SSD boot problem

Crucial M4

After an unexpected power loss, my PC wasn’t able to boot. Just "A2" printed in the corner of the screen. Impossible to go into the BIOS. The problem came from the Crucial M4 SSD drive (with a Windows 7 system), which do not like power losses.

A solution that worked : I plugged it via an USB deck on a Windows 7 PC, and check and repair the two partitions of the SSD. Then I put it back in the first PC, went into the BIOS and reselect this drive as first drive for booting. And my system was repaired.

The problem arose three times. I have upgraded the Crucial firmware, which should limit this kind of problem. Having a dual boot, I have downloaded the Manual Boot File firmware update, burned a CD, and booted on the CD. The M4 SSD was recognized and the firmware was updated in 30 seconds without problem.

Updated :
The problem happened today (11th October) for the first time since March. The PC is frozen before BIOS loaded. If I do a hot unplug of the SSD, the BIOS is loaded ! I tried many things (see links below) without success.

See also :
 http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD-Knowledge/Why-did-my-SSD-disappear-from-my-system/ta-p/65215
 http://forum.canardpc.com/threads/79348-R%C3%A9solu-Probl%C3%A8me-boot-SSD-%28Crucial-M4-firwmare-010G%29
 http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Hardware/SSD/probleme-recurrent-crucial-sujet_919975_1.htm

SSD Intel 335

I finally bought another SSD (Intel 335). I tried to clone the old on the new with clonezilla, but the new one had then the same behaviour ! I finally erased it with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=64M and reinstalled my system...

One month latter, I have got the same problem : just "A2" printed in the corner of the screen. Impossible to go into the BIOS. If I do a hot unplug of the SSD, the BIOS is loaded ! I immediately replug the sata cable and I can boot with the grub loader installed on another hard drive.

I finally solved the problem by installing under Windows the Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox. I used it to optimize and scan the two partitions. And after reboot, the problem was solved.

I have also updated my BIOS (my motherboard is a MSI H77MA-G43).

Wait and see