My PC suddenly doesn't detect the primary drive (SSD)

Question

My computer has been working fine for months, and it worked today, but tonight I went to start it up to find that my OCZ Vertex 2 isn't being found. When I turn on my computer, the loading screen gets stuck at "Detecting IDE drives...". After a while, it keeps going and lists the drives it finds. The first one in the list should be my Vertex 2, but it just says "None". The computer proceeds to get stuck on "Loading operating system...", which is understandable because the drive with the OS is "gone".

My first thought was drive failure, but every time drives have crashed on me, they're still detected--they just don't work. This drive is an SSD, it's pretty new, and I had no problems beforehand. I find it hard to believe it failed. I'm sure it's possible, but I hope this isn't the case. There has been nothing strange going on at all with my PC, it's been running perfect until now. I was just about to do my monthly dskchk and defrag today.

I popped in my Windows 7 Home Premium disk and booted from it. When I launched the repair tool, it didn't list any operating systems (because the drive is 100% missing...). When I've had disks crash before, it still listed the OS, you just couldn't do anything with it. I tried to restore from an image, but I don't have any of those, either. I opened the command console and listed the drivers with wmic logicaldisk get name. Only C: and D: came up. C: was my 1TB storage driver (luckily, all my stuff is here--only the OS is on the SSD!) and D: was the disk driver. So I still had an MIA drive... The SSD didn't come with any driver disks, so I can't install drivers. If there's a way to do this from a CD I can burn with my other PC, please let me know.

What the heck do I do? Although only the OS is on my SSD, a new SSD is expensive. I'll probably also have to buy a new copy of Windows (an upgrade would be nice, though...) because I've found it eats my registration key when my PC crashes (and my thousands of dollars of Adobe programs, I'll be on the phone with tech support for a week to get those keys back). And I'll lose my registry, all my settings, all sorts of other stuff that I'll spend weeks restoring. My computer is a pain in the butt to take out and open up, so if I can't fix it, I'll try fiddling with the plug or putting it into a new computer, but not right now.

Any help is greatly appreciated! The day when they make crash-less drives will be the day I live without worry.

Solution

Most probably your drive has died. When you say that every time a drive failed, it showed up. That is because usually the media fails, and not the circuit. I have had drives where I accidentally damaged the circuit, and as expected, the drive doesn't show up at all.

If the drive is within warranty, I am sure they will replace it.

If the data is your drive is really important, there are some data recovery companies that can attempt to recover it. Call OCX people and ask them if they have any authorized Data Recovery companies, and use one of them. That way, you will not lose your warranty.

Comments

[Michael Hampton]

Have you set your SATA mode in BIOS to AHCI?

[smoth190]

@MichaelHampton Yes, I did try that. I've already replaced my hard drive, sorry.

[Michael Hampton]

OK, no problem. It just never hurts to check the obvious stuff.

[smoth190]

I just have trouble believing that 2 hours ago it was running just as fine as it did when I bought it, and now it's broken. When you say the media failed, do you mean just the stuff on the drive is broken? Every time my drives have failed (on my laptop, because I dropped it or it got knocked while turned on) I've taken it to Geek Squad and they said the physical drive was broken. But it still showed up in the list.

[Richard Whitman]

Well, electronic equipment fails all the time. This happened to one of my motherboards the other day. It was working fine and suddenly stops and never boots ever after. Usually the cause is an electric surge.

[smoth190]

Well I had a pretty severe thunderstorm today. I was using it when it started and turned my PC off, and unplugged the power strip from the wall. I have surge protection (although I understand it isn't too great). However, it did work after this...

[Richard Whitman]

Media is the actual disks inside the drive that rotate, and the head that reads data from those disks. 99% of the time a drive fails, its because something is wrong with the disks or the head. Especially when you drop your laptop. These disks are very sensitive. The head floats on top of an air cushion generated by the high speed rotation of the disks. Its just a few microns away from the disk surface, and even a smoke particle stuck between the head and the disk can scratch the surface.

[Richard Whitman]

If it is within warranty, I wouldn't toss it, but get a replacement. Again, if you really can't live without the data in it, you can have it looked at. But its not always possible to recover data.

[smoth190]

Okay, thanks. I'll do some more work in the morning. I think it has a 12 month warranty.