SSD trouble

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 15:41

Hi Folks - sorry to bore everyone with my struggles again.

I've got two questions -

1. I've tried installing two different SSD's in my computer. I cannot use AHCI as my motherboard doesn't support it. I've installed some drivers which do enable it in RAID but I don't really understand RAID at all and I thought you needed two identical drives to run RAID? Is this easy to set up?

2. My hard drive stops working in windows, it seems to fail after installing using Ninite and I suspect that one of the installers is breaking my SSD's.

I'm trying to install

Firefox
Chrome
Avast
MS security essentials
Steam
Win Rar
Thunderbird
Putty
Winscp

Any guesses as to what could be the likely culprit?

Thanks again.

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jan 2012 at 15:47

1. AHCi isn't essential for SSD operation but advisable. RAID is completely different. I've just posted in here if you need some insight:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18366503

2. ?? What gives you the idea it's breaking one of the SSDs? Have you enable RAID? If you are installing the OS plus apps on to your SSD, then disconnect the HDD during this time and attach later.

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 15:53

Admiral Huddy said:
1. AHCi isn't essential for SSD operation but advisable. RAID is completely different. I've just posted in here if you need some insight:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18366503

Thanks!

Admiral Huddy said:
2. ?? What gives you the idea it's breaking one of the SSDs? Have you enable RAID? If you are installing the OS plus apps on to your SSD, then disconnect the HDD during this time and attach later.

I've not enabled RAID yet.

I always disconnect my HDD whilst installing to the SSD following the advice here.

From installing Win7 about 15 times over the weekend on two different SSD's, Windows and all updates install and work fine. That is until I start actually installing software through Ninite.

The only other thing is that I have Win 7 installed on the HDD too, I normally connect the HDD before I start installing software from Ninite.

I'm totally stumped.

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:00

try installing your apps from Ninite without the HDD and on to the same partition as the OS. That's what I have.. must have the apps on there are small enough anyway. See how that goes.

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:01

Admiral Huddy said:
try installing your apps from Ninite without the HDD and on to the same partition as the OS. That's what I have.. must have the apps on there are small enough anyway. See how that goes.

OK, will do. You think there could be a conflict?

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:18

Not really, but you'll eliminate the Ninite installer. If it fails again with just the SSD then it's unlikely to be hardware fault.. In which case, grab the downloads independently.

If Ninite did work, then plug the HDD back in afterwards, If it's problematic afterwards..i.e when other apps are installed on to it, then you may have to run drive diagnostics on that drive to verify it's integrity.

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:23

Admiral Huddy said:
Not really, but you'll eliminate the Ninite installer. If it fails again with just the SSD then it's unlikely to be hardware fault.. In which case, grab the downloads independently.

If Ninite did work, then plug the HDD back in afterwards, If it's problematic afterwards..i.e when other apps are installed on to it, then you may have to run drive diagnostics on that drive to verify it's integrity.

Hmm I'm sure it's not the SSD as I've got two of them and I've tried with both, one's an M4 and the other an OCZ agility 3.

Hopefully your idea will solve it, if not then I will be spending hours downloading all my programs : (

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:38

No I'm not saying it's the SSD merely eliminating the Ninite installer. If it works with just the SSD then it possible there could be a fault with the HDD.

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:41

Admiral Huddy said:
No I'm not saying it's the SSD merely eliminating the Ninite installer. If it works with just the SSD then it possible there could be a fault with the HDD.

OK - it's just I use my HDD all the time and have been using as my main driver for about 6 months. I'm pretty sure it's rock solid.

I'm pretty sure it's either the Ninite installer (which I've never heard any problems) or it's one of the programs which is conflicting with something.

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:43

I use Ninite all the time.. It can be tempermental at times.

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:44

Admiral Huddy said:
I use Ninite all the time.. It can be tempermental at times.

Really - do you have any examples? I'd just like to compare it to the issues I am having.

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jan 2012 at 16:56

Just fails at times..

btw have you checked in the event log for any clues?

