SSD not detected in BIOS

[IBM]

Hi,

recently, my PC hasn't been able to boot because it doesn't detect the boot drive. My Samsung 840 Evo has windows 7 installed. But after installing some windows updates, it isn't detected by the PC anymore.

What could be the problem and how do I fix it ?

Any input would be appreciated,

Thanks

[theKumba]

Is it shown in the Bios? If not either your Sata port or your storage controller is broken. If I had to guess I would say the last one because a SSD has limited amounts of write/overwrite cycles. If it turns out that I was right then your drive should be useless and and would have to get a new one.

!disclaimer I'm not a technician in any way but I had a similar problem with an Sandisk SSD one or two years ago and I turned out that the storage controller was dead so I had to replace it.!

[bry.yyyy]

check the sata port

[soup]

...a SSD has limited amounts of write/overwrite cycles.

 

Whilst this is true (something in the region of five years use at 20GB a day), I feel the SSD would die of something else LONG before this limit was reached (in domestic use).

[bobman279]

SSD usually need drivers to run and to achieve the average speed (SUPER FAST) of ssds. And i would recommend running from a hdd not ssd

[IBM]

I tried switching wires and ports with my optical drive, hard drive, and SSD. Some combinations detect some devices, but never detects the SSD

[FizzyFantom]

Had the drive been acting stragely before the issue?

It sounds like the drive spontaneously died, which is odd for an SSD. I don't think it would be a problem with having written the drive to death as the data would still be on the drive (even though it might not boot it would definitely appear in the BIOS).

Have you tried the drive in another PC?

[IBM]

There's a whole story to my PC's problems, and the root of the problem is overclocking...

Since you asked for it, here we go.

Once upon a time, there was a guy who just built his PC. He was happily playing games , doing the usual stuff, then one day, as he looked at his BIOS' RAM OC option, he decided to try something on his Corsair Vengeance RAM sticks. He foolishly decided to set values to 1-1-1-1-1 ( or something like that ). Obviously, the PC didn't boot afterwards. He panicked ! After some research , he learnt how to reset the BIOS by re-inserting the CMOS battery. After doing so, life was back to normal...

But it didn't ! Windows seemed to have detected the PC as a new one, hence claiming that Windows was fake. And so, the frustrated young man decided to fix the problem again. He was very foolish again. He decided to re-install Windows over his original HDD with windows already installed. He didn't know that he had to format it before re-installing the new OS. But while doing so, he also realised that his PC wont shutdown normally. The PC would always restart instead of shut down whenever he selected shutdown from windows. His only option was to turn off the PSU when he shuts down the PC before it automatically restarts again.

Back to windows re-installation. Everything was fine, until he realised that his HDD had a lot less space. Soon, he realised his mistake, and so he had to visit another fellow PC builder to format his HDD.

Once that was done, he reinstalled windows as per normal. But it didn't turn out as planned. The restarting problem still occurs. But he managed to live with it over time. Anyway, he still could enjoy his games.

* SSD now purchased and Windows 7 was installed successfully *

Then one stupid idea came about. He thought of fixing the problem, he got advice that he should ' upgrade ' windows. He was instructed to insert his windows installation disk while already in windows, run it and select upgrade instead of install. That supposedly would fix failed windows updates and hopefully fix the restart problem. Sadly, it did not.

The PC got a lot more cranky after the windows updates. Sometimes, the PC would freeze, sometimes it wouldn't detect boot drive.

Now he had another dumb idea. He assumed that formatting his HDD, and leaving his boot drive ( SSD )alone. He planned to format the SSD and reinstall windows again, but once he formatted the HDD, BIOS would occasionally detect the SSD.

Now we, reach present times. How many problems did you count ? Anyway, now you know the full story, now you know that I would never overclock. I would pay to get my PC fixed, but if the guys back at tomshardware can't do it, I doubt my local stores could do so without overcharging me.

This darn PC.