How to reformat SSD for Win 7 reinstall, after permanent boot failure.

[seajay]

It's good to discover the existence of what seems to be such a helpful forum, which I hope can help me to restore my Win 7 Core i7 laptop.
Symptom: Won't boot from what I deduce is the C: SSD drive, with larger D: HDD.
Story so far: I've gone through all the boot restoration utilities, including command line procedures, after booting from either bootable USB stick drive and/or CD installation discs.
Advice please: I think I have previously backed up all the data I need from drive D:, but even if I hadn't, do I need only to reformat the SSD into a new blank bootable drive before reinstalling Win 7 from the CDs that came with the laptop?
Finally: How do you actually make the current unbootable SSD into a bootable C: drive ready for Win 7 re-installation? Will the D: HDD drive contents remain safe?

Thanks.

 

[samuria]

Welcome to the forum. You always remove d when doing an install so it doesn't have boot files put on it. Boot the install media when it asks were to install it gives you the option to delete all partitions do that and let windows create what it needs

 

[seajay]

Thanks for the rapid response. Do you mean physically remove/unplug the HDD, or is there a software switch which ignores or deletes physical D: partition? Sorry, I'm a bit nervous since I've never had to do a complete reinstall following a crash, especially on a machine that has SSD as boot drive and HDD for data/recovery.

Would be much obliged if you can help clear the fog a little more before I press the GO button!

Thanks

 

[samuria]

Just pull the power lead from the second drive. We get so many people that leave the second hd in and windows puts the boot files on it so you cant then boot without the second drive

 

[Megahertz07]

If your data is on the HDD, first thing to do is to remove the HDD so you don't loose your data.
Unless you have a serious hardware or software issue on the SSD, you can make it boot again.
Could you explain what happen or what did do that made the SSD un boot able?
Did your Laptop came with the SSD and the HDD? Did it came with Win 7?
Did you changed any BIOS settings?

 

[seajay]

Thank you both for your input. Sounds as if I need to open the base to unplug HDD power. Yes the laptop came with SSD and HDD already with Win 7 already installed. This laptop has reverted to being my second machine but being an i7 gaming model, I don't want to lose it. I also have another similar more recent model which came with same structure but with Win 10.
The problem with the laptop in question is that it often auto closed down because of suspected overheating (fan?). However recently it began to permanently fail to reboot. As mentioned before I've been through all the routines to try to restore without full reinstall. If I can resolve the overheat problem (replace fan?), I thought I might be able to upgrade it from Win 7 to Win 10, since I still feel this is a worthy machine to keep operational.
The only BIOS settings changed has been to define order of boot device.

Thanks for any other comforting comments.

 

[Megahertz07]

If it shut ed down while running, you should do a check disk.
Boot from a win 7 (or 10) installation disk, go to repair and open a CMD window.
Type chkdsk c: /f
Once finished type chkdsk d: /f

Did you try the boot repair from win 7 installation disk?

 

[seajay]

I've got as far as taking base cover off to expose HDD, SSD, and fan. I thought I would also see gaming video card with another fan, but perhaps that's for desktops. There is a lot of copper strip heatsink around presumably covering the processor and perhaps the video chip? Anyway, booting with the installation discs and running laptop on its side like an open book, it has been running all day with a static screen, where the fan has been constantly running, and there has been no power down event.

I ran chkdsk c: /f and had lots of what seemed like successful tests. This included "0KB in bad sectors. However, on completion it said "Failed to transfer logged messages to the event log with status 50".

I ran chkdsk d: /f This time it indicated "The type of file system is UDF. Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.

I ran the startup repair from win 7 installation disc. After going through some routines, it stated "Startup repair can't repair this computer automatically".

I'm afraid this does not mean very much to me, except it may indicate that at least the SSD is capable of reliable operation after a reformat?
I'm not sure why the D: drive can't be read though. In a previous test, I was able to use a pseudo windows file explorer to see folders and files on the equivalent of the D: drive. It looks a bit fiddly to remove the HDD, but when I have done this, do I just run the installation disc, or do I have to do a CMD line instruction to format the SSD into a bootable drive first?