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 17:24

Admiral Huddy said:
Just fails at times..

btw have you checked in the event log for any clues?

Actually know - how could I access this? is it through DOS? Windows becomes unusable after the error you see.

drunkenmaster · 23 Jan 2012 at 18:31

Admiral Huddy said:
1. AHCi isn't essential for SSD operation but advisable. RAID is completely different. I've just posted in here if you need some insight:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18366503

2. ?? What gives you the idea it's breaking one of the SSDs? Have you enable RAID? If you are installing the OS plus apps on to your SSD, then disconnect the HDD during this time and attach later.

Don't forget though that almost every motherboard out there(i'm sure theres one but I've not seen one) uses achi mode when flicked to raid in the bios.

IE Ide mode, single drive, no ahci mode for drives, ahci mode.... du'h, Raid mode, single drives use ahci mode. The older the mobo the less likely a dedicated AHCI only mode is there but it is often supported via the raid option in bios, as for not making a big difference, it makes a pretty huge difference, just not as big as people think. Those queue depth numbers in ASS/crystal would stay essentially at 1 without AHCI and the pretty numbers at high queue depth are great, realistically home systems won't ever get the 32 queue depth used in benchmarks, but will gain read/write performance with ahci.

If a mobo supports it, its worth it.

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:41

drunkenmaster said:
Don't forget though that almost every motherboard out there(i'm sure theres one but I've not seen one) uses achi mode when flicked to raid in the bios.

IE Ide mode, single drive, no ahci mode for drives, ahci mode.... du'h, Raid mode, single drives use ahci mode. The older the mobo the less likely a dedicated AHCI only mode is there but it is often supported via the raid option in bios, as for not making a big difference, it makes a pretty huge difference, just not as big as people think. Those queue depth numbers in ASS/crystal would stay essentially at 1 without AHCI and the pretty numbers at high queue depth are great, realistically home systems won't ever get the 32 queue depth used in benchmarks, but will gain read/write performance with ahci.

If a mobo supports it, its worth it.

This is what id like to set up on my board. It only has raid through ahci but ive no idea how to set up raid on a single drive. I've no idea at all about raid. Can anyone help?

Admiral Huddy · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:55

Can you post the make and model of your motherboard?

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:34

Yes its a gigabyte card.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-331-GI

I had to download and use the pre-install drivers to get ahci on raid.

richiej1979 · 23 Jan 2012 at 22:29

Admiral Huddy said:
Can you post the make and model of your motherboard?

OK so after alittle research, I presume I would need two identical ssd's to get started?

Admiral Huddy · 24 Jan 2012 at 09:32

Ok, I've just had a look at the manual. There is no reference AHCI but since there is driver support I'm going to assume it's set by default so your SSD drive should run straight out of the box.

There is a way you can tell if AHCI is enabled:

open a command window and type : fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

If the value returned = 1 then it's not enabled, if it's 0 then your are fine AHCI is enabled.

I think the RAID is throwing you off. Unless you specifically want an array ( I can't see why you would) then I don't think you need to do anything.

Remember, RAID and AHCI are completely different.

Run the above check and report back.

richiej1979 · 24 Jan 2012 at 10:35

Admiral Huddy said:
Ok, I've just had a look at the manual. There is no reference AHCI but since there is driver support I'm going to assume it's set by default so your SSD drive should run straight out of the box.

There is a way you can tell if AHCI is enabled:

open a command window and type : fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify

If the value returned = 1 then it's not enabled, if it's 0 then your are fine AHCI is enabled.

I think the RAID is throwing you off. Unless you specifically want an array ( I can't see why you would) then I don't think you need to do anything.

Remember, RAID and AHCI are completely different.

Run the above check and report back.

Well once I installed win7 with the drivers, the drive still showed up as IDE when booting up. I will run that command tonight though.

In other news I've installed all my programs without using the ninite installer and so far no problems. I'm blaming one of the installers for the hassle I've been having.