Samsung SSD 840 EVO boot problem

geotre · 01 Feb 2017

I have a Asus G73JW laptop with:
Win7 ultimate x 64 bit;
Nvidia geforce GTX460M, 1,5gb;
CPU: :Intel Core i7 - 740QM, 1,73 GHz;
Memory = 16GB;
Samsung SSD 500GB with OS on it + Samsung HDD 1 TB for storage.
EAX advanced HD 5.0; THX trustudio
Security: AVG antivirus with windows firewall on at all times.
BIOS: Vendor = American megatrends; Version: G73JW 203
VBIOS version: 70.06.25.00.0B.N41G73. T15
EC version: b12c1e0203

Over the last 6 months my laptop started to fail to boot into windows from time to time - error message = " A disc read error occurred, press control+alt+del." Pressing control- alt -del resulted in the same message time and again. I then found that unplugging and then reinserting the Samsung 840 EVO SSD on which the OS is, resulted in it booting again. It would then boot without any problems for a week or so before the whole process repeated. During this time I noticed that the Samsung SSD appeared in my computer disk manager, but not in the BIOS. I became aware of this because I tried to reinstall windows on the Samsung SSD, but I could not, because the windows installation did not see the SSD drive only the HDD. I was at that time able to run a test on the SSD with the Samsung software and it tested 100% okay.
About 6 weeks ago the above process stopped working.
I then tried to boot win PE [ Macrium Reflect] error message = "Macrium Reflect has encountered a serious problem. Failed to create dump file C:\reflect\5.3-7109=x64-0.dmp"

Is there any one that can advise me how to solve this problem?

ICIT2LOL · 02 Feb 2017

Hello geotre now have you tried disconnecting the other drive and try booting with just the SSD in place?
It would be interesting to see if it came up in the BIOS when you do that too.
The other thing is did you clean or wipe that drive before the reinstall? I ask because that is what I do to make sure there are no remnants of the original install are left over.

Now the other things are have you run and checks on the system? if not try these

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
Disk Check < if necessary include the /f and /r in the command line as per Option2 (if you are going to use the /r switch there is no need for the /f switch)
Run these in safe mode and the sfc often best run for two to three runs – you can leave out the /r switch in ckdsk if you feel it not necessary

if no fix then these

SUPERAntiSpyware | Remove Malware | Remove Spyware - AntiMalware, AntiSpyware, AntiAdware!
Malwarebytes | Malwarebytes Premium
AdwCleaner Download
ADW download from bleeping computer delete any rubbish found with the malware scans
(NB If you are running Kaspersky as the main AV then it might need disabling it when trying ADW because it does not like it at times)
The malware ones you could leave out if you like but they only take a couple of minutes to run.

Megahertz07 · 02 Feb 2017

I would say that your bios has an issue.
Take note of your BIOS settings and then load the defaults and change settings as needed.
Try to look for a BIOS update.

Do you live near by the sea?

ICIT2LOL · 02 Feb 2017

Megahertz07 said:

I would say that your bios has an issue.
Take note of your BIOS settings and then load the defaults and change settings as needed.
Try to look for a BIOS update.

Do you live near by the sea?

Yes Megahertz mate the thought had crossed my mind re the BIOS as the OP mentioned the drive not appearing in it. It;s partly why I was wondering what is seen in the BIOS if the C: drive was the only one connected up.

geotre · 03 Feb 2017

Hi, ICIT2LOL and Megahertz07 for trying to help, herewith my answers to your questions/suggestions:

I removed the HDD [ storage drive ] and the Samsung EVO 840 appeared in the BIOS, I then set all the BIOS settings to default as suggested by Megahertz07 and then set the BIOS to boot from the SSD drive, but unfortunately it still gave the "Boot manager missing - press ctrl/alt/del to restart" message.

I tried to , but could not reinstall windows, as the SSD was not seen by the windows installation software.
I cannot run ckdsk now, but I did when I still had access to the computer and it was fine; the Samsung magician software also checked the SSD and find it to be 100%.

