SSD Troubles

[Noklu]

I am truly stumped. I am trying replace my C drive with an SSD. I purchased a Samsung SSD 840 Pro, 256 GB.

The install was straight forward, I used Samsung's Migration software to clone the OS onto the new drive. When I disconnect the old C Drive and try to boot from the SSD, the machine will start to boot normally, then just when the POST stops I get a black screen and a blinking cursor. I do not even get to the Windows splash screen. It stops just at the point the Windows start normally appears.

The OS is Windows 7, 64 bit
The hardware is: ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe, AMD Phenon II 1090T (not overclocked), 8 Gigs of RAM, Nvidia Quadro 2000 Video board. I do have 4 SATA HDDs and two USB drives hooked up. The machine is running in AHCI mode.

I have tried numerous fixes found here on the forum. They include the following:
Make sure the new drive is set to "Active"
Tried booting with all drive disconnect except the SSD.
I booted from the Windows DVD and ran "startup repair" 3 times (twice). The first run it said windows found problems, I clicked "Yes" to repair problems. All subsequent runs said no problems found.
I have also up dated my BIOS to the latest version.

I can simply reconnect my existing C drive and it will bootup, but I find it odd that I can't even get to the Windows splash screen.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Now let me get this right Noklu - you installed Windows 7 onto the SSD? Then you tried to clone the whole of the old drive to the SSD?

Oops sorry read that wrong. Personally I would have done a fresh install to the SSD and took it from there.

See this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2432-usb-windows-7-installation-key-drive-create.html

 

[kbrady1979]

When you were migrating the cloned OS over, how many drives did you have plugged in? Also, in the BIOS, is the SSD first in Boot Priority?

 

[Noklu]

A clean install of Windows is really a last resort. I have so much software installed it would take more than a day to re-install all software and get the settings in the software back where they were, I know this from past experience (a lot of graphics and GIS software).

When the SSD was cloned, all drives were plugged in. I cleaned and defraged the existing drive prior to cloning. I tried cloning a second time, no change. I should also say, I did update the Samsung Migration software to the latest version (2.0). On all attempts to boot the drive has been set to first priority in the BIOS.

 

[strollin]

It's possible that the ssd is defective. As a test, I would unplug all of the other drives and do a clean install to the ssd (don't activate) just to make sure that it is working and can be booted. If that doesn't work, then I would return the drive as defective.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Might be worth running this too if this doesn't come up good or run properly it might just indicate what Strolling has just said

Alex Intelligent Software - Downloads

and perhaps this one HD Tune website

 

[Noklu]

Update.... Strollin, that was a very good idea. I did finally try a clean install of Win7, low and behold it would not install. I tried twice and then packed it in. The good people at Amazon are giving me a full refund. After a bit more research I believe there may be a compatibility issue between the Samsung SSD and MBs with certain AMD chipsets. I suppose I could hunt for a driver or something to make it work, quite frankly a simple upgrade should not take that much effort. It seems that others with my MB have used OCZ and Crucial SSDs with some success, so I will order an alternative. I thank everyone for their help. As always, you guys are the best.

 

[strollin]

Bummer that you had to return it. Let us know if the new ssd works for you.

 

[Pantz]

Hello, i just did a Migration using the Samsung Data migration tool and my samsung SSD 840, an was successful with it.

 

[kingscurate]

Noklu, i had the same issues when i first got a ssd.Mine was a v4 crucial, i had two of those then went for the faster M4 crucial, after finding this site and using the recommendations im really happy at the speed it now boots.