SSD laptops
-
To check the drive, buy a 2.5-inch usb drive enclosure and put your ssd in it. Then, plug it into another computer. If you can access the files, at least you know the ssd is okay, and you can turn your attention to your multi-boot setup.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013You don't even need an enclosure - you can connect a SSD directly to any desktop that has a spare SATA port and power connector.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
"Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt -
I have a Dell with SSD, is it correct that the SSD is the boot disk? (Mine is failing to boot, cant find any bootable devices, trying to work out which disk is the culprit)
Outside of what has been suggested above, remove the SSD and switch on the laptop to see what happens :~
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
-
You don't even need an enclosure - you can connect a SSD directly to any desktop that has a spare SATA port and power connector.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
That depends on the SSD card. Some laptop ones don't use standard SATA connectors, and have to be mounted in the laptop[^].
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
That depends on the SSD card. Some laptop ones don't use standard SATA connectors, and have to be mounted in the laptop[^].
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Clearly, I don't dismantle enough lappies ... :-O
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
-
I have a Dell with SSD, is it correct that the SSD is the boot disk? (Mine is failing to boot, cant find any bootable devices, trying to work out which disk is the culprit)
I saw a new Dell with a small SSD and a larger spinner. If you have two drives, yes the boot is going to be the ssd. These are very temporary growing pains as I saw a 500gb ssd for 47 bucks on sale. It's the end of the mechanical HD. It's been a good run all the way back to the RK05 but good reddens.
-
Clearly, I don't dismantle enough lappies ... :-O
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
-
I saw a new Dell with a small SSD and a larger spinner. If you have two drives, yes the boot is going to be the ssd. These are very temporary growing pains as I saw a 500gb ssd for 47 bucks on sale. It's the end of the mechanical HD. It's been a good run all the way back to the RK05 but good reddens.
-
You don't even need an enclosure - you can connect a SSD directly to any desktop that has a spare SATA port and power connector.
Sent from my Amstrad PC 1640 Never throw anything away, Griff Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay... AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
2.5-inch SATA SSDs all have the same cable interface. For the nVME SSD's you can get an appropriate enclosure for those as well. All you have to do is be mindful of the connection type and what type of drive it is (there are apparantly three types, and two? connector types). I'm assuming that the drive in question is a standard 2.5 inch SATA drive.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
I have a Dell with SSD, is it correct that the SSD is the boot disk? (Mine is failing to boot, cant find any bootable devices, trying to work out which disk is the culprit)
I recently replaced the spinner in my wife's HP all-in-one with a SSD. I was surprised to find a 16GB SSD mounted on the board, apparently only used for cache. I never saw any indication that it helped anything. That 5+ y/o machine was always really slow. The new SSD and fresh Windows made all the difference as it's now < 10 seconds from power on to Google.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
-
I recently replaced the spinner in my wife's HP all-in-one with a SSD. I was surprised to find a 16GB SSD mounted on the board, apparently only used for cache. I never saw any indication that it helped anything. That 5+ y/o machine was always really slow. The new SSD and fresh Windows made all the difference as it's now < 10 seconds from power on to Google.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
Yeah, this is what I am not sure of, whether the SSD is just cache, or is the actual boot device. It shows, in Hierans boot CD in a disk scan tool as an unmounted device, it does show up in BIOS as a disk device. The terrabyte disk is mounted, but the disk manager shows some odd partitions, it was partitioned up into windows 10, windows 7, data, linux, android, It seems as if the windows 10, what was the original disk boot partition, has lost its MBR. (I later put on an Ubuntu MBR on this disk, and it then booted either Ubuntu, windows 10, or windows 7). All my data is backed up on a terabyte external USB disk, so I might just get the rescue iso off Dell, and reset the system to its original format, booting windows 10, and running ubuntu and android off VMs. Probably easiest. THe Dell hardware check, long version, didnt report any hardware issues, so it looks like the disks are OK, just the MBR got trashed.
-
I have a Dell with SSD, is it correct that the SSD is the boot disk? (Mine is failing to boot, cant find any bootable devices, trying to work out which disk is the culprit)
Windows 10 updates will trash MBR's it doesn't understand, here's just one ref: dual boot - Windows 10 update broke my MBR / GRUB - Ask Ubuntu[^] A better way to go would be install ubuntu (dell even do this themselves in some of their laptops) and run win 10 & 7 out of VM's - more stable and less worries that win updates will mess up vm settings / connectivity or even scan and decide it's suspicious.
