SSD Setup/bootup error, help!!

I just received a brand new Corsair Force GT 180GB SATA III SSD
i removed the hdd inserted the ssd, screwed everything back on, inserted the windows 7 ultimate cd and turned on the laptop...

.. it started loading windows then after a few minutes displays this error:


Windows Boot Manager
Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer.
This error can be caused by unplugging a removable storage device such as a USB drive while the device is in use, or by faulty hardware such as hard drive or CD-ROM drive that is failing. Make sure any removable storage is properly connected and then restart your computer.

If you continue to receive this error message, contact the hardware manufacturer.

Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: an unexpected I/O error has occured.



i have re-opened the back and re-connected the ssd and it still displays this error once turned back on,

through googling i cant find a UK Corsair customer service?
is it an American only company, i bought it off ebay but it was sealed/brand new

does it sound like a faulty ssd, or have i done something wrong?

thanks

 

Unrelated, but did you change the BIOS setting to AHCI?

It could be a faulty SSD. That's the error you see when the controller in a drive fails.

 

when it was suggested to me yesterday i checked the bios and it was already set to AHCI,
i didnt check after i inserted the SSD as assumed it wouldnt change

or is the AHCI format i saw yesterday specifically for that hdd i was running at the time, so would need checking/changing when using a different hard drive?
could this be the reason for the error?

it was a brand new sealed SSD bought from ebay, so i wouldnt of thought it could be faulty when its brand new and sealed,

 

If the BIOS is set to AHCI then you should not have to change it. After looking at the 1 star reviews for similar products, I would recommend returning it and getting a Samsung or intel Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Corsair Force Series GT Red 180GB (6Gb/s) SATA 3 SF2200 controller Synchronous SSD (CSSD-F180GBGT-BK)
J.DRE is spot on!

 

thanks but ive given up on this ssd now, its clearly faulty,
im going to buy a samsung 830 128gb, but what is this norton ghost program for?
is it needed if i am just transferring files from a external usb hdd (30gb) when setting up ?

 

Norton Ghost is for cloning, so you won't need it if you'll do clean OS install and transfer data from external HDD.

 

Excellent choice. I've owned Samsung 830's the longest of all SSD's, and it is the best I have used. If you need any further assistance, shoot me a PM.

 

thanks dre, and all

 

Is this happening in the Asus notebook you recently dropped from a height of 5ft?

If so,your issues could be related to that drop and not the SSD.

 

yes its the same asus laptop i dropped, but i have since got a spare 150gb hdd installed and everything is working fine again

does this indicate their isnt a fault/damage to the laptop as the replacement hdd im using works fine?
or would you still expect the same problem to arise once i insert a samsung 830 ssd?

 

FFS!!!

I just installed the Samsung 830 , checked I was in ACHI mode, booted from the WIn7 cd And I get the Same error I first posted I had with the corsair ssd!!!!

So looks like the laptop drop damaged more than just the hdd

Is there anything I can do to fix this or even find out why I can't use ssd's?
It doesn't make sense as the replacement hdd I used works fine???

 

Since it's an Asus laptop, why not call Asus support?

 

So, let me get this straight. You start up the Windows installation process and this error shows up? Or the error shows up AFTER Windows is installed?

If it shows up before you install Windows, it's not the SSD. This could be something entirely different.

 

i would but they're closed on the weekends,

i just tried installing the 830ssd on another asus older spec ASUS K50IJ laptop, and it didbnt show that error so the fall must have damaged something,,
,,

BUT when i run the win7 ultimate setup (booted from usb as dvd drive faukty on this laptop) it shows that the ssd has total size of 118.5GB BUT there is 0.0MB Free space! so i cant install win7 ultimate,
is this a sign of a faulty as the drive was empty!

by the way as this ASUS K50IJ is several years old, how do i find out if it supports sata III or II or I?

 

It could be a faulty boot from the USB drive - the boot file is corrupted. This has nothing to do with the SSD.

You're going to need a Windows OS disc to solve this issue. If your DVD drive is broke, you need to get an external drive hooked up, or you are SOL.

