SSD Boot Drive Disappears

TheLazyGrizzly · April 17, 2014

So i updated my rig in my signature from Windows 8 to 8.1, after it installed it rebooted and now the SSD won't boot. It dosnt show up in BIOS have tried all my sata ports and power cables, before I tried to install I had only written under 3 TB since I got it and Samsung software said 100% before I updated. Is it really dead? cause it seem weird that it should die right after window 8.1 was installed.

Alpha17x · April 17, 2014

Shut down, open you system. Disconnect all other hard drives, if any. Disconnect all non essential peripherals as well. You should only have a mouse and keyboard connected. Well the monitor too, obviously.

These instructions assume you're using a legacy bios. If you have UEFI, <do not follow these instructions>

Boot into your bios, reset to defaults and save changes. Leave overclocking off for now if that's a thing you have/use.

Enable Legacy BIOS or it might have a name like 'compatibility mode' or 'compatibility support' Set either the optical drive or usb drive as the first boot and if it's showing up now; the ssd to 2nd. Set the SATA controller to AHCI.

Save and exit.

Restart after doing this, go back into the bios right after and see if your drive is showing up. If it is; proceed.

Put your windows 8 or windows 8.1 install media in your usb or optical drive. Now save and exit or just exit as you shouldn't have made any changes.

You should be booting into either windows 8 recovery options or the windows 8 installer. If you're in the installer just go down to the bottom and choose 'repair your computer'

Enter 'Advanced recovery options' Give automatic recovery a try first. It it runs correctly and your drive is detected it will offer you the option to restart. You can take your disc/usb device out now and reboot otherwise you'll need to go into the bios and switch the boot drive back to SSD 1st.

If Windows boots at this point, You may then reconnect other drives and devices and do another restart to make sure it all works. After that you may go and reconfigure your bios to it's original customized state; if it was customized at all.

If you hit a snag on any of these steps, let us know. If you have UEFI, let us know. I'll work out some alternate methodology for you. Unless someone beats me to it.