Curious problem: Windows won't install to SSD

LordSplodge · 26 Apr 2011 at 18:58

I have the following:

MSI GD65 Mobo
i7 2600k
16GB G.Skill Ripsaw
AMD 5850 Extreme
OCZ Agility 64Gb SSD
2 x 1TB Segate drives

All conect and the computer boots. However it won't install onto the SSD. I get different errors. It either won't format or fails during installation with a "network" error.

Now I'm just doing an install with one of the Seagates as a boot drive and all is going well.

I noticed that when I first connected the SSD it tried to boot into Windows! :confused:

Is this a second hand drive? It was shrink wrapped.

Tried ACHI, IDE and RAID mode to no avail. I'm going to see if I can access/format the drive in Windows with it as a secondary drive.

I'm going to be miffed if it is broken. Looking forward to SSD speeds.

Any ideas?

Buchanan0204 · 26 Apr 2011 at 19:11

Perhaps one of your old drives had a windows installation on? I doubt very much windows would have been installed on it if it was shrink wrapped.

You could always boot into a live disc and format it properly. Is it connected to the sata 1 port. Is it recognised in the BIOS? Have you reached the part of the installation where windows sees the discs and you choose which too install to. Did you try formatting from there and creating a new volume?

If the installation to your seagate fails. Try running a memtest, I've had faulty ram prevent installations before, and throws all sorts of strange errors you wouldn't normally associate with faulty ram. Had me stumped for hours.

LordSplodge · 26 Apr 2011 at 19:15

Buchanan0204 said:
Perhaps one of your old drives had a windows installation on? I doubt very much windows would have been installed on it if it was shrink wrapped.

You could always boot into a live disc and format it properly. Is it connected to the sata 1 port. Is it recognised in the BIOS? Have you reached the part of the installation where windows sees the discs and you choose which too install to. Did you try formatting from there and creating a new volume?

Windows 7 installed to the Seagate just fine. The BIOS and the RAID (if enabled rather than ACHI) can see the 64GB SSD. Windows install cant format it - fails with an error code. I've tried to format it in Windows and the drive just vanished from Disk Manager.

Oh and I'm not using any old drives. Only had the SSD connected at the time it tried to boot into Windows! . :confused:

LordSplodge · 26 Apr 2011 at 19:19

Trying to format the drive in Windows makes it disappear!

sk82jack · 26 Apr 2011 at 21:01

Have you tried anything like GParted to format?

LordSplodge · 26 Apr 2011 at 21:25

sk82jack said:
Have you tried anything like GParted to format?

Nope but I connected it to my iMac and run both command line tools and Disk Utility. The drive acts like normal until I try to write to it or format it. At that point it errors out and then vanishes!

I suspect the controller on the drive is foobar'd

LordSplodge · 26 Apr 2011 at 21:54

Going to RMA the drive. Not showing up at all in any system now.

Let's hope thE rest of the system fairs better!

Buchanan0204 · 27 Apr 2011 at 01:50

LordSplodge said:
Going to RMA the drive. Not showing up at all in any system now.

Let's hope thE rest of the system fairs better!

Definitely sounds knackered... really weird how it would try and boot into Windows. Maybe it was a second hand drive... must have been? :confused:

LordSplodge · 27 Apr 2011 at 11:07

Buchanan0204 said:
Definitely sounds knackered... really weird how it would try and boot into Windows. Maybe it was a second hand drive... must have been?

Looks that way. Something wasn't right - it definitely had a file system on the drive but it was shrink wrapped. Nothing but errors and then it died.

I was really looking forward to SSD speeds. Bummer.