HELP !! X25-M - Corrupt Master Boot Record ?

[idata]

Hi

I bought an X-25M a few weeks ago for a new build. The rest of the new hardware was not here yet so I installed it in my old machine running XP, formatted it for NTFS with 4K clusters which I read was the best size for speed. That worked fine so I copied one little text file to it as a test. Fine.

Since then its been sitting waiting for its new host machine. Now the new build is done so I connected the X-25M and tried to update the firmware. The new BIOS recognized it fine. I downloaded the firmware, burned an ISO image. Booted from that disc. The utility ran but would not complete the update. It kept saying Updated not completed - either enable Legacy [it was], set to AHCI [I tried that - same thing] or disable disk passwork [I never set one].\

So, I decided to remove it and re-connect it to my old machine so I could try running Intel Tool Box to do the firmware update. I connected it and booted. When XP came up, the SSD was not listed in My Computer but Disk Manager opended. The SSD showed up as Disc 0 - not initialized. I initialized it and rebooted. Then it showed up as Disc 0, unallocated. So I tried to format it [again]. Now it says there is only 8Meg total space !!! This is an 80G SSD!!.

I looked at it with Intel Toolbox - it sees it fine. The Toolbox wanted the disc formatted so I formatted it - all 8M of it as NTFS. The Optimizer said that was not enough space to do anything with.

Where did my 80G go? Why when I put it back in the old machine did it show up as not formatted? I did format it - even copied one litle file to it just to test.

HELP !!

Thanks

Message was edited by: EVGABuzzer

[mmokk]

you can also give this utility a try:

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2007.07.20-HDD-Capacity-Restore-Tool/ http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2007.07.20-HDD-Capacity-Restore-Tool/

[idata]

Thanks

When it first arrived, the other parts for my new build were not here yet. So I installed it in my old machine. It worked fine. I formatted it NTFS, 4K Clusters and copied one little test file to it. Then I put it away. When I connected it to the new machine, I did use SATA port 0. The MOBO is an EVGA 147-BL-E760 w/ X58 Chipset. The first 6 ports are controlled by the Intel chipset. There are 2 more controlled by a JMicron controller [also handles the USB ports].

In troubleshooting, I tried both but when I attempted the firmware update, the SSD was connected to Intel port 0. The update never completed but it obviously did something. I tried to update 3 or 4 times. All SATA ports were set to IDE wtih Legacy Mode enabled. After those attempts, I decided to try it on the old host. I installed it and booted to XP just to check it. That's when Disk Manager opened and showed the drive as not initialized, not formatted and with 8Meg total space. I tried using Intel Toolbox on it. Serial number was NO-CONTEXT. Toolbox wanted it partitioned so I did. I then formatted that 8Meg partition NTFS.

I think that may have screwed it up even more. After that format, I put it back in the new host. That's when I tried to run HDDErase and it could not even see the drive, though the BIOS did.

[mmokk]

if you now plug the ssd back into the old system and boot into xp, will it see the ssd? if so, run the hdd capacity restore tool on it and see if it fixes it. i would actually do a hard cmos clear on the system first (i've seen this resolve weird issues).

other things to try: running hdderase on the ssd connected to the old system, and a different version of hdderase (iirc 4.0 had problems with previous x25 firmware versions).

[idata]

In my case (same situation), hdd capacity restore tool nothing fixed.

[idata]

RMA drive, that's the solution.