SSD - the second NTFS boot sector is unwriteable (again)

[GHoll]

In upgrading my home server I installed an Intel SSD as the boot drive. I chose Intel because of its reputation for reliable products and reviews which spoke of the same. I installed an Intel 530 Series 2.5" 120GB SATA III SSD, and within two months chkdsk reported "The second NTFS boot sector is unwriteable." I just now finished installing a warranty replacement and got the same error. Does this drive have a reputation for this failure, or maybe I just got two bad drives in a row? (I had expected that warranty replacement parts would be thoroughly tested before shipping them.)

[ASouz7]

OldGreg,

We understand that the back from the NTFS boot failing and that doesn't mean that the drive is defective There could be many reasons as to why you are experiencing this issue such as OS, Media installation file... etc.The Intel® SSD 530 Series is one of the most reliable SSDs for comsumers there is on the market.

What kind of home server do you have? Could you please provide more details?

[GHoll]

The system is an HP model a6544f (Core2 quad CPU, 4 gigs RAM, Win7 Pro 64-bit) with a HighPoint RocketRaid 620 controller for the drives. (The mobo only has SATA 2 capabilities, the card gives me SATA 3.) This server is used to store files I need to access from all my machines as well as sharing a printer. When the first drive was installed, I installed Win7 Pro on it, and after installing all the necessary drivers, updates and apps as well as a defrag, I ran chkdsk. It passed with flying colors. (See below.)

Logged: 10/30/2015 9:35:30 PM (one day after installation)

Checking file system on C:

The type of the file system is NTFS.Volume label is Win7 Pro SP1.A disk check has been scheduled.Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...

175360 file records processed. File verification completed. 528 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 44 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)... 223360 index entries processed. Index verification completed. 0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)... 175360 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 137 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.Cleaning up 137 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.Cleaning up 137 unused security descriptors.Security descriptor verification completed. 24001 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 36006112 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

117115903 KB total disk space.

38663348 KB in 150536 files. 123932 KB in 24002 indexes. 0 KB in bad sectors. 280971 KB in use by the system. 65536 KB occupied by the log file. 78047652 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

29278975 total allocation units on disk. 19511913 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:

00 ad 02 00 d5 a9 02 00 b0 48 05 00 00 00 00 00 .........H......46 61 00 00 2c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 Fa..,...........00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.

Please wait while your computer restarts.

Two weeks later, after Windows Update ran it needed a reboot. (This is pretty much the only time I reboot my server.) So I ran chkdsk again just to make sure the drive was continuing to do well. That's when I first saw the error message about the 2nd boot sector.

Logged: 11/7/2015 5:24:25 PM (first reboot since then, after Windows Update)

Checking file system on C:

The type of the file system is NTFS.Volume label is Win7 Pro SP1.A disk check has been scheduled.Windows will now check the disk.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...

176640 file records processed. File verification completed. 541 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 2 EA records processed. 44 reparse records processed. CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)... 217046 index entries processed. Index verification completed. 0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)... 176640 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 50 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.Cleaning up 50 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.Cleaning up 50 unused security descriptors.Security descriptor verification completed. 20204 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal... 37321800 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.Write failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0x1bec2ffe00 for 0x200 bytes.The second NTFS boot sector is unwriteable.

Internal Info:

00 b2 02 00 17 93 01 00 78 1e 03 00 00 00 00 00 ........x.......db 52 00 00 2c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 .R..,...........00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Windows has finished checking your disk.

Please wait while your computer restarts.

Apparently related to this failure of the 2nd NTFS boot sector, chkdsk no longer reports the size of the drive, number of files, etc. Since it worked properly at first but no longer does so, and no hardware changes have been made, it appears that the problem is with the drive unless something in Windows Update has messed things up. That, of course, would explain why the new drive has the same problem. But I have not heard of any reports mentioning problems with Win7 and SSDs.

When Intel shipped the replacement drive I cloned the 1st drive to it and installed it. The error appeared as soon as I ran chkdsk the first time on this one.