My Neutron GTX SSD died - I think.

Hi

Turned on my comp this morning and it refused to boot.:eek:

It looks like my Corsair Neutron GTX 128 GB drive has failed after only about 500 hours of use.:mad:

 

All I get is a Windows Error Recovery Screen and some system recovery options and can get into Bios.

None of the recovery options (including startup repair and/or system restore) will fix it.

There's a diagnostic tool that said my boot drive had failed, but then after running it a few more times it said it don't know what the prob is.

 

Sure looks like a SSD failure which is a surprise because I bought this only 1.5 years ago and it's a top notch toggle Nand model and would not expect a problem with such little use. Around 30 hours a month.

The drive had my OS and my apps on it and some stored data. It was less than 1/2 full.

It was a fresh W7 install on a brand new box.

Last thing I did the night before was a defrag since it was 3% fragmented.

No problem, the defrag completed and I shut it down and this morning it will not boot to Windows.

This was only around the 4th or 5th defrag I'd manually done since it was new!

 

This is a photo editing workstation number cruncher.

I need it to make my living.

Any suggestions/help is sure appreciated.

 

UPDATE - it didn't die and is working great now.

I had tried to defrag it ( I know - I screwed up) and windows got corrupted and it wouldn't boot.

A complete fresh install of windows and all is good. Amazing performance. Operator - not so much.

Your not supposed to defrad a ssd

I would consider a corrupt windows over a ssd failure.

have you tried reinstalling windows?

Thanks for your response.

Why windows would let me defrag an SSD with their native defrager if its no good for it is beyond me. Can't the OS detect that it's an SSD and not an HD? Isn't it this detection that allows the Trim function to work automatically?

 

But it's good to hear the SSD may still be ok. Fingers crossed.

But didn't wan't to try a re-install windows without checking over some easier attempts first.

If your windows disc is a retail version,you should be able to use it to repair your current windows...

Yes it's a retail version of W7 Professional 64 bit.

So I can do a "repair" rather than a re-install?

Do I put the disc in while the error recovery screen is showing?

Your first boot option needs to be your dvd drive,start the computer with the windows inseted so it boots to the disk

the disk should have a repair/recovery option.

Im not sure which as its been a while using this...

OK - I try it. Thanks.

I get back

I tried getting it to boot from the W7 disc but it won't.

At one point I had the option to install W7 anew, or try repairs.

I chose repairs but got the same set of screen as without the disc in.

Nothing doin.

I was never able to get to the W7 install screen again.

Tried reseting the boot priority in bios and nada.:eek:

If i remember correctly don't think Windows 7's defrag utility can determine if a drive is an SSD or a HDD so it's recommended to manually disable automatic defrag for that drive. It's quite possible the defrag may have corrupted the files on the SSD preventing it from booting as wytnyt suggested.

 

Is the SSD detected normally in the BIOS? E.g. the drive's capacity?

 

At this point, if the SSD is detected normally in the BIOS i would recommend secure erasing the SSD then reinstall a clean version of Windows and your applications.

 

 

Have you tried using the motherboard's boot menu to boot from the DVD instead?

Yes I was finally able to boot from the W7 DVD and then was able to see all the data on my C drive. Yes! it was still there. So I copied all that was important to my trusty WD enterprise SATA 3 HD and Im not so pissed anymore.

Still can't get the C drive to boot W7 but anyways I saved critical data.

I did have backups but they were not exactly up to date.

 

I really don't want to now erase the drive and re-install W7 and all my programs.

It would take weeks to configure everything again and I had many profiles for workflows etc, that would need to be redone. Even just setting up my FTP program again is a three day headache. No - I'm still hoping it's a IO driver issue. But can't find a way to re-instally my chipset drivers yet. Any suggestions.

I'm not sure if this would work, but boot into the Windows install disk, open the command prompt and run a SFC scan.

 

This tutorial should help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/139810-sfc-scannow-run-command-prompt-boot.html

OK - had to do a new install of windows. And re-install and configure everything.

Around 20 hours work. The old windows install got corrupted by the defrag.

Very unimpressed with how SSD customers are left out to hang.

There should be more co-operation between Microsoft and the hardware makers.

Do NOT defrag your SSDs. What a nightmare!

 

Thank for your help and suggestions people.

Remember to disable the automatic defrag if you have not, as well and regularly backup your data on the SSD and HD. Multiple copies the better.

 

Windows 8/8.1 does correctly identify the type of drive that is installed and has the necessary tools to "optimise" it over a defrag. Windows 7 released at the time when SSDs started appearing in the market though they were quite expensive at that time. Microsoft could have created an update to add more support for modern SSDs, but with Windows 8 in development they probably did chose not to.

That sounds a very realistic synopsis.

I still hate being hung out to dry tho!

Anyways - how do I disable auto defrag?

I did this to check out the defrag schedule...

http://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Deactivating_Windows_7_Defragmentation_for_Solid-state_Drives

and discovered that Windows had in fact seen my SSDs and was not auto defraging them.

It was my own stupid manual defrags that corrupted the OS or killed the drive ( not sure which yet). Anyways - what's interesting, is that it only took about 5 manual defrags to kill it. Sheesh. Lesson learned and my new install on a fresh ssd is working well, but I got no sleep tonight. argh.

Thanks for help guys.

 

UPDATE: it was a corrupted windows. I re-installed and the drive is fine. Whew.

It was a corrupted windows

I re-installed windows and the drive is as good as ever - which is excellent. Whew!

How stupid could I be to de-frag an SSD - sheesh.

That is good to hear.