Thanks again for your helpful assistance.

 

[Megahertz07]

After removing the HDD, just do a clean install.
Boot with the win 7 installation disk, go to install - Advanced - delete ALL partitions - create new and install on the NTFS partition.
Clean Install Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
When it finish installation, don't update. Open device manager and look for the missing drivers.
Once you have all drivers, do the updates. MS releases SP2 for Windows 7 - Windows 7 Help Forums
When all the updates are installed, shut down and put back the HDD.

 

[seajay]

Oh dear, I guess once you've started 'brain surgery' you have to carry on until the bitter end! I did extract the HDD ready to take your advice for the next step. Incidentally, I think I also found a reason for overheating, since removing the fan enclosure, although operational, the surrounding in/out ports were stuffed with thick dust! So, this success encouraged me to continue. Unfortunately, going through the routine of reinstall hasn't got very far, since it thinks that the only available drive has only 8Mb available. "Disk 0: Unallocated space 8.0MB. Windows can't do installation on this disc (needs 12093MB)"

I reverted back to your earlier tests but now get with chkdsk C: /f - "canot open volume for direct access"
With chkdsk d: /f I get same as before that "file system is UDF and is write protected.

I can only assume that the HDD is somehow required for reinstallation.
Before I plug it back in, I'll try some of the UBCD utilities to see if I can somehow reformat the SSD before trying again. Is there a DOS cmd to do this?

I guess you may now getting fed up with this thread. If so I quite understand if you've run out of further ideas. If I have to buy a new SSD to at least save an operational laptop, that's what I will have to do.

Many thanks for your patience and help.

 

[Mellon Head]

From post # 2:

<snip> ... Boot the install media when it asks were to install it gives you the option to delete all partitions do that and let windows create what it needs

Let the Windows install disk handle the partition and formatting of the drives. Did you tell the installation program to delete the existing partition and format the drive? If not, Windows won't repartition the drive for use and it will fail like it has done.

 

[seajay]

Thanks for coming back. I have NEVER been given the option to delete all partitions when starting to install. All I get is: "Setup was unable to to create new partition or locate an existing system partition. See the setup log file for more information". This gets repeated whatever I do, and I can get no further. After just trying initially with only SSD installed, and establishing it is unallocated and contains only 8MB of the original 80GB, I decided to reinstall the HDD again. There was no change in trying the inst discs again, only getting as far as described above. So, I decided that a heart transplant was the final option and used the inst disc option to reformat. Having ensured that I had previously saved the historical data I wanted to retain, I assumed (hoped) that reinstall would now reach the stage you have described, but no.
Having played with external facilities previously, I tried using Parted Magic to see whether there was a means to create a bootable C: drive. All I can tell you now is that I seem to have a recognized NTFS formatted HDD, but seemingly with no means for the Inst discs to recognize and create the ubiquitous windows C: drive. I guess I have to accept that the SSD has died and needs amputation, but would hope that a blank formatted 500 Gb hard disc can be resuscitated to breath Windows 7 again.

Quite understand if you have nothing further to offer, but thanks for your help.

 

[Megahertz07]

Does the laptop has a built in Factory Restore?
From BIOS you probably have an option to launch the Factory Restore. It will format the C: partition of the SSD and restore Windows from a recovery partition. Very simple and you don't need to look for and install any drivers.

REMOVE the HDD leaving on only the SSD.

Carrying Out A Restore - Medion Erazer X6811 User Manual [Page 85]

 

[seajay]

I was very encouraged to hear that there may be a hidden way of restoring my dying machine and I'm much obliged for your research in find the X6811 manual. However, on this Medion X6813, the only Function buttons are available on boot during the Medion flash start up display is F2 for Setup and F10 for Boot. Either of these functions are very basic with Setup just showing simple hardware info on processor and ram together with the ability to define order to look for boot device. F10 is even simpler in showing connected devices such as large HDD, or CD drive to select as the boot device.

