Ssd became "unknown" after start up

[Richard50213]

SSD (960gb sandisk ultra II) is no longer recognized by my computer. I was mostly storage for games. Was working normally then I had a startup that froze and now drive is not there. Is it just toast?? Thank you in advanced

 

[Mighty]

You don't give any specs on your system. Is this the only internal drive? Based on the way you worded the "...just using it for storage..." I'm going to assume it is not the only drive.

I can think of a few possibilities off the top of my head.

The simplest is the power connector wasn't plugged in all the way, and it has finally pulled free enough that it's not powering the SSD. Re-seat that cable. Both ends if it isn't hard-wired in to the power supply. I suppose the same could be true of the SATA cable, so re-seat that at both ends, too.

There's a teeny chance that there's some issue with one of those cables or the other. Try a different SATA cable. Try a different power cable. Not likely, but cheap and easy to test.

Otherwise, the two possibilities are a failure in the motherboard or in the SSD.

The motherboard can be easy to check if you have open SATA connectors available. Just move the SATA cable to a different socket and see if it becomes visible. If it does, then that SATA connector has gone bad, for some reason. That might be the first of a series of failures, so you might consider saving up for a replacement motherboard.

Finally, you can check the SSD itself with a SATA-to-USB adapter. They're available on Amazon or at Fry's really cheap. I think I paid $15-20 for mine a few years ago. I'll bet you can find some for under $10, now. That's also a handy device to have on your shelf if you ever do lose a computer and still have the HD/SSD available to pull data from.

Anyway. If the SSD isn't visible when plugged into that adapter, then it's prolly dead, and you're out of luck. Hope you have a backup system set up.

Drake Christensen

 

[Richard50213]

You don't give any specs on your system. Is this the only internal drive? Based on the way you worded the "...just using it for storage..." I'm going to assume it is not the only drive.

I can think of a few possibilities off the top of my head.

The simplest is the power connector wasn't plugged in all the way, and it has finally pulled free enough that it's not powering the SSD. Re-seat that cable. Both ends if it isn't hard-wired in to the power supply. I suppose the same could be true of the SATA cable, so re-seat that at both ends, too.

There's a teeny chance that there's some issue with one of those cables or the other. Try a different SATA cable. Try a different power cable. Not likely, but cheap and easy to test.

Otherwise, the two possibilities are a failure in the motherboard or in the SSD.

The motherboard can be easy to check if you have open SATA connectors available. Just move the SATA cable to a different socket and see if it becomes visible. If it does, then that SATA connector has gone bad, for some reason. That might be the first of a series of failures, so you might consider saving up for a replacement motherboard.

Finally, you can check the SSD itself with a SATA-to-USB adapter. They're available on Amazon or at Fry's really cheap. I think I paid $15-20 for mine a few years ago. I'll bet you can find some for under $10, now. That's also a handy device to have on your shelf if you ever do lose a computer and still have the HD/SSD available to pull data from.

Anyway. If the SSD isn't visible when plugged into that adapter, then it's prolly dead, and you're out of luck. Hope you have a backup system set up.

Drake Christensen

Yeah sorry about the brief message it was late and I was p/o and sleepy.
spec: i7 6700k
16gb ram
gtx 1080
asus Z170a

boot drive 120 gb 840 evo
extra drives 1tb wd black
512 mushkin ssd
960gb sandisk ultra II

I opened case and checked fittings of power/data both good and snug swapped connections on board with other drive and the other drive still is detected/ works fine. The strange thing is when I am in bios screen it does not detect the drive whatsoever but in device manager under disk drive there is an "Unknown device " which i'm assuming is the 960gb sandisk. I will attempt to swap power and sata cable to see if those are the problem. do you have any other suggestions before I start the warranty process??

Thanks again!!!

 

[Mighty]

do you have any other suggestions before I start the warranty process??

Just the SATA-to USB adapter. But I'm not optimistic. It does sound like the drive is mostly dead. Just enough response that Windows knows there's something there, but not enough to fully identify itself.

I understand about typing a message when tired and frustrated.

Good luck