Is my SSD dead?

[wrenaudrey]

I've been trying to do this for several hours with no success.

Im trying to install W7 and when i get to the choosing the drive; i click on 'new' and then it makes a Disk 0 Partition 1:System Reserved and a Disk 0 Partition 2.

Now with the Partition 2, i click on format. But it throws this: 'Error: 0x80070057'


In the BIOS i have AHCI enabled and the only thing plugged in into the SATA ports is this drive im trying to install W7 on.

The drive im trying to install it on is a SSD, Samsung 830 128GB.

Before this trying to do a clean install business, i was encountering BSODs right after the windows animation when its booting. Then after around 3 restarts, it just wouldnt read windows and it just booted straight into the BIOS.

Could my SSD be dead?

Specs for the rest are:
Mobo: ASUS Sabertooth Z87
CPU: i7 4770k
RAM: 8GB Corsair Dominator 1866
GPU: EVGA GTX 780

Im really need the help as im panicking as i need to install windows and do my work for university.

 

[S_I_N]

ok heres what ya need to do

boot up with nothing but the new ssd and flash/CD/DVD drive installed for drives. Only drives you want hooked up are the one being written to and the one being written from NO OTHER DRIVES
once your to the part of it copying files this is how it looks


hit shift F10 this will bring up the cmd prompt
when I say type I mean type whats between the "---" only not including the '---"
type "diskpart"
type "list disk"
type "select disk 0" ( or what ever number is assigned to your ssd) be careful as you can accidentally select your flash drive
type "clean all"
when completed clean all will take some time depending on drive size
type "create partition align=1024"
when complete
type "format quick fs=ntfs"
when complete
type "active"
type "exit"
type "exit" yes thats 2 times lol
close out the install and let the rig reboot keeping the same 2 drives only installed. Now when you get thru the that splash screen i posted above install windows as normal. What you did was basically clean the ssd (or hdd) of any crap that was on it and made it factory fresh again. If you still get errors then you may not be stable or have another bad component causing errors.


oh and dont click new when selecting partition just hit next it'll have the ssd already selected for you.

 

[wrenaudrey]

I got to your instruction: 'list disk' and then it showed the disks, how do i select cause if i just type 'disk 0' and press enter, this comes up

I tried 'disk 0 clean all' and that picture still came up.

 

[S_I_N]

my bad put a typo in there i'll fix it type "select disk 0" if 0 is your ssd

 

[wrenaudrey]

Okay thank you. Its cleaning now.
Does it normally take long to clean a 128GB SSD?

As you said as a little disclaimer at the end, "If you still get errors then you may not be stable or have another bad component causing errors."
Could that imply that the SSD is dead?

Because there is nothing else plugged in except for CPU, RAM, GPU, Sound Card.

I did reset BIOS into its default and have the latest BIOS. SATA is in AHCI.
What else could be the problem?

 

[S_I_N]

no I think the error is your selecting new instead of letting it install as it wants to. I copied and pasted that from another thread I replied to earlier in the week. when its done rebooting after cleaning when it get to the select drive part just hit next no other options are needed. When you select the drive and format it from that point you just erased the files you previously loaded to that point so it has nothing to install from.

It can take about an hourish to clean.

 

[Wraith]

Oh S_I_N this seems to be becoming a common ocurance, didn't we help someone else last week with similar issues... lol

 

[wrenaudrey]

Is there any way if knowing if its 'clean all' is working?
The cursor pointer just seems to be blinking, dont know if its actually doing it or has it hung?

Oh S_I_N this seems to be becoming a common ocurance, didn't we help someone else last week with similar issues... lol

Did they do 'clean all' too?
Did it solve their issue?
Could you provide me with the link to that thread please?

 

[Wraith]

It was this thread he was having issues installing from a USB device to SSD.

Depends on how long it's been since you started the clean it can take quite a while.

 

[S_I_N]

these 2 options and both work the later is more thorough. first is clean second is clean all I always use clean all as its a more indepth cleaning. And most folks have had issues installing so i say clean all to make sure its all gone and nothing is going to interfere with the new install.

 

[wrenaudrey]

EDIT:
Update v3: Installed SSD Magician on another machine and ran it. This is what is showing:

It's showing "Good", so what could possibly be going wrong?

Update v2: Tried to install once again. Tried with USB and with W7 Disc, it goes into the copying windows files and that stuff but then the error 0x80070057 still comes up.


Okay an update (v1).
The 'clean all' was running for around 5-6hrs, basically left it overnight. The moment i left it which was around 1hr in, the cursor was just blinking below the 'DISKPART > clean all'

The drive is only 128GB and it had up to 6hrs. I dont think it would have taken that long to write 0's in it but then again i could be wrong.
So im assuming the 'clean all' just didnt work, just hung up or the SSD is refusing to be written on.

So when i woke up, literally few minutes ago, i CTRL+C'd and it ended. Shut the computer down and screamed at it.

Any other suggestions?
Could it be because im runnig it off USB to install windows/run clean all?