My manual does indeed mention F11 or F12, but this is described as coming after running the set up disc. Unfortunately, in running all the options offered by the inst disc all it consistently get stuck by saying it lacks information on the hardware and asking to load drivers. I do this from the Inst disk and it presents a file manager requesting a file of type "Setup Information" Looking at "Computer" it shows Local Drive C: 698 GB free, Boot X: 31.2 MB free of 33.6MB, and the CD Drive.

The only file of type "Setup Information" is called Autorun, but all I get again is "The specified location does not contain information about your hardware" and back we go to the "System Recovery Options" Screen in a visious.

I did try booting up my X7843 machine, and sure enough that did come up with a graphical restore screen as you were describing. So unless I can get this inst software to recognise my hardware, I fear my previous brain surgery really does need the crash trolley.

Thanks very much for everybody's efforts to help me solve this start up problem.

 

[Megahertz07]

Is your Win 7 installation disk from M$ or from Medion?

 

[seajay]

Thanks for coming back.
It's from Medion, hence the Medion boot up flash with transitory screen options to press very basic BIOS F2 or F10 routines, before going into some not very understandable stuff ending in advice to insert a boot up device software. When a CD is inserted, whether the Windows Inst disk or UBCD, things start to happen. There is a 2nd Medion disc containing drivers etc.
It seems to me that it is the SSD currently marked unallocated but with only 8MB available that is the problem. As described before, the reformatted HDD C: primary partition with over 500GB free, is not what the Medion Inst disk is wanting, but the too small SSD? It reaching the instruction to input Drivers, it always ignores the fact that I point to the Autorun setup information , where it continues to point out that it doesn't have sufficient information about the hardware.
I am wondering whether I should try to reformat the SSD as I did with the HDD. Perhaps if it recognizes that the SSD is actually 250GB capacity. On the other hand if this doesn't work, maybe if I buy another SSD for £150 (they don't make the same Sony model anymore), will turn the machine into a brand new build and allow the manual described F11 or F12 to be achieved.
I don't have sufficient knowledge to know whether I've actually murdered the machine now, or whether investing recuperation money in it by buying a virgin copy of Win 10, or reluctantly returning it to its creator?
Any helpful advise would be very welcome.
Thanks.

 

[Megahertz07]

Last week I was very busy.
Did you get the Win 7 installed?

 

[seajay]

No further progress. I guess I must try to reformat the SSD to see whether it reverts to a 250GB installable disc. Then will decide to buy another SSD or return to Medion. If I replace the SSD I shall also have to purchase Win 10 for a clean install without HDD connected.
I would welcome your opinion before I take either route.

Thanks

 

[Megahertz07]

It is very difficult to us to know what you have as it isn't a M$ installation disk. Then it is very difficult to us to guide you.
If the laptop came with win 7 you don't need purchase Win 10.
Look under the laptop or under the battery to see if there is a COA sticker with a win 7 key on it.
Is the win7 that came with the laptop a Home or Home Premium edition?
Is the SSD a 2.5"? Do you know the brand and model?

 

[seajay]

I quite understand that the issues I have raised are difficult to solve from a remote location.
There is a sticker marked by Medion as Windows 7 Home Prem OA with a product key. |I have unfortunately been unalbe to reach a stage where inputting this key starts installation off.
I was originally advised to unplug the HDD to prevent installation on this device. Perhaps if I unplug the SSD, it might try to install on the HDD instead?
The SSD is an Intel SSD 320 Series 80GB Model SSD SA2G W080G3 2.5. This model is no longer available but I guess the next size up from a different manufacturer would be OK, assuming that if replaced it I could do a clean install from the manufactures discs?
Why wouldn't I need to purchase Win 10, if that is my ultimate goal?
Please don't worry if you feel you are unable to help any further.

Thanks