SSD not recognized in bios or by windows

[LetsPlayThisBro]

I shut down my system last night as usual, no problems, push the power button today, nothing. SSD not recognized by either the bios or windows 7, win7 repair disk says, "unable to repair this version of windows" Even though I made the disk with the computer with that version of windows on it. I was ready to eat a bit of data loss as it's been more than a month since my last backup. But being unable to recognize my SSD is a problem.

I remember this happening once before but can't find the instructions I followed about plugging it in, unplugging it for 20 seconds etc... it was a rather simple but specific set of things to do and then the SSD was recognized again, if I can find those instructions I'd like to try that again. Any direction for this? Or any other suggestions?

I'm willing to eat the data loss but I'd hate to have to install windows on my mechanical drive. Coincidentally the SSD just past it's 3 year warranty coverage by about 3 months. I was ready to buy a new one with more space, guess I have my motivation now, but if I can get it working even for a week or two so I can restore/clone the drive over to the new one that would be great.

 

[glamdringfh]

You could certainly try unplugging the SATA cables from the SSD and waiting for 20 seconds before plugging them back in. Also check to make sure the SATA cables are secure on the motherboard and PSU.

If the problem is not with the cables then I'm afraid you're probably out of luck and your drive has given up the ghost. IF you can get it running even for a short while, get as much data as you can off of it as you can as quickly as possible as there is little chance of it lasting you two more weeks.

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

Well I was able to get it recognized, I had to delete the partitions though and reinstall 7 from scratch. I will be changing out the SSD soon but hopefully I can get a couple weeks out of it. Long enough to clone it so I don't have to do a complete reinstall again. Time will tell.

 

[glamdringfh]

Glad you could get it going again. Good luck!

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

Glad you could get it going again. Good luck!

Yeah, but now I find myself a whole new set of problems that make no sense. My 3TB HDD I also reformatted, but now it's showing I only have 1.99TB on it. Really trying to figure out what's going on here. Both of these drives are actually just over 2 years old, now that I pulled the Amazon invoice out, so I would think they're both under warranty. Need to download Crystal Disk or something to see what it can discover about the disk health on these. Just very very strange.

EDIT: Ok there is an unallocated portion of the HDD I tried to extend the drive to pick up the remaining unallocated space and it tells me it can't do that on an MBR drive. Anyone know how I can fix this?

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

Ok, I think your 2 week estimate was being very generous. Multiple BSOD's after reinstalling Win7 to the drive, amazingly it let me install Win7 in the first place. Corrected the issue with the HDD but I ordered a new SSD and won't attempt a reinstall until after it arrives, I'm told by Tuesday, so I'm expecting it Wednesday, that's just the kind of luck I've been rolling. HA.

I'm debating if now is the time to upgrade to Win8.1 or even 10.

 

[glamdringfh]

You made the right choice by getting a new drive. Once a drive starts to fail it really goes downhill quickly. As for upgrading windows, that's a totally different can of worms to open. Search articles on Tom's Hardware on the subject, as there have already been some great posts regarding the pros and cons of upgrading.

Cheers!

 

[LetsPlayThisBro]

Well once I install the new drive I'm gonna have to work out the RMA program for the other one, Crucial M4 but I bought it in June 2013 so with a 3 year warranty I would hope the process would be fairly easy.