Steam repair crashes Windows 7 and makes SSD dissapear?

[Gagzila]

Hey All,

 

So I've got my brand new rig setup with a fresh install on Windows 7 and windows updates applied. Nothing else installed except Google Chrome and FRAPS. Go to install my first game - Aliens vs Predator, notice it wants to install Steam so I go and download the latest instead and install it no worries. Go to instal AVP again and it says something about not liking the current version of Steam and gives me options to repair or uninstall. I choose repair (thinking wtf already), it starts but doesnt seem to be doing anything...after a few more minutes I decide to try ending the setup process, I try opening task manager...from this point on the mouse cursor changes constantly to the thinking circle animation and I can't do anything...can't CTRL ALT DELETE or anything for 5 minutes. So I hit the physical case restart button.

 

Computer boots up but says something is missing, go into BIOS - the SSD is not even being detected any more! Seriously WTF??

 

I'm currently running the startup repair from Windows setup but it's been going for 10 minutes now and I have the feeling is not actually doing anything...tells me I can't cancel it either, thinking I'm going to have to manually restart again and try installing windows on my other SSD and try formating the other one if it hopefully picks it up.

 

Does anyone have a clue what is going on, its really starting the freak me out and massively piss me off, I should be trying out my first game by now, not scratching my head because my OS SSD just dissapeared because of a freaking steam repair!

 

PLEASE HELP!

 

Thanks,

 

Craig

[Gagzila]

After some very quick research, it looks like it may have been coincidence and nothing to do with Steam....possibly an old CMOS battery or some other hardware related issues as it seems to have stopped detecting the SSD on a POST driver level.

 

Any advice on the matter still would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Craig

[VaporX]

Remove power from the SSD, fully unplug it, give it about 10 minutes and tyr it again. If you got an SATA 3 SSD you might need to update the firmware, this was a known issue with some of the early Sandforce drives.

[Gagzila]

Thanks ComputerEd,

 

I cleared the CMOS and it has been detected again and boots up fine. I am thinking I will replace the CMOS battery and like you said, look at updating the firmware and hopefully that nips it in the butt...damn near killed me with stress wondering wtf had happened LOL....the fun with trying new tech (to me anyway)

 

Thanks,

 

Craig

[wevsspot]

Gag, the disappearing drive syndrome was well known on the Vertex 3 and Agility 3 drives (and most any other brand that is built with the Sandforce 2281 controller chip). It seems that many of these problems have been resolved with firmware updates from the various SSD manufacturers. Check the firmware version of your SSD drives. I'd gander that they are pre-revision level 2.09 or earlier. You can check the firmware version of the drives, and update the firmware revision using the OCZ Toolbox. The latest firmware is revision 2.15

 

I haven't used the 2.15 firmware yet, but the previous revision (2.11) seemed to correct some issues I've seen with the OCZ 3 drives.

 

Here's the pecker though - you can't update the SSD using the Toolbox if the drive has the Windows OS on it

I have no idea what OCZ was thinking.....................................

[Gagzila]

Thank you for the very informative reply wevsspot, that's pretty much what I have found from reading around. I have updated my firmware on both drives to 2.15, just had to install windows on my other SSD to update the OS dedicated one..oh well.

 

Also having some fun trying to run a RAID 10 configuration and keep the SSDs using AHCI...that's another story though, one that I'm not having much luck with yet...posted up in the Drives and Storage forum, see what others advise to do.

 

Cheers,

 

Craig

Edited October 24, 2011 by Gagzila