Oh the irony of it all

[Scott Douglas]

Tonight my wife's new Dell computer came up with a 'Hard drive not found' message. Not sure if this was on boot up or if it'd been on for a while.
It has a 512GB SSD in it.
How often have you all seen an SSD drive go belly up?

I must admit, it sure is weird opening up the box and not seeing any HDD inside it.
I'll be getting into it tomorrow.

The irony is we bought this computer because she didn't want to take a chance on her old one (like the one I'm on now) having a HDD problem.

[red-beard]

I don't know why, but I never trust SSD drives. I always put in a HUGE standard drive as a secondary for backups. It has saved my butt many times and cheap insurance.

[craigster59]

Did you try turning it off and then turning it back on?

[masraum]

Most regular HDD usually give you some warning. I've heard that the SSD just die, bam, no warning.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by masraum

Most regular HDD usually give you some warning. I've heard that the SSD just die, bam, no warning.

Yup.

And they are a ***** to impossible to recover.

[Scott Douglas]

I'm hoping to get it started today. If I do, I will try to see how full it is as I've read that can cause them problems.

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by craigster59

Did you try turning it off and then turning it back on?

Yes. More than once.

[Scott Douglas]

(heavy sigh) So, this morning the computer booted up just fine.

Are there ways of checking an SSD to make sure all the 'chips' are working correctly?
I'm going to look into putting an old HDD in it as well.

I tried to get into the BIOS on a restart but was unsuccessful. F12 key didn't get me there.

[wildthing]

Could be just a cable... HD could be fine.

FWIW I was able to recover pictures from an SD card that mysteriously got erased. (My daughter claims she did not press Delete All or Format.)

[Scott Douglas]

After spending all morning on the phone with Dell support they are sending out a new hard drive.
Now the problem is, my wife has a sewing program that is limited to only so many downloads and we've reached the max number on this new computer.
How can I copy the program to the new HD?

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

(heavy sigh) So, this morning the computer booted up just fine.

Are there ways of checking an SSD to make sure all the 'chips' are working correctly?
I'm going to look into putting an old HDD in it as well.

I tried to get into the BIOS on a restart but was unsuccessful. F12 key didn't get me there.

Buy another SSD, and clone the old one ASAP, and put it on the shelf, or trash it. It likely is dying. Don't take a chance, replace it right away.

[Scott Douglas]

Dell is sending me another SSD with OS installed.
How do I clone the current drive?

[flipper35]

What type of connection doe sit have? M2, SATA?

[nota]

samsung has the best disk copy program and it is free on a samsung ssd or m.2

sadly it doesNOT work on other makes of HD

if you are not seeing a HD box is it a m.2 drive ? they look like a big ram stick with connectors on the end and will need extra hardware to hook up to copy if you do NOT have 2 m.2 slots

[Scott Douglas]

It is an m.2 drive.
Amazingly flimsy card if I'm looking at the right thing. Has a connection end on one end and a slot for what looks like a ground screw that it slips under on the other end.
I'll get a picture of it after I have some lunch if you want.

[Scott Douglas]

So here's what I'm looking at, overall view first:



Followed by a close up crop of what I think is the SSD:



If I'm wrong, please let me know. It's the only thing I can see that looks like pics of what they call an SSD.

[pmax]

I would buy a new SSD and clone the current. Search for SSD drive cloning. There appears to be many choices here. The software package should work exactly in the clone as before. In the old disk drive days, Apricorn sells a kit with the software and various connectors.

With the new Dell unit, you can probably call the software vendor and see if you can reuse the license.

[Brando]

PMAX has the right idea here. Get a replacement SSD (Samsung 970/980 EVO, Sabrent Rocket 512/1TB) and get the files copied over ASAP. If you're running Windows 10, you might be better off doing a clean install and copy over user files/reinstalling your apps.

Most SSDs have the same (or better) self-diagnostics of S.M.A.R.T., and the good ones have better write controls to prevent early failure of the NAND chips. I wouldn't be surprised if DELL just used lower-binned chips in their builds.

Originally Posted by pmax

I would buy a new SSD and clone the current. Search for SSD drive cloning. There appears to be many choices here. The software package should work exactly in the clone as before. In the old disk drive days, Apricorn sells a kit with the software and various connectors.

With the new Dell unit, you can probably call the software vendor and see if you can reuse the license.

[Scott Douglas]

So, in their infinite wisdom, Dell has sent us a new Seagate Barracuda 1TB drive. (sigh)
I guess it's better than a poke in the eye but really?

So now the problem is getting this new drive into the box and set it up to be the boot drive. It supposedly has an OS set up on it.
Maybe I should put it into my Sabrent External HD device to take a look at it first, just to make sure.
On top of this I'm not at all sure how to 'clone' the sewing program over to the new drive off the SSD.
One step at a time I guess.

[Scott Douglas]

I put it in my Sabrent External drive and it does have an OS installed on it.

Anybody know if I'll be able to 'see' the SSD if I leave it in but install the new drive as the boot drive?