I'm new to imaging drives, might need to

[Krusty]

2-part post: I'm looking for feedback/comments on the hardware issue, and/or comments about what programs to use for imaging a drive.


My SSD (Revo x2 100GB, PCIe) had a bit of an issue a couple of days ago. I walked away from the PC for 15-20 minutes and came back to a failed BIOS boot screen. As if the PC had rebooted itself. Only it couldn't boot.

The SSD I have is really a RAID of 4 onboard SSDs in RAID0. One of the 4 drives wasn't showing up and the logical drive was not recognized. I rebooted a number of times, went into the RAID setup screen, nothing recognized it. Normally it flasses these 4x drives with 23GB each, but this time it would only show 3 drives of 23GB each.

So I power-cycled it, and it worked fine. It hasn't done it again yet, but it's only been a couple of days.

I sent in a ticket to OCZ to ask if this was an issue, maybe the first sign of failure, but all they did was give me an RAM ticket to ship it in for a replacement. I was hoping for more of a discussion.

2 things:

1) I'm not so sure I want to replace it - it's a lot of time and hassle and I'm out a PC in the meantime
2) I don't know if this is really a drive issue

Then yesterday I pulled the power plug out of the back of my PC to use on another rig I was reformatting. I let it sit a day while doing this, and when I plugged it back in it wouldn't boot. Looked like it didn't remember ANY of my settings. Not even the drive boot order (set the SSD back to primary and it booted fine). I had to reset my memory settings and a few other BIOS settings.

I'm left with the question of: What if it's not the drive? Is it possible the motherboard, maybe? What else might do that?

And then there's the fact I'm not good with imaging/ghosting drives. I think I have enough space on my secondary drive to store an image (I have ~50GB used on my SSD, and 150GB free on my backup). I just don't have another spare drive I can use for booting or anything like that. What program should I use? Are there any free? I would absolutely hate to have to reinstall it all at this point.


(oh, and it occurs to me I don't even know the procedure.... How can you image a drive if you can't boot to the drive in the first place? Do you have to install windows JUST to get to the point of installing the imaging software THEN re-imaging the active system drive? Will it even let you do that?)

[Bizman]

First I'd like to confess, that I'm not familiar with SSD's and only know RAID in theory.

That said, check the voltage of the bios battery on your motherboard. Your PSU might also be at the end of it's life.

Drive imaging can easily be done by booting from a CD, there are several alternative programs capable, even free ones.

[Krusty]

The PSU is the same age as the mobo and the PCIe SSD drive. All were brand new as of March/April this year. Good PSU, too. NZXT brand with good reviews. I wonder if it's a motherboard issue?

[Bizman]

Good reviews don't always tell the truth. A friend of mine is an electrician doing lots of computer repairing. He told me that review winners may perform well out of the box but due to cheap components their quality will soon drop. A regular voltage meter may still show given numbers, but the electricity isn't clean anymore. The phenomenon is called ripple. And as been said here before, the real manufacturer of brand components may vary from model to model.

Of course it can be a motherboard issue, too. Google for possible problems with your mobo, or with the chipset it's using. Do the same for your PSU. You might also want to check the manufacturer from FCC or UL.

Another thing to do is check whether the bluescreen left some information behind. Try WhoCrashed to read possible minidumps.

[Krusty]

It wasn't a BSD, though. No info to be had.

As for NZXT they're a high-performance enthusiast PC parts company. They win awards for some of their stuff. I don't think it was a poor quality PSU. I guess I'll do a little checking about the motherboard, but also higher-end and of good quality (generally speaking).

[MaSonZ]

not sure about all imaging programs, but with Acronis you put it in the optical drive and that is the boot device. it prompts you with some options. one of them is tools/utilities i believe, and in that section you can make an image. Ive made only a couple images with Acronis, I would say if you have 50GB used on the SSD then it should only take up 50 GB on the HDD. I can check with my tech teacher about Acronis more tomorrow unless someone chimes in about it or with a better program before I do. also, I believe if you make an image and put it on your HDD you can boot windows off the HDD drive until you get your SSD back and situated.

If you wish to use Acronis, I have a copy and may be able to make you one and send it to you. food for thought. 

Hogdweeb

[Krusty]

The thing is on my 1TB secondary drive I only have 150GB free. I can't reformat or reinstall stuff on it if it means losing that data.

[MaSonZ]

if you make an image and put it on your secondary drive you wont lose any data on that drive, you will lose the free space however that the image takes up.
likewise, making an image of the troubled drive shouldn't lose any data on your SSD if it is a drive issue.

[Chalenge]

You have problems Krusty! But I guess you already know that.

WD has out a 2TB SATA2 64MB cache HD with dual processors that performs (IMO) better than SATA3. I recommend you clone your current disk to one of those. If you have something you just cant move then you should get one and move everything that you can. I dont think its a good idea to ever fill more than about half of a drives useable space.

As to the comments about the PSU ageing... I doubt that is the issue. PSU age usually takes years to affect a system (caused by aged capacitors actually) and the MB and PSU being the same age lessens that likelihood. Unless your PSU is not a good one to begin with it shouldnt be the problem. It would be nice to know MB and PSU brand and model anyway.

As for imaging I recommend Acronis True Image. I believe you can still find a copy at Best Buy or d/l from Acronis. It is capable of burning a bootable CD rescue disk and there is a free trial available. I dont think you want to image a drive until it is bootable or else all you have is a non-bootable backup. However once you have an image you can restore or clone even then. You cannot image to a CD or DVD unless you have packet writing software (Roxio/Nero and so on) but you can backup an image from Acronis Securezone to CD or DVD.

[Krusty]

EVGA X58 FTW3 132-GT-E768-KR LGA 1366
i7-960 running stock 3.2GHz
Corsair Dominator GT 6GB tri-chan pakcage (3 sticks of 2GB) at 1600 MHz (model CMT6GX3M3A2000C8)
XFX HD-697A-CNFC HD 6970 2GB
OCZ Revo x2 100GB PCIe SSD (primary boot drive)
1TB Samsung 7200rpm SATA (secondary/storage)
NZXT HALE90-750-M 750W PSU with modular cables, 80 plus gold certified, active PFC

[Chalenge]

Any concerns would be so small as to be nonexistent.