Help - I killed my SSD drive

[Borg20001]

(I also posted this in Memory and Storage but wasn't sure if this was a Computer Help issue or Memory and Storage - apologies in advance if I've posted it in the wrong place)

Could really use some help in getting my pc back up and running!

I was upgrading my 64 gb crucial ssd to a Kingston SSDNow 300 120 GB HD. Running Win7. Tried to clone the 64 gb drive to the 120 gb drive.

Finally was able to do it after changing bios settings for sata to ahci and getting the 2012 version of Acronis True Image from Kingston Tech (the disc that came with the kit would't find any of the SSDs). Cloned the disk then shut down pc and installed the 120 GB SSD.

After POST get this error - B1 InitializeLibrary Failed 0xc0000001

So I figured okay I'll retry it. Reinstalled the 64 GB SSD that was just working and after boot-up get this error:

MBR Error 1
Press any key to boot from floppy.

Tried then to recover/repair the 64 GB SSD with my Win7 disc but when I select Repair computer, I get yet another error message stating that This OS is not compatible with the version for this disc (Its the same install disk - Win7 Home Premium). So I can't run bootrec.exe/fixmbr or anything else.

So I thought Ok bite the bullet and just reinstall everything on the 120 GB SSD. When to run that from the windows install disk but the SSD still seems to have all the cloned stuff from the 64 GB SSD because Win7 says that for the 120 GB SSD, there is only 55 GB left of space.

Once again, I thought okay, I'll just reformat the 120 GB SSD but the only way I can do that is to use the USB2 enclosure that came with the 120 GB SSD. Put the drive in the enclosure and when I plug it into the USB port on my working XP pc, it recognizes it but I can not find the 120 GB SSD anywhere on My Computer so I can't reformat it. I was going to use the program Eraser 6.0 to clean up the 120 GB SSD but I can't find the SSD drive when its plugged into my pc.

If you've read this far, you know that I need HELP!

TIA

Help me Anandtech Forums, you're my only hope!

 

[Bubbaleone]

You're description of the procedure and hardware involved to clone the the 64 GB SSD to the 120 GB SSD is confusing. Post your detailed hardware specs and a clear description of which machine you're actually trying to install the Windows 7 SSD on because your mention of an XP machine makes it unclear if that's the computer you're installing to, or if there's another computer involved.

 

[Wyndru]

Your 64 GB probably stopped working because you said you switched it to ahci during your cloning. You could try reverting that setting back, but it sounds like that's not really your concern now.

Regarding the format, I think the Windows 7 installer still has a format function in it, you may have to dig for it though. I think there are advanced settings in the beginning that let you choose a disk or partition to format. Of course it will still insist on making the mandatory 100mb Windows boot partition, don't delete that one.

 

[Ketchup]

Cloning includes the SATA (or AHCI) setup, so that is why it is not working. If you put the old hard drive in and switch to AHCI in the BIOS, the Repair option on the Windows setup DVD should take care of the conversion. After that is complete, you should be able to clone it and swap drives.

 

[Borg20001]

Thanks Bubbaleone, Wyndru and ketchup79,

Ok, my Win 7 PC had a 64 GB SSD with an i5 cpu and 8 GB RAM all on a Gigabyte H61MA-D3V mobo.

I tried to clone the 64 GB SSD to a new 120 GB Kingston SSDNow 300 SSD using Acronis True Image.

When I first tried to run Acronis, it did not see either of my SSD's when they were hooked up to the Win7 PC, so I shut down and then changed the BIOS to AHCI Sata settings, then Acronis saw both SSDs and I ran the Cloning software to go from the 64GB SSD to the 120GB SSD. I did not change the sata setting during the cloning.

After cloning was completed, I shut down the Win7 PC and installed just the 120GB SSD. Tried to boot up and got the B1 InitializeLibrary Failed 0xc0000001 error message.

So I shutdown again, reinstalled the 64 GB SSD and started up again and got the MBR Error 1 message. I've since been able to fix the original 64 GB SSD (by disconnecting the auxiliary HDD in the Win7 PC and then booting up with the Win7 CD and running the repair mode - had to run the cmd window and the programs bootrec.exe/mbr and bootrec.exe/boot and now the 64 GB SSD works in the Win7 PC.

