 Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me. |
Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : ACER with ADATA SU650 SSD - BIOS won't boot it....
| Author | Message | ||||
Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
Hello all.  As per title, when you start the laptop, the BIOS runs automatically, to report "No bootable device." Interestingly, the BIOS CAN see the SSD as an ADATA SU650, but refuses to boot from it. Booting up a Linux Mint live USB, Mint can also see it as an ADATA SU650, but with an "unidentified" filesystem. The capacity is correct - 120GB. Wondering what has gone on here. If the SSD has died, it should not be detectable by the BIOS or by Mint either. But they both can see it, but have no idea of the filesystem. The machine WAS running Windoze. I might try a repair-install of Windoze, but I would also love to hear the comments of the members. Do you think the SSD is actually dead, or is it just FAILING? Can a FAILING SSD, still I.D. itself fine to the BIOS and an OS, but simply report it is unformatted or of no known format? EDIT: Oh, BTW - Machine is about 7-10 years old, so I am very suspicious of the SSD just being on the verge of failing, if not totally failed at this point. The client only ever uses it for email, so only needs a web-browser - perhaps I should try them out on a copy of Mint on a more permanent basis!  Edited 2023-08-28 16:07 by Grogster Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
KeepIS Guru  Joined: 13/10/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1680 |
Before I do anything to a SSD or HDD in a laptop that says NO. Is it readable in a PC? If yes, can you boot from it in a PC? . It's all too hard. Mike. |
||||
amigawizard Regular Member  Joined: 15/08/2023 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
FDISK MBR My Fix it !! Windoze. You Now DoNot Boot ! SSD in PC bad ! Windoze. ? Wayne ! ` Edited 2023-08-28 16:21 by amigawizard |
||||
phil99 Guru Joined: 11/02/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2136 |
Wot @amigawizard said good! Don't try to boot from it, if it is recognized in the PC just save their files. Then use Puppy Linux. If FDISK MBR doesn't fix ensure its first partition is Primary, Active. |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
OK, will extract and connect to PC and see if I can see it there. I don't really think they have any files to save, per-se', as it is just a machine for email. But I will try anyway.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6798 |
If linux can see it but you get "unidentified" file system then I suspect the boot sector is mangled at the very least. Linux can read all the normal Windows file systems so if it can't read that one the info isn't there. AFAIK the drive parameters are reported by the drive but the formatting information is stored on the drive itself, so it's quite normal to see the drive yet not be able to do anything with it. What you are seeing is akin to a brand new build with an unformatted drive on it prior to partitioning and formatting. The drive could be dead, you wouldn't know. Can linux see anything with GPARTED? FDISK is unlikely to help if it can't see the format of the drive. At best it will make the correct guess and not mangle it any further, at worst it will make a total pigs ear of any data. IMHO any data is probably toast. You may as well see if a full format, or even DBAN then a full format, will rescue the drive. If that doesn't work chuck it in the bin. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
GPARTED was the utility that said it was "unidentified" filesystem. It can see the full 120GB of the drive, but does now know what it is. I will try the FDISK methods. As they use it ONLY for email, I see this machine as a PERFECT candidate to introduce this client to Linux Mint. But I will try, none the less, to see if I can revive the Windoze partition. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3802 |
If you know how it used to be partitioned you can (potentially) reconstruct the MBR (not so easy if GPT) and then the whole file system will likely also be there. Failing that, you could try one of the rescue programs except in this case it doesn't sound like you need to. If you're really sure you don't need the data there's also not much point in going to the effort of reconstructing the MBR. May depend a bit on exactly which email they use - if the emails stay on the net then that's good. If they get downloaded & the net ones removed, then you do need to get back what you can. John Edited 2023-08-28 22:51 by JohnS |
||||
| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6798 |
User can still access emails via another machine: Splat the drive and try to rebuild it. You don't know if you've *ever* actually repaired a drive. A "repair" is only to gain you time to hopefully get any remaining uncorrupted data off so that you can splat & rebuild it. User no longer has any access to emails, not even from a temporary setup: Houston, we have a problem. Not always though, not everyone keeps emails for long. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
| amigawizard Regular Member Joined: 15/08/2023 Location: AustraliaPosts: 43 |
make a USB FlashDisk and Boot ! https://downloads.sourceforge.net/gparted/gparted-live-1.5.0-1-amd64.iso Wayne !! ` |
||||
| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6798 |
erm.... GPARTED, using Mint, says "Unknown". Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
Yes, that is the problem - not even LINUX knows what it is, which is what makes me wonder if it is simply in the process of dying - it is 7-10 years old, as I mentioned, and SSD's do indeed die just like HDD's do. This is another ACER Laptop, and to get to the SSD, you have to disassemble the laptop - there is no access port for the drive. This looks like a more standard laptop and not one of the super-cheapies, and the ADATA model number as ID'd by both the BIOS and Linux Mint suggests this is a standard 2.5" SATA SSD, not one of those horrible SSD chips bonded to the motherboard permanently like in that other ACER I got a few weeks ago. So, the SSD should be replaceable should it come to that. I'd quite like to try them out on Mint. It would save them the cost of a Windoze licence key, so there is always that fact to help swing the deal in Mint's favour, and if not webmail, I am pretty sure that clients like Thunderbird have Linux versions I could setup for them. I will see what they think of that idea, but if it is basically an email-only machine, with perhaps some web-browsing, that is an easy move for any Windoze user to migrate to Linux. It's only when you have specific applications you want to use that don't have Linux versions, that you tend to have to stick with Windoze for the client. ...but I digress.... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
Wee update on this - spoke to the client today, and they are HAPPY to try out Linux Mint!  So, I will replace the SSD with a new one, and install Linux Mint, and setup some desktop icons for their favourite websites. I have confirmed that they used WEBMAIL, so once we log back into that, all their email and contacts will be intact. I have pulled the laptop to bits with the intention now, of replacing the SSD, and so I connected the existing ADATA SSD to a USB3 adaptor, connected it to my Windoze Ten machine, and IT ALSO cannot identify the filesystem. Windoze wanted to format it. I did not allow it for now, as I plan to use a new SSD for the Mint setup. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 6798 |
There is a special "deep impact" formatting technique for particularly stubborn drives. It involves specialist external equipment, namely a lump hammer. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
||||
| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9308 |
LOL!!!!!  EDIT: I am pleased that the client was willing to try Linux Mint. SO MANY people WILL NOT accept ANYTHING other then Windoze - even if all they do with it, is email and browsing the web. Mint is PERFECT for that, and SOMEWHAT similar to Windoze in terms of menus etc, so I am quite happy that I can get someone else off of Windoze and onto Linux. Naturally, this only works well, cos all they have ever known was webmail and internet browsing. If they had some WINDOZE-SPECIFIC applications, this would not work as well. But it's a win in any event, so I will take it. Edited 2023-08-31 18:25 by Grogster Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
||||
 Print this page |
