issue, so I'd advise you to reinstall or update all of the mobo related drivers and reset or update your BIOS/UEFI, to see if this changes anything.

Hope that helps. Please keep me updated.
Boogieman_WD

 

[tehnicalx]

Hey there, tehnicalx.

What you've mentioned about the SSD could point to an SSD issue or a cable/port problem. So I'd recommend that you give it a try with a different SATA port and cables (data and power), or better yet - with a different computer, to see if the same thing happens. You could also download an SSD diagnostic tool, just to check its SMART data and see if anything alarming shows up.
As for the external drive, however unfortunate it might be, it could be a not related issue. Again, I'd advise you to go through the basic troubleshooting steps. Try it with a different computer and with a different USB cable. Check the SMART data (without running any tests for now), to see what's the situation.
The yellow exclamation means that the device is not working properly and this could be due to various reasons. One of them could be related to a faulty or old USB driver, another could be a faulty USB cable, or USB port.

If you have better results while testing the drives with a different computer, this would mean that it could be a motherboard related issue, so I'd advise you to reinstall or update all of the mobo related drivers and reset or update your BIOS/UEFI, to see if this changes anything.

Hope that helps. Please keep me updated.
Boogieman_WD

Thanks for answering!

I tried my SSD and my external HDD on another computer, the SSD got stuck on the windows loading screen again, but the HDD worked. So I guess my SSD is gone for sure. Also I can't do much with the diagnostics tool because I can't start my computer when the SSD is plugged in. Even when I hot-swap the SSD my computer crashes instantly. My friend told me that I should try Linux Mint to try to access my files. I don't know much about it.

As for the external HDD, I have no clue whatsoever why it shouldn't work. All my flash drives work in the same usb port. It says in devmgmt.msc that the device cannot start (code 10). I googled it and tried various fixes, nothing worked.

 

[Boogieman_WD]

It seems like both issues are separate and unfortunately, it really sounds like the news for the SSD are bad. Your friend's suggestion could really be the only option you have of getting to your files, since you are unable to use the computer while you have the SSD connected and you've booted to Windows. Give it a go with Ubuntu Live USB/DVD, to see if this OS recognizes the partitions and lets you get to your data: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows. The link contains instructions on how to create a bootable USB drive with Ubuntu and where to download it from.

As for the external drive, this really seems like it could be a driver related issue. However, first I'd recommend that you backup the data and test the HDD for errors and bad sectors with a diagnostic tool (preferably the one offered by the manufacturer), just to make sure that it's in a good condition. If everything seems fine, then I'd recommend that you try to uninstall it from device manager (right click -> uninstall), while you have it connected to the problematic computer and then reconnect it to see if it works OK after Windows installs its driver again. If that doesn't work try updating your chipset driver for and the USB controller driver, to see if that fixes things up.

Please keep me posted.