Previously Working SSD suddenly can't be detected.

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

A little background: I built my own computer and am very interested in computers so I know a decent amount about how they work. I have my windows 8.1 home edition operating on a 240gb PNY SSD along with most of the programs I use most often. I have a 500gb hard drive from which I can boot into Ubuntu (don't know the build, sorry).

My PC has a weird problem where if I let it go to sleep sometimes I can't get the monitor to detect or display anything. When this happens I have to turn it off by holding the power button and then turn it back on again. I know it's not great for the computer, but it's never caused a problem before and happens infrequently.

A few days ago, after hardbooting it, when I rebooted it, the computer did not recognize the SSD and immediately booted to Ubuntu. I checked the BIOS, and found that the SSD was not being found at all. I tried switching out the SATA and power cables, neither of which worked. I also tried resetting the BIOS by taking out the battery, which did reset it, but did not detect the drive. I have tried inserting the installation disk and tried every repair option, all of which result in errors. The only thing I have not done is a SMART scan of the drive which hopefully I will be doing later today. My ubuntu drive works fine. I have a an iMac (from which I'm posting this) and the Ubuntu OS at my disposal. What should I do?

nukemaster · May 16, 2015

If the SSD is not detecting, It may have failed.

Without detection you can not repair install or even see the smart status.

Do you have access to another system with a spare sata port to test the ssd on just in case?

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

are you using a display port cable? sometimes get issues with some monitors and sleep using display port cables

not sure what you can do if the bios cant see the ssd though

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

nukemaster :

Not personally, however a friend is letting me use his computer for that purpose later today, I will post back once I have checked that out. Also, I just booted my Ubuntu, and found the drive in the menu. When I tried to open it it gave a long error that said, "SSD 250 exited with non-zero exit status 14: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0). Metadata dept in Windows cache, refused to mount. Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': OPeration not permitted. The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option." I don't really understand any of this...

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

Gilderien :

nukemaster :

Not personally, however a friend is letting me use his computer for that purpose later today, I will post back once I have checked that out. Also, I just booted my Ubuntu, and found the drive in the menu. When I tried to open it it gave a long error that said, "SSD 250 exited with non-zero exit status 14: The disk contains an unclean file system (0, 0). Metadata dept in Windows cache, refused to mount. Failed to mount '/dev/sda2': OPeration not permitted. The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shutdown Windows fully (no hibernation or fast restarting), or mount the volume read-only with the 'ro' mount option." I don't really understand any of this...

that sounds like windows hybrid sleep is the problem

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

Any idea what I can do about that?

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

Gilderien :

you need to be able to get the bios to see the ssd--which it should do if ubuntu sees it

then try windows repair and if that doesnt work re install windows

its because you held the power button in to shut it down while it was in hybrid sleep would be my guess

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

I don't think it's actually "seeing it" is the thing, I think it knows the filepath (or whatever it would be called for a hard drive) from previously, and that is what it is showing. When it tries to access it, it is jsut getting an error. That's my guess at least. I will update shortly once I have gotten smart stats on a friends computer.

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

i think ubuntu is seeing it--its telling you to try mounting it as read only

easy way to tell--disconnect it and restart ubuntu--if it doesnt see it then it was seeing it not remembering the path to it

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

You're totally right! Hmm... Now to see if I can get the BIOS to "see it" as well.

edit: I forgot to mention this earlier, I don't know if it means anything, but in my BIOS I have to choose which hard drive to boot from. When choosing between them, it shows the 500gb drive, but says disabled for the second drive.

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

Gilderien :

does it name the second drive thats disabled?

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

Nope.

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

Gilderien :

ok just thought i would ask--if it named it then at least it was seeing it

just to jump back a bit to what caused this originally

are you using a display port cable?

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

Posting this off of my friends computer, he downloaded a smart stats tool, but his computer can't detect the drive either. My computer is connected to my monitor with a DVI cable. Any ideas of what I should do to scan it?

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

did you check in disk management?

though unlikely to show there if the bios cant see it its still worth checking

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

mcnumpty23 :

No, its not...

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

guess you might need to figure out how to mount it with write permissions in ubuntu to format it

unless you can get some tool on a bootable usb or disk that can see it like hirens boot cd or something

Gilderien · May 16, 2015

mcnumpty23 :

okay, thanks, I'll look into those.

mcnumpty23 · May 16, 2015

Gilderien :

try ubuntu forums they are your best bet at the moment

nukemaster · May 16, 2015

I think it is bad. I mean the bios will always see a drive if it can at least boot. I have seen failed drives in other operating systems, but they do not mount.

Since it is asking you to not hibernate or use fastboot and you can not even access it to change such a setting(would need to load Windows).

I know for a fact that at the very least disk management(even for a short time with a drive that is starting to fail) would see it on another system if the drive was functional.

With 2 computers tested(almost ruling out a board issue), I am not sure how much luck you will have(even in linux).

This is unfortunate, but this is what I think happened.

Previously Working SSD suddenly can't be detected.

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