 

thanks J for the continued help,

yes the error was appearing before win7 had started installing so nust be due to the laptop drop,


i used win to flash software to turn my usb and win7 ultimate cd and convert it to a bootable usb, i followed this video:
WinToFlash: Make a Bootable USB Installer for Windows 7 - XP and Vista by Britec - YouTube

do you know of a better tutorial to follow that isnt too complicated, which will create a win7 ultimate bootable usb properly with no faults?


as the only DVD drive i have access to is the one from my original asus k52f laptop, which i tried installing to the k50ij but it doesnt fit, is there another way to use the asus k52f dvd drive on the k50ij?
i dont have any external dvd drives

thanks again J

 

YouTube is not the go to place for tutorials now, is it? Lol...


See:
Microsoft Store Online



Steps:

1) download the ISO of the version of Windows 7 you have a license for.
2) download the Win7 USB tool from the above link.
3) install and point it to the ISO you downloaded.
4) point to the USB drive you want to erase/make a bootable key with.

Boot from this USB key and install Windows.

(And no, I didn't look at that video link - no time for wasting listening to people breathe - reading is much faster).


Good luck.

 

thanks tiller,
but i dont have a microsoft account and cant see where i can download just the iso for free (i will use my own liscence) ?

also remember the ssd is the only drive in the laptop so as theres no OS installed i cant just run or install a program direct from the laptop, it has to be the OS and it has to be booted

 

As I said above, you'll need a Windows OS disc. Any disc should do, it doesn't have to be the specific one for your computer. Unfortunately, your drive is broken.

If you do manage to get an external optical bay, here's what you do: Insert the disc. Once you see the words "Install now", at the bottom left corner, click "repair windows" or something to that extent. It should then show a different page and start repairing the image on the USB. After that completes, your USB should boot up normally.

 

if i am able to connect the working asus dvd drive to the older asus laptop, then surely i would just install win7 from the cd instead of messing about with the bootable usb?

i tried the fix my computer option running win7 from the bootable usb and i get this error:

System Recovery Options
The version of Software Recovery Options is not compatable with the version of Windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatibe with this version of Windows.

im guessing due to the incorrectly booted usb you spoke of

is there anyway to connect the asus k50ij dvd drive to the asus k52f laptop?
otherwise, should i just try a different way of creating a bootable usb with the win7 ultimate cd i have?
or will it just return the same error?1

 

Do you have different operating systems on the USB and the disc? From what I can recall, I needed the same Windows disc to repair the USB boot files, the same edition as what is on the USB. You may be able to install the other DVD drive if it will fit. I'm not sure about this, I can't help you here. I'm assuming since they are both ASUS products, it should work, but that isn't always the case.

This has become a real pain in the a** for you. Maybe you should take it to a computer store and get it fixed (the optical bay). They'll surely have the equipment to do so.

Edit: Are you certain the USB was made properly? Did you choose to make a system image? It may not even have any bootable files on it. You may have mistakenly made a back-up instead.

 

You'll definitely need to use/borrow a computer to do this then...

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html



Hope this helps.

 

I made bootable iso files with win to flash, MS Windows 7/usb download tool, and WinToBootic , and the all present the same fault,

....
i just had a reply from the ebay user who sold me the 830 (6 months old) and they said it was and has always been used in a mac mini and was formatted to mac journal,
so could this be the cause of all my problems?
how do i re-format the ssd to windows?

- i just googl'd and found this method:
"you do it when you install windows...just click on the drive and hit the delete button in windows setup"
is this right?
heres a screenshot of the drives in win7 setup- theres no hdd, so just 1x 128gb 830 ssd - i want just one partition ,not three!
Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting


i plugged the ssd to my laptop with the usb lead in the box and the laptop makes a noise to acknowledge the connection but nothing else happens and the drive doesnt show in 'my computer', i guess because its formatted to macs?

thanks for the replies guys

 

Yeah! I think you've found your problem. (Apple). lol...

With the Window Install disk or when it is plugged into the other system - delete all partitions and then try your re-install again.

(I know this will work now).


Good luck.

 

Thanks but if i delete all 3 partitions on the ssd, how and when/where am i able to re-partition to just one partition in Windows format?

just wondering, but why do people make several partitions on a drive? what are the benefits?
surely its easier to have everything in one partition/drive?

