F90 Drive Not Accessible in AHCI

[ettore]

I purchased this Corsair F90 back when firmware 2.0 was just released; installed Windows 7, and basically hadn't touched it since. Yesterday, I decided to refresh Windows, and this is when the problem started:

 

I did a clean install of Windows 7 without wiping the SSD or anything. The first "wave" of the installation went fine (so, until the first reboot) but, with that reboot, the drive was no longer able to be detected. I was able to fix this problem by changing the BIOS to IDE ... this is how it sits now.

 

Is there some utility I should have run before reinstalling Windows? Seems odd the drive is not accessible any longer in only AHCI but works perfectly in IDE.

 

Edit: Since I can't get into AHCI mode, I can't update to FW 2.4; tried in IDE, and though it detects the drive, trying to flash it locks up the computer for about a minute then reboots with no flash happening.

[Toasted]

Latest BIOS?

have you tried installing the AHCI drivers during the Windows install process?

[ettore]

My PC has the latest BIOS; it recognized the drive for years perfectly, it was the reinstallation of Windows that seems to have screwed the drive up somehow. Windows has the AHCI drivers, however BIOS hangs trying to detect the drive so nothing happens.

[Toasted]

Try the SSD on another computer and see if the same issues are present.

[ettore]

Tried on a Gigabyte motherboard ( GA-880G-UD3H ) and the drive seemingly works fine (Windows crashes on boot, but that likely has to do with incompatible Windows' drivers). So, seemingly whatever method my motherboard uses to initialise AHCI drives is meeting up with a confused output from the drive ... something my other motherboard is able to compensate for. However, this should be a fixable issue, since the drive USED TO report in a compatible way with my board. I have reset BIOS, it's the newest version, I've tried letting the drive sit unpowered for a day (figured, why not), and that's where I'm at.

 

I have a similar problem to this guy: http://forum.corsair.com/v3/showthread.php?t=113044

... different drive, similar problem (after Windows' installation, drive cannot be accessed by BIOS).

 

So, whatever caused his problem likely caused mine as well. I vaguely recall a similar issue before, and I had to do some factory wipe of the drive or something, but I might be imagining things. If I have to do that again, it's not a big deal ... I can image my drive, wipe, and return the image back. Otherwise, if there is a DOS version of the flash utility to go from 2.0 to 2.4, that'd be nice ... maybe that fixed my problem.

[Toasted]

Reset the BIOS top defaults by shorting the pins on the motherboard or by removing the CMOS battery.

Have you tried a different SATA data cable and SATA port?

 

Secure erase the drive with Parted magic and reinstall Windows. This time load the F6 install drivers and see if that helps.

[ettore]

. Reset the BIOS to defaults by "reset to defaults" option.

. Pulled the battery yesterday and left it until after work, no change.

. Changed port way at the beginning because I apparently didn't have the drive in spot #0; cable was swapped at that time as well ... no effect.

 

I think the real solution, as you mentioned last, is secure erasing the drive; this is the only thing I didn't do, and I remember back when SSDs were new, everyone did this all the time because a bunch of the OCZ drives had problems unless you did this and was considered best practice to restore drive speed. I'm going to try and image my drive because I am in no mood to re-install windows ... I would imagine Acronis is incapable of "imaging" whatever is causing my drive to screw up AHCI detection, so I should be all good.

 

Cheers!