Re the BIOS update , I did check the ASUS website and mine was up to date. I do not live near the sea.

FYI: Something else I tried before contacting you guys ---> My wife has a ACER 64 bit laptop with 2 HDD drive bays and I inserted the SSD in the "storage" bay with the intention to format it and start over, but then my wife's laptop did not boot!!

Thanks for trying any other suggestions??

Megahertz07 · 03 Feb 2017

You've installed Win 7 on the SSD with the HDD attached, didn't you?
The boot files are on the HDD, not on the SSD, that is why you can't see as a boot able drive on BIOS.
Attach the HDD, boot windows, open disk manager, expand all columns so we can read them, with sniping tool take a snapshot and post here as an attachment. (Go Advanced, Manage Attachments, Browse for the file, upload).

ICIT2LOL · 04 Feb 2017

Yes mate do as Megahertz has suggested and my own addit is that if you are going to use that drive again then I alwasy clean or wipe a drive before I install in my mind a plain format is just not good enough.

Now I am guessing that when you installed that drive into your wife's computer it may have caused the machine to be confused as to which drive it was suppose to be booting from. Now I would try booting the computer then add the drive to be cleaned or personally I would use a SATA to USB adaptor or even a USB dock and clean the drive as an external device.

Anyway go with what Megahertz has suggested and see what we are dealing with.

geotre · 14 Feb 2017

Hi Guys, Sorry it took me so long to get back to you. Megahertz07, I am sure that when I installed Windows on the SSD, the HDD was in. I reinserted the HDD as you suggested and still got the "boot manager missing....ect." message. When I check the BIOS Boot option 1: was the Samsung SSD drive and the HDD does not appear in the BIOS, just the opposite as to what it was before!

Since the SSD was now showing in the BIOS I thought I shall try to reinstall windows on it. Removed the HDD and switched boot option 1 to DVD drive and inserted the windows 7 ultimate DVD----no loading of windows files - says "boot manager missing, press ... ect" What the heck? Tried 3 times, then used the Macrium boot CD, which did load windows files, but I could not do anything further, so I went back to the Win 7 DVD, which this time loaded and installed!! Now I did not have an option to wipe the SSD before the new installation as ICIT2LOL suggested I do, what software do you suggest I use to do this?

This is probably not necessary , but I did take a snapshot of disk management so you can have a look at it.

Thanks guys for helping, very much appreciated!!! - you have been great.

ICIT2LOL · 14 Feb 2017

Now I did not have an option to wipe the SSD before the new installation as ICIT2LOL suggested I do, what software do you suggest I use to do this?

Now it only needs a running Windows OS and you will need to gain access to a machine running Windows because the drive cannot clean itself while running Windows as you might appreciate.
So the process is here Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

Now the other machine needs to be running Windows as I said and the drive can either be installed into that machine or hooked up via a USB to SATA adaptor or I find a USB connected dock the most useful see pics

You then run the DISKPART command line making sure that the drive listed in DISKPART ie the drive running the Windows is usually numbered 0 (zero) the drive you want to clean will be anything from 1 - 10 depending on what other drive are hooked up. Now it is an idea to make sure the other machine only has the OS drive (C:) connected so that any other drive ie yours will be the next drive listed and it will let you know the capacity of the drive which can make differentiating the drives a bit easier.

Now this sounds pretty complicated but in reality it is very easy and if you get stuck post back with the problem

geotre · 21 Feb 2017

Hi ICIT2LOL,
FYI and others that might have the same problem in future: The diskpart command did not work on the SSD - it failed to select the SSD, did manage to do a quick format, which in retrospect I probably should not have done. It did clear the disk though. I understand that one should try to avoid doing these things to a SSD as explained here: How To Securely Erase Your SSD Without Destroying It. So I managed to reinstall windows, but I already had one instance where it gave me a boot problem AGAIN! I am not sure what the heck is going on.