Help with Kingston V300, won't boot

[runit3]

So, against my better judgement I bought a Kingston V300 from Newegg during black Friday/cyber Monday. I'm giving away/retrofitting an old computer to a friend and the V300 was going to save me $20-30 over my usual choice (840 EVO) and thought why not test one out.

 

Installed Win 7, updated, benched some games, drivers installed flawlessly. Everything was working fine. Turned the computer off and left it off for 4 days while I waited for the WD 1TB to come in so I could get the game library running for him.

 

Turn the computer on today, no boot record. BIOS recognizes the drive, all of the data is still on the drive (confirmed this with another system), and I was even able to run exec's from it -I could not boot to the drive from my other computer. However, when I have it in the rig I'm giving away and throw a Win 7 install disc in the first time I got an error to the effect of, "Windows cannot install on this drive, make sure it is enabled by the controller in the BIOS", SECOND time I booted to the install disc it appeared as if I could format the drive and install as usual, despite there already being an install. Chose to try and repair the install with the disc, it looked like it was repairing, reboot, still no boot device detected.

 

I've dealt with a lot of computer issues over the years but this is by far the most confusing cluster-**** of an issue, I have absolutely no clue what could be going wrong. The only time I've had drives fail was data corruption or just complete death. In this case a majority (couldn't check it all) of the data is still there and executable, but it refuses to boot and Win 7 disc won't recognize an MBR corruption if there was one.

 

Anyone have any ideas besides RMA'ing the drive? I can't get a refund...which is really what I would rather do at this point.

[flibberdipper]

Is it set as the first boot device in the BIOS?

[runit3]

Is it set as the first boot device in the BIOS?

yes, when it was in both computers. Tried booting directly from boot override menu and within UEFI on my second computer. No dice.

 

Also hard reset CMOS on the give-away rig, re-enabled priority -no go, boot override -no go

[flibberdipper]

yes, when it was in both computers. Tried booting directly from boot override menu and within UEFI on my second computer. No dice.

 

Also hard reset CMOS on the give-away rig, re-enabled priority -no go, boot override -no go

Really stupid idea, but is the SSD on the first SATA port (like SATA 0 instead of SATA 5), and then the HDD on the next one?

[runit3]

Really stupid idea, but is the SSD on the first SATA port (like SATA 0 instead of SATA 5), and then the HDD on the next one?

I've swapped it to all available ports. Makes no difference. Tried with no other drives connected. The new drive wasn't even formatted so there's no conflict there.

[SeanBond]

Well your first problem was getting a kingston v300. I know this isn't helpful for your issue but when you get into windows and see how slow it runs compared to ever other ssd on the planet you will hate yourself for getting it. So before you become invested return it if you can and spend the same amount or a couple dollars more to get something 3 times faster.

[runit3]

Well your first problem was getting a kingston v300. I know this isn't helpful for your issue but when you get into windows and see how slow it runs compared to ever other ssd on the planet you will hate yourself for getting it. So before you become invested return it if you can and spend the same amount or a couple dollars more to get something 3 times faster.

Yessssss yessss had I known then what I know now... It's going into an H55 board with an i5. Thing is ancient and figured it would be the least of my problems. The used 280X I picked up for $140 runs better lol

[SeanBond]

Yessssss yessss had I known then what I know now... It's going into an H55 board with an i5. Thing is ancient and figured it would be the least of my problems. The used 280X I picked up for $140 runs better lol

An ancient i5? Really it's not terrible buy for something that is sata 1 or 2. But if it's sata 3 my heart bleeds for you. Can you really not return it for taking a big hit? Because even if you lose 10 on a restocking fee it might be worth it. I would get a v300 for an old cheap laptop that has a dead hard drive. I am actually considering restoring one with it. 

[runit3]

An ancient i5? Really it's not terrible buy for something that is sata 1 or 2. But if it's sata 3 my heart bleeds for you. Can you really not return it for taking a big hit? Because even if you lose 10 on a restocking fee it might be worth it. I would get a v300 for an old cheap laptop that has a dead hard drive. I am actually considering restoring one with it. 

"Return Policies

This item is covered by Newegg.com's Iron Egg Guarantee Replacement-Only Return Policy.

We want to ensure your holiday shopping this year is hassle-free. That’s why we’re automatically extending our return policies on almost every product to January 31, 2015. There's nothing additional that you have to do!

• Return for refund within: non-refundable
• Return for replacement until: January 31, 2015
• Restocking Fee: None"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721107&cm_re=v300-_-20-721-107-_-Product

 

Board is SATA 2. Going to try reformatting it in my rig and seeing if magical things happen.

[SeanBond]

"Return Policies

This item is covered by Newegg.com's Iron Egg Guarantee Replacement-Only Return Policy.

We want to ensure your holiday shopping this year is hassle-free. That’s why we’re automatically extending our return policies on almost every product to January 31, 2015. There's nothing additional that you have to do!

• Return for refund within: non-refundable
• Return for replacement until: January 31, 2015
• Restocking Fee: None"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820721107&cm_re=v300-_-20-721-107-_-Product

 

Board is SATA 2. Going to try reformatting it in my rig and seeing if magical things happen.

Return within non  refundable? Awesome lol. I think kingston made this drive undrefundable. They are doing this on purpose and it's a horrible horrible buisness practice. It's crazy and I will not recommend them until they fix this issue.

[runit3]

New development, figured why not run a dskchk before I formatted;

The "found" folder is not in root directory of my running OS drive or the Kingston...mysteriously does not want to be "found"

Guess I can try to boot to it again, although this does not bode well.

[runit3]

Yep. Still won't boot with either override, priority, or solo drive.

On the upside, this thing may make a nice coaster.