SSD disapeared, no longer recognised (not detected) in BIOS or windows after 'format'

[Joseph1986]

Hi there, I'm by no means an expert but can usually fix my issues by searching for related problems and tinkering. But there's not any answers or solutions to this problem (if there is one) that I can find that have worked.

Basically, I bought a PS3 with a OCZ Agility 3 120gb SSD inside. I wanted to use that for my PC and put a standard hdd in the ps3. So i took the ssd out, put it in my pc and ran disk manager to find the disk. Windows had already installed the drivers for it automatically and notified me in the sys tray so sure enough it was in there and even showed the name of the device etc. It was all unallocated as you may expect and so i started to create a new volume.

Everything seemed to go ok, i left the room and continued with some other bits and when i next looked at the screen the process had stopped, there were no successful or failed notifications and there was no drive. I restarted the PC and it would not boot. I got to the bios and it was hanging looking for the SSD drive in SATA port 2. I could not enter bios because it had to find the drives first. If i took the ssd drive out it loaded no problem.

I then went into BIOS and changed the SATA to load AHCI. This allowed the PC to boot further but after several seconds searching the SSD was still 'not detected' and the OS HDD wouldn't boot due to the change from 'SATA/IDE' to 'AHCI'. I changed back, loaded windows without ssd, applied a fix from MS website and then it booted fine and installed new drivers for the sata ports and hdd. It booted to windows with the ssd in too although the SATA III SSD was still undetected in the bios after searching for several seconds for it.

I HAVE TRIED... all of the usual things, changed cables & sata ports (all enabled in BIOS), checked RAM via BIOS tools (np's), installing windows/partition etc via Windows booted from a USB, looked in disk manager, cmd, diskpart. I have also tried removing power and turning on (someone suggested it to remove any residual power & worked for someone else's problem) removing m'board battery for a min, powering PC off overnight.

I have NOT tried connecting the drive as a USB as i don't have an external SATA - USB converter yet, although that was going to be my next port of call. I also have not updated BIOS as i don't think that's the issue so didn't want to risk it. OCZ's own toolbox can't even find it when booted from windows or from USB (before windows loads) (although the toolbox also cant see that i have a wireless adapter) I also haven't tried removing any other components as it found it originally nor have i tried plugging just the power into the ssd and not the data cable for 20 mins, restarting and repeating as i saw posted on one forum as a (possible) solution to someone else's problem.

I put the SSD back in the playstation and it predictably says (after a minute or 2 of a black screen "cannot start. The appropriate system storage was not found" It won't reformat it or anything.

I have no data i care about keeping, all i want is to install Windows 7 onto the SSD and use it as my PC's primary drive.

PC Specs are:
M'board - ASROCK K10N78
BIOS - P1.70 (most recent 2.0, FEB 2010)
CPU - AMD ATHLON II X4 620, 2.61GHz
RAM - Duel Channel 4GB. 1) 2gb pc2 6400 1) 2gb pc2 5300 (both running at 5300 obviously)
GPU - Nvidia GeForce GT 640 3GB
Windows 7 (6.1) Ultimate Edition 32 bit SP1
PSU - Win Power ATX-450
1 x DVD Drive (IDE)
2 x HDD 1) w/OS - 500gb SATA 1) 2TB SATA w/2 Partitions (used to store media and backups) Only one or 0 hard drives plugged in alongside SSD as i only have 2 Sata Power connectors.
Also run a Logitech Wireless Keyboard and a Tenda wifi adapter.

I need to know what's caused it so i can ensure it doesn't happen again and how to fix it so i can use this drive. The Bios see's something's there but it just can't detect what. The PS3 the same, it tries for ages on a blank screen before it gives up and admits it cannot load. I used the SSD for about an hour in the PS3 with no problems at all, i can't believe it would have just died. PLEASE HELP

 

[huilun02]

SeaTools may help to zero-fill a data corrupt drive, or determine if it is usable.

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

SeaTools for Windows if you are able to run Windows with the drive plugged in.
Otherwise, use SeaTools for DOS. Use the respective guide.

 

[Joseph1986]

I installed SeaTools for Windows and it can't find the drive either. Just finds one drive, the 500gb hdd that the OS runs from. Would it work better in DOS as the BIOS doesn't recognise it either just says 'not detected' after trying for several seconds. But whichever port the ssd is connected to, that's the port that the BIOS tries to find. eg Auto-Detecting SATAII_1 SMT3500(500gbhdd)
Auto-Detecting SATAII_5... Not detected

 

[huilun02]

You could try in DOS mode. If that still doesn't work it might be too badly damaged to recover.

 

[Joseph1986]

Hi, I tried it in DOS mode (through windows in X Boot's QEMU as it wouldn't load as boot). I have bought a cheap SATA to USB from Ebay to try and connect it through USB, see what happens. (Ad say's that its USB 2 and SATA 2 Compatable. My MB runs USB 2 and Sata 2 but the SSD is Sata 3. I thought they were all backwards compatable but could that have anything to do with anything?) Any suggestions? How has it died? I don't want to pay another £60-70 on another SSD and the same happens.

 

[huilun02]

Test it on another PC. If its just as unresponsive, its dead.

No idea what happened to it.

 

[4745454b]

USB adapters usually don't work. It adds a layer of complexity. I was going to suggest zero filling the drive myself. I to suggest trying it in another system.

 

[Joseph1986]

I tried it on my laptop with the usb adapter to no avail. I can't try it in my other PC as the 4-pin MB power connecter won't click in fully for some unknown reason. What is Zero Filling?

 

[huilun02]

Zero filling means to overwrite all of the media's storage space with zeroes. Data is stored in binary form, ones and zeroes. So if everything is changed to zero, no data will be left in the drive.

However the hardware has to be functioning in order to do that. Your drive appears to have failed hardware.

 

[4745454b]

Zero filling is a tool that will write zeros to the drive. Totally. It's completely blank. It's what huilun02 suggested doing with Seatools. But you said seatool couldn't even see the drive. If its not in dos and seatools can't find it, then it's either not hooked up right, or the drive is dead. Make sure the drive is fully hooked up, power and data cable, SATA ports are turned on, etc. If it's not in the bios or can't be seen, then it's dead.