More pre-problem info.
Before i was trying to install W7 i enhanced secure erased it through Parted Magic then as its not really necessary to do the enhanced one, i did normal secure erase again, through Parted Magic.
Once done, booted into windows(im on another machine) and opened disk management to 'initialise the drive'.

So i was set to go. Now i try to install W7, drive is detected in BIOS and when i get to choosing the drive, the SSD showed as 'Disk 0 Partition 1' and there was a prompt at the bottom: 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's BIOS menu.'

So did some ooogling and read that i should try restoring BIOS to default so i did.
Went into trying to installl W7 again, that prompt disappeared but now i apparently had to make a System Reserved and have a primary.
So i did by clicking on 'New', now i try to install W7 on the 2nd partition which is the primary then an: Error 0x80070057

So this is the point where im getting stuck.

 

[S_I_N]

ok clean all should take some time but not 5-6 hrs. use the other machine and try cleaning it. It can be done thru windows using the cmd prompt. you dont have to make a system restore and primary win7 install will do that for you. go back and retry it just using clean instead of clean all. This process cleans and realigns the ssd. After its done close out and let the computer reboot do the file re-install on its own when you get to the part of selecting which drive to install on just hit next win7 should have it already selected. If you keep having issues on that rig take the hdd out of the other rig and try installing win7 on the ssd with it,and see if it allows the install to work, if it does it kinda points to something wrong on the other rig. Have you tried changing sata ports/cables???

 

[Gamepro105]

Oh S_I_N this seems to be becoming a common ocurance, didn't we help someone else last week with similar issues... lol

it was me who you helped last week and there is a slight problem is i've still not got it working im getting my hands on a disk drive and a disk to install with until then i will not know for some reason i've not had any luck with Samsung drives

 

[wrenaudrey]

ok clean all should take some time but not 5-6 hrs. use the other machine and try cleaning it. It can be done thru windows using the cmd prompt. you dont have to make a system restore and primary win7 install will do that for you. go back and retry it just using clean instead of clean all. This process cleans and realigns the ssd. After its done close out and let the computer reboot do the file re-install on its own when you get to the part of selecting which drive to install on just hit next win7 should have it already selected. If you keep having issues on that rig take the hdd out of the other rig and try installing win7 on the ssd with it,and see if it allows the install to work, if it does it kinda points to something wrong on the other rig. Have you tried changing sata ports/cables???

Haha i just tried changing the SATA cable and port, and it's installed. I've done all the Windows update now and its stable so far, no crashes yet.

But my problem is now, what was the culprit? SSD, SATA port or SATA cable?
I have a Z87 sabertooth and the successful one is on the Z87 chipset, the one that didnt let W7 install was also on the Z87 chipset. Is it just the chipset im looking at here or the actual port it self?

In terms of SATA cable, it was the right angled one that came with the motherboard. And what is the failure rate of sata cables anyway? I bet its near to nothing.

If i do an experiment on my 80GB HDD Slave, dyou think it'd be thesame circumstances or does it have to be an SSD?

Also should i just avoid that one particular SATA cable and that SATA port(port #3) or what?

 

[S_I_N]

it can be any drive doesnt have to be just an ssd. If your up for it put the hdd on the same port you had issues with using the new cable. If it works then you know its the cable, if it doesnt then you know its the port (most likely) I'm betting on the cable.

it was me who you helped last week and there is a slight problem is i've still not got it working im getting my hands on a disk drive and a disk to install with until then i will not know for some reason i've not had any luck with Samsung drives

man I thought ya was up and running. whats the issue now??

 

[wrenaudrey]

I've found the b******!

One of the connections is going loose.
Plugged my trash 80GB Slave drive in and there was just a ticking noise, plugged into my other one, an extension like that one but brought from OCUK and it spins fully.
Tried the working one and this one picture on different open molex's and its the same story. There's a time where it does work but move it just a bit, it shutsdown the hard disk.

I guess ill be splashing out another £3 or so for one of those extensions but from OCUK and petrol for getting there.


Edit:
I tried that SATA(data) cable out, it was fine. Installed and reinstalled W7 twice on that 80GB slave.

 

[S_I_N]

does yu psu not have sata power on it??

 

[wrenaudrey]

It does but if you look at my rig gallery i have the SSD mounted on the mobo tray, i i used sata cables from the PSU it self, i'd have too much lying around to hide and to compress for the back case panel to fit in.

 

[Gamepro105]

it can be any drive doesnt have to be just an ssd. If your up for it put the hdd on the same port you had issues with using the new cable. If it works then you know its the cable, if it doesnt then you know its the port (most likely) I'm betting on the cable.

man I thought ya was up and running. whats the issue now??

i have no idea i constantly try and all i get is error after error it just wont let me install windows to it
And when i say i constantly get errors i mean i can try 80 different ways in one day and i will get a different error every single time anything form a blue screen to windows can not install becuse...

 

[S_I_N]

have you tried a known good hdd?? or other drive?? It may very well be a shite ssd