 

It appears to me that you only need/want one NTFS partition.

Get the latest gparted iso file, which can be burnt to either a bootable CD or a bootable USB flash stick.

Main site is: GParted -- About

For latest gparted 0.14.1-6 .iso/program, get it here: GParted - Browse /gparted-live-stable/0.14.1-6 at SourceForge.net

Of the above the one that'll work on most machines is: Download GParted from SourceForge.net

FWIW the big "download" button at the gparted home site (at top/right) is one that I've never used. You're on your own if you use it.

To make a bootable USB stick from this specific iso (above), the unetbootin windows program will likely work (but it doesn't work with the Windows7 .iso). d/l it at: http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-windows-latest.exe

When your laptop starts up press whatever keyboard keys to bring up a list of boot choices, and then boot gparted (by either CD or USB) don't get fuddled by all the text that scrolls by. Make sure you've got a generic USB mouse plugged into the laptop, and at start, try the standard defaults when it pauses and gives you a choice.

Within the gparted gui, you'll 1st want to put in a boot record for the disc, with a MBR boot record (aka msdos); if you had the disk setup for Apple laptop you'll want to change it from apple to MBR.

Then still within the gparted gui, set up a single NTFS partition and choose NTFS as the partition type.

 

thanks other songs for this info,
before i read your post i just tried deleting all 3 partitions in Win7 setup, and it let me downoad two of them incl the 118gb ssd one, but i think it was the .EFI Partition = 200MB
Not sure why i couldnt delete it but i can live with 200mb less

well it all installed correctly and now win7 ultimate fresh install is working fine!
i used D'river Genius' to download the required drivers for my laptop

so now its all done it does run a bit quicker, not as fast as i expected but a slight improvement (i upgraded to 8gb ddr3 ram at xmas, so this may have made the difference

i am thinking of using a disk fragmenting software to speed things up more is this wise on a ssd?

thanks all that posted advice, its appreciated

 

Companies like Samsung and Crucial say to not run defrag software on any any SSD.

For the time being I'm following that advice for myself, and I strongly suggest that you do the same.

Don't get confused by what experts like tilleroftheearth are doing.

 

oh dear, im getting a blue screen error, which forces a restart,
this happened yesterday and again this morning,

a bluescreen appears with text on (i forgot what it said) and then i have to shut down
Have i done something wrong or is the drive faulty?
its only happened twice but ive only been using the ssd for 1.5 days

 

Agreeing with OtherSongs. I think we're getting some thread crossover here, but regardless, tiller's defrag recommendation should be seen as a user to user recommendation.

There are no facts to back this up a defrag will improve your drive. In fact, most if not all manufacturers recommend against it. Go back and read some of the pro-defrag posts: "seen much 'smoother' running systems", "system did feel noticeably 'snappier'", " responsiveness of this system improved markedly." These are all subjective statements in nature. If there were benchmarks, statistically based timings, or anything factual to hang your hat on, then that is different; however, this is mostly on what *seems* faster to tiller.

tiller is entitled to the opinions expressed in the posts. And in the grand scheme of things, running a defrag 6 to 10 times a year won't cause enough excessive writes that an SSD will stop writing well before its time, so it's a non-issue. if it's something tiller feels makes a difference in a system, then there's no reason tiller should stop using it. I on the other hand am going to be looking at what is coming out of the people creating the drives/writing the firmware as well as any hard factual data used to prove / disprove those claims.

 

You really do want to remove ALL partitions from the SSD before you install Windows to it. This is REQUIRED as the SSD will more than likely NOT be aligned. Not to mention the random craziness you are experiencing by having a MAC formatted partition on that drive...


When you do a clean Windows 7 or 8 install on any initialized HDD/SSD - the proper partitions will be created automatically. Yes; I said partitions (plural). One will be a small 100MB (Windows 7) or 350MB (Windows 8) partition that will also be at the proper offset to ensure drive alignment. The rest of the created partitions will be automatically aligned as long as this first partition is properly setup (which windows 7/8 does for us with no partitions present).

