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SSD - Partition Table is Corrupt ?

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marybuttimer

New Member
Joined
Dec 21, 2010
Hi , all...

A couple of weeks ago I picked up 2 MicroCenter (rebadged A-Data) 64 GB Sandforce SSD's.

My intentions were to use one as the 'Boot Drive' in my main machine and use the second drive to replace the factory drive in my son's netbook.

Just for grins , I set them up in a Raid 0 configuration in my main machine--the results were spectacular !!

Anyway , my son arrived home from college last Friday and it was time to get down to business. I broke the Raid 0 array and re-installed Windows 7 in my main machine on a single drive--everything went perfectly.

I then tore apart my son's netbook to install the second SSD --that didn't go very well. Windows 7 will not install. The diagnostic routine from the W7 disc(actually loading from a USB Thumbdrive) says that the partition table is corrupted.

Thinking that the 'thumbdrive' may have gotten mucked up , I removed the SSD from the netbook and tried to install W7 from the original DVD and I got the same result , so I am pretty sure that the drive is borked.

I am very familiar with 'platter' type HDD's and am comfortable playing around with them ( I used the 'freezer trick' on a dead drive a few years back and got a nice bonus from my boss for retrieving some very valuable data !) but SSD's seem to be a very different breed of cat.

Q. Has anyone else encountered the same problem ? If so , do you have any suggestions as to how to proceed ?
 
Two things come to mind that may bring the drive back to the good.

1. I would check for a firmware update.

2. I would attempt to reinstall Win 7, instead of pressing "install now" at the bottom press "repair my computer". It will scan for a previous installation, afterward press next. Then press the last item in the list, Command Prompt.

At the prompt type diskpart <enter>.
Then type list disk <enter>.
Then type select disk of the SSD <enter>.
Then type clean <enter>.
Then type create partition primary align=1024 <enter>.
Then type select partition 1 <enter>.
Then type active <enter>.
Then type format quick fs=ntfs <enter>.
Then type assign <enter>.
Then type exit <enter>, and again exit <enter>.
Then restart and attempt to install Win 7 again.

You could also do the above by booting into Windows using the desktop with the SSD in question attached.

If neither of those works then I would go for a return or RMA.
 
Last edited:
Psykoikonov , thank you for your reply and precise insructions.

Unfortunately , it did not work....

I had resigned myself to the reality that I had a bricked drive and going thru the RMA process...then I figured I might try to rebuild the RAID 0 array.

I connected both drives and went into the system BIOS and set it to boot to raid. In the RAID options (F4 during boot) panel I saw an available command for "Secure Erase" , which I chose. It took about 45 minutes to complete . I was then able to load Windows 7 in about 10 minutes.

I am relieved that both drives function , yet at the same time I am perplexed that I may have done some damage to the drives. I downloaded ATTO and I now find that the array tops out @ about 400 mbs versus about 450 mbs prior to my misadventure.

Any thoughts ?
 
In the motherboard bios under power options should be how the computer sleeps, make sure it is S1 (not S3), then let the computer sleep overnight (the drives will run garbage collection at that time) and recheck the benchmark. When you removed the drives from the array the first time did you use the Raid bios to delete the array first? Also may I ask which Raid controller your using or if your using onboard the motherboard you have.
 
Psykoikonov said:
In the motherboard bios under power options should be how the computer sleeps, make sure it is S1 (not S3), then let the computer sleep overnight (the drives will run garbage collection at that time) and recheck the benchmark.

Will do.

Psykoikonov said:
When you removed the drives from the array the first time did you use the Raid bios to delete the array first?

No.


Psykoikonov said:
Also may I ask which Raid controller your using or if your using onboard the motherboard you have.

I am using the onboard Raid controller --Foxconn A7GM-S 780G w/AMD 700 South Bridge.
 
If you decide to use the drives seperately in the future be sure to delete the array using the Raid bios. That will hopefully fix the corrupt partition table. Never knew that some Raid controllers had secure erase built in, learn something new everyday :).
 
Assuming that my failure to delete the RAID array was the root cause of my problem , I must ask an obvious question -- Why did one drive function correctly and the other not ?
 
Assuming that my failure to delete the RAID array was the root cause of my problem , I must ask an obvious question -- Why did one drive function correctly and the other not ?

I could only hazard a guess or a lengthy theory. My short guess is it has to do with how partition tables are created for a Raid 0 array.
 
Try a Secure Erase or HDDerase on it to get rid of the partition table and 'zero' out the drive.
 
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