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MSATA SSD not detected in BIOS


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Hi!

I have recently a power shortage problem - the battery in my laptop ran out of juice and it suddenly shut down. This resulted in a broken SSD drive, which actually died a week later (not detected by any system or adapter). The laptop also had another SSD msata drive installed which was ok and I could see the data on it when booting into linux from pendrive. I then got a new drive and went for a completely new system in RAID 1 config for backup - changed legacy to UEFI mode in BIOS, removed the mSATA before in case I got something wrong and the data was erased. After installing Windows to the RAID volume I plugged the mSATA SSD into the mobo again and it is no longer visible for both BIOS and Windows. What could have gone wrong? I assume these possibilities: the motherboard went wrong or the drive got broken - question is "HOW"?

 

I resorted to google straightaway and I've found several tips:

- update the BIOS (did that, and nothing changed)

- change RAID/AHCI/ATA modes (still nothing)

- reset the RAID, install new OS and drivers (still not showing the drive)

- complete a "power cycle" for SSDs, found on Crucial's forums (is that even a thing?)

 

I need to recover the data from this mSATA drive - how do I do that?

 

The system I'm using:

Dell M6700 with i7 3940XM

16GBs of RAM

2x ADATA SSD in a RAID array

1x Samsung PM851a mSATA - the one I am trying to revive

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  • 3 weeks later...

Have you tried re-seating the drive to check if is again visible in BIOS? Since you've said it was working fine, and then suddenly it is no longer visible I would not assume that any of the parts were damaged. 

Have you tried loading BIOS defaults?

 

If you still can't get the drive to work, is there any chance to test it in another machine (or different m.2 drive in your laptop)?

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Hi! Thank you for your answer!

I was able to launch the msata ssd via an adapter (msata -> sata -> regular HDD bay) and it works fine. When I try to launch it in the msata slot it is not detected. This happened after I changed my bios settings to secure boot raid config uefi, while the previous settings were legacy ahci mode. Unfortunately changing the settings does not allow the laptop to detect the msata. Is it possible that the slot is dead?

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I don't think the slot would gone bad just like that since you've said that prior to making any changes it was working OK. If possible I would reset the bios to its defaults and would check it from there. If it's still not detected, get some contact spray and try to clean it with it, we were having similar issues with our HP Folio notebooks, where "fatter" SSD's would pull out the sata connector and we would have to clean it to get it properly recognized again.

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I have just tried contact spray and cleaned the slot but it didn't revive it. The drive is still not recognized.

As for the options in bios - there are three listed in m6700: ata, ahci and raid on. The drive is not detected under system information tab in either of these.

It seems strange that is stopped being recognized just like that, though I believe it might really be related to raid settings.
 

Edited by szumial
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I am using it in UEFI mode now with the latest OS installation, but the drive doesn't show up ever since I first went to UEFI. I would even say that it disappeared right after switching to UEFI.

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Loading system defaults "should" put you back to legacy if not its worth trying to either switch to CMS enabled (or whatever legacy support is called in Dell nowadays) or fully go with legacy and check if it gets recognized then.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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Btw, regarding the slot that you plug the drive to is it by any chance the wwan slot (judging from the dimensions of the drive it would fit there)? And have you tried updating the BIOS (even if it is the latest one)? I am asking that, because while some precision workstations will detect the drive in wwan slot, others won't (m2800 will, 3510/3520 won't).

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My m6700 has two slots with the same dimensions - one is labeled msata and the other one is wwan. I've read that some dell machines detect msata ssds when plugged into the wwan slot, but in my case it didn't work. As for the bios update, I did that quite recently, got the latest one right now, but if you suggest reflashing I might want to try that. I'll post some more after holidays.

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It all depends, when did you flash the BIOS was it after or before the issue occurred. If after, might be that there's something odd with that BIOS, if after than reflashing won't be needed as it did not fix the issue with the first attempt.. I'll try to get in touch with a guy I know that works for Dell, he might be able to provide some more insight on this.  

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Well I am not sure when this issue occurred exactly, but I'm thinking that when I was performing a new installation using raid, I reflashed the bios. Would it be possible that a newer version is not compatible with an msata anymore?

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It wouldn't make it incompatible, rather than breaking something that works properly.. I wouldn't recommend downgrading just yet, as this may cause even more damage.. I'l try to get the m6700 bios emulator, to see what eventually may need to be switched off/on since the drive is detected via connector(s).. Quickest way to check this would be to check another msata drive in that slot, but I understand it might not be that easy to achieve.. 

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I see. I'd like to put another msata drive into the given slot, but unfortunately I don't have a spare one, neither do my friends.

 

edit -->

Today I've noticed that the mSATA drive is very hot when plugged in the laptop, even though it is not recognized. By hot I mean, touching it for a 5 seconds hurts a bit, I suppose it might be ~45 degrees. Is that normal?

Edited by szumial
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It would mean that your laptop is trying to recognize what's that, that you've plugged there so maybe the port is not bad after all and there's something else going on.. I'll be in the office today so I'll try to get some answers from my bud (nothing granted thou).. regarding the temp it may run hot, mid to low 40 is nothing that you should be worried about (except the fact that the drive is not recognized) ;)

Btw. You can't get another drive to check the slot but maybe you can check the drive in another laptop to see if it gets recognized there from within BIOS?

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

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All I know is that the drive itself is OK - as stated somewhere above I've tried using it via an adapter (mSATA --> regular SATA) and it runs fine. I was able to recover the data, but still, I'd like to use it as secondary storage in my laptop. I'll try to find someone with mSATA laptop in my vicinity (hovewer all seem to have the m2 slots in their laptops...).

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Can you try one more thing - plug the drive into the msata slot, hold the FN key and power up the laptop. It should run the diagnostics, let it run and check what will happen (if it will find any issues) then once finished (and no errors found) check in BIOS if the drive is getting detected. I had a weird case of boot looping laptop right in the middle of the post and had to "reset" it like this to be able to boot into OS..

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I did as suggested and it didn't work.

 

There is a new thing going on with my laptop at the moment. When disconnected from the PSU it boots up with a message "no bootable devices found" and gives me an option to retry boot or go to BIOS settings. Restarting it doesn't work, but if I enter BIOS setup and then restart the machine, it boots the system fine. I wonder if that might be related to the mSATA problem or maybe it's something about the little battery on my mobo?

 

edit -->

The "no bootable devices" problem is solved - that was indeed the BIOS battery.

 

Dell rolled out a new BIOS revision (A18) just yesterday and after flashing it the mSATA drive is still not detected... I am starting to think it might be the MOBO that went wrong.

Edited by szumial
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