Proper alignment will ensure the SSD operates at it's fastest and will also ensure Write Amplification (WA) will be at it's lowest (least wear and tear on the nand chips) while TRIM and Garbage Collection (GC) routines are run on the drive.

As for a single user partition vs. multiple - sure a single partition is easier - but that doesn't mean it is better. For an SSD, the biggest benefit of a second (user) partition is the segregation of the DATA from the O/S + Program files. This allows you to re-install the O/S without affecting (wiping out) the DATA each time. To me; this is very important and all my setups incorporate separate partitions for O/S and DATA files (if not physically different drives...).


As for the defragging question... I am not recommending others to do what I do, so much as reporting the results I (and some of my clients) have seen with defragging an SSD.

The important part of that thread is not the act of defragging on it's own - it is the use of PerfectDisk Professional 12.5 which not only defrags files (like every other defragger...), but also defrags FREE SPACE (UNLIKE every other defragger I have ever tried).

This is what I believe gives an increase in 'snappiness' with SSD's (because of the PD Pro defragging) - SSD's thrive on free/unused capacity to give maximum performance - PD Pro ensures that as much free space is contiguous as possible.


As for the advice that manufacturers give - that is just a loophole for them to deny warranty imo - as I don't ever plan to claim warranty on any storage device I have mine and clients sensitive data on, this is a moot point for me.


Hope this helps?

 

Thanks tilleroftheearth for the in-depth response,

I did try deleting all 3 partitions before installing win7 ultimate it just wouldnt let me delete one of the partitions, it was either the 100 or 200mb partition (i dont remember which one), the delete option was grayed out on this partition
does that sound right/ like proper alignment ? or would it be best if i do the fresh install of win7 on the ssd again? or would the same thing happen = grayed out delete icon for one of the partitions.

that sounds very wise, to create one partition for just the OS and one for all your data/files,
as every 6 months or so i do a fresh install of win7 as i would have downloaded lots of stuff and probably have some malware/trogan horses/virus's on the hdd
this is a pain as i need to back everything up then re-install everything after the fresh install

or was there another benefit of splitting the partitions like you said

i actually have the perfect disk defrag software v.12.5
is there a specific mode i should use for a ssd defrag
i normall use the S.M.A.R.T mode when i defragged the hdd

cheers tiller

 

gparted does a single partition, and that partition is likely properly aligned.

FWIW (to the OP) I edited my recent post of gparted to make a few things more clear.

tiller, this at11 dude impresses me as a newbie and I suggest that you be very careful with what you say to him.

I only did the gparted post because I figured he couldn't screw things up any worse than they already were.

But newbie's have true genius at finding new ways to screw things up, hence my suggestion to you to be careful.

 

Thanks othersongs, i read your edited post on gparted,

now, as you know, i just have one main partition 120gb ssd and the un-delete-able 100MB partition which is now nowhere to be seen, what would be the benefit of me using gparted? (besides aligning a partition)
does it speed things up like a perfectdisk pro defrag would?

- i just checked disk management and i can see i have the ssd 120gb drive (54% free) and a 100mb (62% free) drive called 'system reserved' - both drives are NTFS format
screenshot:

 

Here is a radical idea why not verify if your partition is aligned? http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/Checking_SSD_Alignment

 

thanks for the link josea, here are my results:

Partition Starting Offset 105,906,176 bytes DIVIDED BY 4096 = 25,856

So i take it my ssd is partitioned/aligned correctly


It needs to be divisible by 4096 (ie return a whole number when you divide by this) otherwise the alignment is not correct.


So now my ssd is correctly aligned i will look into using perfectdisk defrag,
i downloaded the Samsung magician software v4.0 and this is what it showed:



As i got the 830 ssd from ebay , 6 months old, is this 5.2 TB a high figure? what would be an average 'bytes written' figure for a ssd for 6 months use?

Any comments on the Samsung report for improvements?

thanks

 

My intel Toolbox (after 2 + years usage) show about 1 TB written. in your case I do not think 5 TB is excessive. I have seen posts in other forums and the 830 was still going strong at over 300 TB written.

 

if you done just 1tb in 2+years, this seller done 5tb in just 6 months!
i hope this ssd isn't too knackered now!