Message Signature (Click to edit ->)
-
Windows 10 updates will trash MBR's it doesn't understand, here's just one ref: dual boot - Windows 10 update broke my MBR / GRUB - Ask Ubuntu[^] A better way to go would be install ubuntu (dell even do this themselves in some of their laptops) and run win 10 & 7 out of VM's - more stable and less worries that win updates will mess up vm settings / connectivity or even scan and decide it's suspicious.
Message Signature (Click to edit ->)
THats a possible. Right now I just need another windows 10 machine on the C drive that I can use for testing some driver dev work.
-
2.5-inch SATA SSDs all have the same cable interface. For the nVME SSD's you can get an appropriate enclosure for those as well. All you have to do is be mindful of the connection type and what type of drive it is (there are apparantly three types, and two? connector types). I'm assuming that the drive in question is a standard 2.5 inch SATA drive.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
That's an M.2 device and USB enclosures are available for those too, so you were still correct with your reply OriginalGriff :-)
-
My Dell laptop has an M.2 SSD, so be aware that it is a different connection (ssd is like a horizontal card that slots into a connection on the motherboard and they come in different lengths).
All of the nVME enclosures I've seen support the three most common drive lengths, so only the interface (SATA, PCIe) and connector type (M or B) seem to matter.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
Mark Parity wrote:
That's an M.2 device and USB enclosures are available for those too
Really? That's an immediate add to my shopping list!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
They're kinda pricey compared to enclosures for normal SSDs. Expect to spend at least $30, and more often than not, $50-60. I have a Samsung 960 EVO 500gb still in the box because I don't have an enclosure yet.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
They're kinda pricey compared to enclosures for normal SSDs. Expect to spend at least $30, and more often than not, $50-60. I have a Samsung 960 EVO 500gb still in the box because I don't have an enclosure yet.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013I'm beginning to see that -- and the fact that there are at least three different connector formats, so it's best to buy the cards first, and then the enclosures to match. You might be lucky on price, though, because it looks like this[^] could be right for your one (if you're willing to wait a few weeks for delivery).
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
-
Both disks are shown in the devices section. In the boot section though it says 'ubuntu' as the first device, then IP4 and IP6 as the second and third. (It had windows 10 on it from the factory, I put on Ubuntu as the main boot OS, and put windows 10 and windows 7 in grub) I am running a Dell long diagnostic on it currently, but using the latest Hierens bot CD the SSD didnt show up in disk manager, and in a disk repair tool it was showing as unmounted. I wounder if the SSD has died...
Munchies_Matt wrote:
...but using the latest Hierens bot CD the SSD didnt show up in disk manager...
If that was from within the XP in Hiren's it probably didn't have the drivers that enable your disk controller to be seen. Check out Sergei Strelec Sergei Strelec - Загрузочные диски[^], look for English version at the end of the description, click it and on the next page scroll down to Downloads, click MEGA, click the big red Download button and Bob's your mother's brother. Burn to USB and boot to Windows 10 environment so you should be able to see everything on modern hardware.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
-
That depends on the SSD card. Some laptop ones don't use standard SATA connectors, and have to be mounted in the laptop[^].
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Mark_Wallace wrote:
That depends on the SSD card. Some laptop ones don't use standard SATA connectors, and have to be mounted in the laptop[^].
Don't you have an mSATA/M2 to USB adapter in your kit bag? I have one in my laptop bag at all times along with several other adapters that come in handy.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
-
They're kinda pricey compared to enclosures for normal SSDs. Expect to spend at least $30, and more often than not, $50-60. I have a Samsung 960 EVO 500gb still in the box because I don't have an enclosure yet.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
They're kinda pricey compared to enclosures for normal SSDs. Expect to spend at least $30, and more often than not, $50-60. I have a Samsung 960 EVO 500gb still in the box because I don't have an enclosure yet.
Got my mSATA/M2 to SATA/USB adapter for either AUD$20.00 or AUD25.00, the shop had them on the shelf.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
