Problem with OS load

karlsnooks said:

A secure erase is never going to kill a disk. You may have had a problem, but the cause was not a secure erase.

Secure erase is not a part of the instructions in the link for a clean install.

Hum perhaps it was ready to take a hike then karl the one I am doing now has a lot of stuff on it and I want it to be absolutely factory fresh when I do the install onto it.

The dead drive using my gadget on the tester is only showing 3048MB on it anyway and it makes noises like the Dr Who space machine coming i to land.

Now just as a matter of curiosity would resetting the BIOS to fail safe default make any difference - I haven't used the settings much except to set the opto as 1st boot and HDD as 2nd plus I originally set it up for ACHI?

James7679 said:

Some reading material.Crucial M4 128GB - slow boot time
By searching "crucial m4 128gb slow boot time" I got thousands of hits. The link I provided had the most replies and the most suggestions. This seems like either a bad bios setting, bad registry setting, or flat out bad ssd.

Thanks James I am leaning toward something in the BIOS mate as the dot boot up nonsense happens with the old HDD as well but it could be a dud M4 eh?

Having said that I do have it still with 0309 firmware as someone mentioned the 000F was not really that important so I am wondering if I have anyhtng to lose by updating that firmware as it stands I am going nowhere fast perhaps even backwards

James7679 said:

This is how I would proceed, before doing the following, try a fresh format and bench it on one of your other pcs. Also, disconnect ALL devices and peripherals not necessary.
1. Replace SATA cable with a NEW one.
2. Wipe the SSD
3. Clear CMOS
4. Set BIOS to fail safe
5. Load Clean OS
6. Reboot
7. Enable optimized settings in BIOS along with quick boot.
8. Reboot
9. Only update and install necessary drivers.

Post back.

Hum great minds James I have a gadget to to just that (format and bench) outside of my tester and then it's just a matter of flipping the SSD back and doing the rest and yes disconnecting the peripherals is also sounding like a good action too I'll even disconnect the wire through card reader, :)

Just so I get it right mate as I am not really used to this stuff HD Tune ok to do the benching with? or would you recommend a different one/app?

Mate like I say I don't really know what I am supposed to do with or see in benchmarks but these I just ran for my old HDD and the M4 - which was at idle anyway I suppose so might not give any clues up - sorry!

Tell me if this is what is needed or not or if the drive has to be working in a machine for the tests to be done.

Ok carwiz I don't have the EUFI on the board in question as it is a two year old build or there abouts.
I'll go in and check the BIOS as I am fairly sure that is where the problem now lies and make those settings.

I do know from past checks the BIOS is set to DVD > HDD > USB for the boot order, and that the opto and SSD are "seen" there.

The other bits and pieces I'll follow as per your list.

Just to make sure you know the screen shots were not from the machine in question they were done with the SSD hooked up to my tester, s the main machine is rapidly becoming non usable ( and quite a nightmarish exercise).

Well I had better go format this SSD again and start.

Will keep you updated.

James7679 said:

John, sorry. Didn't mean to abandon you. I don't get on too much on the weekend. Family time, you know? I enjoyed the day at the beach. Generally, when I do get on during the weekend, it's from my phone, like now. I found something that may interest you. Crucial M4 128GB SATA3 SSD Review - Initial Tests - The SSD Review This shows what the SSD specs should look like. A bit different than yours.

Hey look mate don't for one moment I expect you or anyone else to drop what they are doing and sort my little bag of horrors out.

Have done install #6 and same old same old - it loads but still with that annoying "Loading operating system...................................." business the initial boot is fast.

The drivers I thought I had loaded onto a stick well it might as well be in Klingon = all zip files which don't break down into anything with an .exe in them.

I am going to have to use the Gigabyte board disk again to get a net connection thing is it comes with bloat

Looks like time for a build at this rate as the old H67 set up is looking like it's heading south to be recycled. Ah well thats life