- if you look at the performance report screenshot i posted ^^^ are these results as expected for a Samsung 830 in a SATA II laptop?

are these slower than optimal speeds due to lack of free disk space (53% free)?
or could it just be down to the fact its a SATA II laptop?
(i have 8gb DDR3 RAM)

of the magician features, are there any you would recommend for the ssd to work more efficiently or to improve performance?

thank you

 

I think free space is fine, not sure about speeds... have you verified that you have the latest firmware for the drive? Download Center: Download Software, Firmware, Drivers & Manuals | Samsung
Make sure windows Defrag is turned off....

OT - I ran analyze on my 2 year old intel x25-M with Win 7 Disk defrag and it shows 22% fragmented, has anyone else checked this ??

Thanks JCLausius... just curious really, since I do not notice any performance degredation I do not intend to SE or run 3rd party defrag programs. + 1 REP

 

Any reason this concerns you? The number is meaningless as this is how fragmented the LBAs appear. The OS has no idea how the mapping to the NAND locations even appear, and even if they do, having them spread across multiple NAND modules is fine.

FWIW, I'm running 18% on my C300. Don't even think its skipped a beat.

 

I checked on Magician and it said the latest firmware is installed.

re: defrag - i didnt know there was a windows defrag, how do i make sure its Off?
would now be a good time to run the perfect disk defrag pro 12.5?
if so, any specific defrag? or just the S.M.A.R.T option ?

i just realised i can give + rep so will give out now, thanks all

 

1. For win 7 - all programs - accessories- system tools - (or just type Disk defrag in the search box) - under Schedule it should say turned off.
I defer to the experts on when to run 12.5 but would be surprised if you need to run it already.
2. Also superfetch/prefetch is diabled on mine, you may want to get other opinions about that.

 

Thanks josea,
there was no schedule heading so i just unchecked the option 'run on a schedule',

can others please share their opinion on me now running a perfect diskdefrag12.5 and what setting/mode
have you encountered problems using perfectdisk defrag 12.5 on a ssd?

 

My opinion is don't do it!

Don't don't don't!!

You should be focused on getting your new boot SSD setup to work reliably for at least a few weeks, before venturing onto dumb stuff like your above post suggests doing.

 

Okay i'll hold off the defrag for now,

what do you mean by 'getting your new boot ssd setup?
i didnt think there was anything to setup.

one thing i have noticed since doing the fresh install of win7 ultimate with the ssd is that horizontal scrolling no longer works on my touchpad?
is there a way to fix this?
i spoke to asus and they said it must be the win7 install as ive got the latest touchpad drivers

 

Still getting funny results?

You might want to boot the laptop with gparted and see if your SSD (used on an Apple laptop) still has the boot record set to apple. You want MBR (aka msdos).

BTW I got going on my T530 with a new 2.5" 512GB M4 SSD.

1st updated the firmware using Crucial's Win7 software.

Then gparted for a 352GiB NTFS partition, with 125GiB unallocated.

1GiB ≈ 1.074GB; see: Gibibyte - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

FWIW: 1. The T530 had and still has a functioning Win7 HDD; you need that in order to do an M4 firmware upgrade.
2. My T530 has a DVD bay, and I popped the DVD unit out and put in a caddy with the M4 SSD.
3. The T530 booted OK and Win7 saw the new device (M4 SSD) and immediately loaded drivers.
4. Interestingly, after doing the firmware upgrade Win7 again loaded drivers for it, suggesting that different firmware versions need different drivers???

Things still to be done:
1. A full clone HDD to HDD backup.
2. Pull out the main bay HDD and put in the already partitioned M4 SSD.
3. And finally do the fresh install of Win7.

FWIW#2: To the OP (a.k.a. at11), gparted shows something like 8 or 9 different boot record choices; since your Samsung 830 SSD was purchased used (by you), my bet is that it still has a boot record of either "mac" or "GPT" whereas what you want is "ms-dos" (a.k.a. MBR).

After booting via gparted (either bootable CD or bootable USB stick), and now within the gparted GUI:

1. to see boot record of each drive: view > device information

2. to change boot record of a drive: device > create partition table > advanced