SSD Not Being Recognized

So, I was given an Acer Iconia W500 tablet to fix for a friend. They told me that Windows wouldn't boot, so I just figured it was a quick fix by just reformatting the SSD. Anyway, I put in the flash drive with Windows 7 and attempt to reformat. When it comes up to the drive selection in the windows install, it shows nothing. So, to make sure the tablet is recognizing it, I go into BIOS. It does list the SSD: SanDisk SSD P4 32GB. I then go back to the Windows 7 install, and go into disk part, and when I type "list disk" it shows "No Media" and the flash drive.

I've gone through several google searches with no help, and I was hoping you guys could help me out. So, how do I fix this?

Thanks,
Tim

 

I'm surprised that diskpart doesn't see the drive. Seems odd that a drive that supposedly has a full installation of Windows and is seen in BIOS doesn't do anything when you try to boot or take a look from the Windows installation disk.

I think a relatively quick test to see if there is something really wrong with the drive would be to put a small linux distro on USB and boot to that and see first if you can find any file structure on the HD in the file manager. Then if you just want to format see if Gparted will let you format the drive. Once formatted to NTFS perhaps the Windows installation disc will allow you to install.

Puppy linux gives you a Windows looking desktop. If you boot the netbook from the USB the HD partitions will have icons on the bottom left with names starting with "sda", so sda1 and possibly sda2. Double click these if they exist to see if there are any Windows files. That would tell you if it is a problem with only the Windows disc seeing the HD.

If no icons then try Gparted partition manager to see if it can find the HD. That would tell you if there may be a more serious problem with the drive.

LiLi will build the USB from the puppy ISO file.

If someone has some ideas using Windows, please jump in. I can't think of any off hand since diskpart didn't see the drive.

 

I was just thinking that if you do see partitions on the drive either using the icons or gparted you might not want to immediately format as you could possibly reinstall Windows from the recovery partition depending on the model of netbook. That would usually be using one of the F# keys during the BIOS screen. You didn't say what you see when you try to boot the netbook normally, do you get any message?

 

I went ahead and tried your suggestion, but am having problems with Gparted. I'm wanting to reformat, but it's not letting me create a partition. Everytime I go to create one it simply says "failed to create partition". Here's what I'm getting: http://timsland.com/timgyazo/f380b23638b57bb3ef67.png

 

I would suspect a problem with the HD itself. The I/O error generally means a bad drive or a bad cable. With a netbook changing the cable is not easy, so no easy test. Most probably the HD is not working correctly.

I'm not sure what to try next. Testdisk is another reliable partition manager that works in Linux. I don't have a link to the "pet" you need to install it on the puppy version I suggested to you but when I get one it couldn't hurt to run testdisk to see whether it can work with the drive.

The other thought is maybe Sandisk has a utility that might work on that particular drive (which looks like a card rather than an actual HD) to reformat it or at least see if it can zero it out to factory condition so it can be formatted.

I will read this thread tomorrow and see it I can provide links to testdisk for Puppy or Sandisk's drive utility if it exists.

 

Hi Tim
I had a similar problem with a 120Gb OCZ Petrol SSD. Sometimes the ASUS mobo Bios could see it but mostly it couldn't and being the boot drive I was getting windows boot errors. After checking cables, power supply and mobo specs, the problem turned out to be an SSD firmware problem. Downloaded new firmware from OCZ but couldn't get it to install using windows so then made an Ubuntu boot USB memory stick and then reflashed the drive.
Been working ever since.
This might not help you but some versions of firmware for the early Sandforce controllers needed patching so might be worth a look
Here is some info on Sandforce controllers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SandForce

Cheers

 

Here is the factory restore video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAeE2PFolB4

Disassembly video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rYLW7kB2tA
about 2:42 into the video the mSATA drive is shown and removed. Try at your own risk, of course after asking the owner.

 

So, I've been playing around with it and hopefully you guys can give me some suggestions. Using linux didn't help much at all, it kept giving I/O errors. So, I stuck Windows 98 booter on the flash drive and tried to format then. I was able to delete the 2 partitions, but when trying to create a new partition it got stuck at 0% on "verifying disk integrity." With the partitions gone, I figured I would try installing Windows 7 again. When at the partitions menu in the Windows 7 installer, it allowed me to create a partition. After about 2 minutes though, it failed and gave me the no disk error.

Any suggestions?

 

I looked at plodr's video and it doesn't look like there is anyway the drive could have come loose--it is very snug in its holder. I wouldn't take it apart. I'm guessing this is out of warranty?

It is looking like a problem with the drive. When you tried diskpart and it said no media-it still gives you a drive number. If you select that drive and then use the command detail disk does it show the model of the drive at the top of the results? I'm trying to be certain that the "no media" disk is the HD. Then I am also guessing that it will fail to "clean" the drive which is just a quick delete of all partitions on the drive.

Start diskpart.
Type list disk and identify your SSD disk number (from 0 to n disks).
Type select disk n where <n> is your SSD disk number.
Type detail disk to verify the model number
Type clean

I've seen a few threads with your problem (not related to the model of the drive) but none I read had a resolution.