I have an older WinXP machine (the only one that was left running after the boot problems with the SSD Drives on the Win7 PC) and I was trying to see if I could reformat the 120GB SSD on the WinXP machine because at the time it was my only working PC.

The reason I wanted to reformat the 120 GB SSD was because I thought my only option to get it working would be to start from scratch and install Win7 on the 120 GB SSD and then install all my programs and install the 120 GB SSD into the Win7 PC. When I tried to do that on the Win7 PC using the Win7 install disc, it looked like my 120 GB drive only had 55 GB free (I figure the rest was tied up with the earlier attempt to clone my 64 GB SSD to this 120 GB SSD) so I thought I would need to reformat the 120 GB SSD to start fresh.

My ultimate goal is to get the 120 GB SSD as my boot drive for the Win7 PC because the 64 GB SSD was running out of space (down to 4 GB).

Bottom line is, my Win7 PC is back to its original setup with the 64 GB SSD as the boot drive. I want to see if there is a way to fix the 120 GB SSD and clone it with Win7 and all the programs on my 64 GB SSD and then just install the 120 GB drive into the Win7 pc and be done.

I am not really trusting the Acronis True Image program that came with the Kingston 120 GB SSD as I think that is causing the problems. I may try to clone the 64 GB drive to the 120 GB drive one more time to see if I can truly upgrade to the 120 GB SSD without having to reinstall all my programs. Kingston Tech support sent me the 2012 version of Acronis True Image, but I'm wondering if there is a better program out there.

Kingston Tech telelphone support also suggested using Macrium Reflect to clone my smaller SSD drive to the newer larger one but I have not tried that yet.

Any suggestions on either how to fix the B1 InitializeLibrary Failed 0xc0000001 error, or to clone the 64 GB SSD to the 120 GB SSD?

 

[Wyndru]

At this point I would try recloning the drive again, now that you have it working correctly in ahci mode and acronis recognizes it.

After cloning is complete, and at the first boot, I would make sure only the new drive is installed, just until you get it booting correctly, then add other drives as needed.

Acronis is usually pretty good with this kind of thing (I've used ti 2012 many times to do this), so I'm not sure why you are having issues, unless for some reason it's not compatible with the controller on one of the drives, but I doubt that since it is letting you actually complete the clone.

 

[Ketchup]

... unless for some reason it's not compatible with the controller on one of the drives, but I doubt that since it is letting you actually complete the clone.

Yeah, I have used Acronis for years, and the only problems that would arise is when it does not have the proper hard drive controller drivers, but as Wyndru mentioned, it would not detect the hard drive at all if that were the case.

Let us know how the attempt works with both drives in AHCI.

 

[Borg20001]

Yeah, I have used Acronis for years, and the only problems that would arise is when it does not have the proper hard drive controller drivers, but as Wyndru mentioned, it would not detect the hard drive at all if that were the case.

Let us know how the attempt works with both drives in AHCI.

I had to boot the PC using Acronis disc and then plugged in the 2nd SSD drive (the 120 GB one) via a USB connector and ran Add a new drive in Acronis, then was able to clone the 60GB SSD to the 120GB SSD. When I first booted the PC and had the 120 GB SSD plugged into the USB port, I got the same B1InitializeLibrary Failed error so then I retried with the 120GB SSD disconnected from the PC 1st and was able to get Acronis to run.

Have not had a chance to install it in the PC yet. Have a business trip this week but will give it a shot next week. Thanks so far for your advice.

 

[Goros]

You are cloning a drive that had windows installed in IDE mode, and trying to make it work in AHCI mode.

No go. If you want AHCI to work, you need to install windows from scratch while it's in AHCI mode.

You cloned a drive that windows was installed on in IDE. You created another IDE drive. For either IDE drive to boot into windows, you can't use AHCI mode.

If you want AHCI mode, back everything up, reboot in AHCI mode with a windows dvd in the drive, delete the partitions on the drive and recreate them and install windows from scratch.

Or, just live with IDE mode performance levels.

 

[Bubbaleone]

A simple registry edit followed by a BIOS setting change is all that's required to switch an IDE Windows 7 installation over to AHCI mode:

1. Open regedit.
2. Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci
3. Click on msahci, then in the right pane double-click the value Start.
4. Change the value data to 0, then click OK.
5. Close regedit, restart the computer and immediately enter BIOS setup.
6. Find the SATA storage controller section and change the mode from IDE to AHCI.
7. Save and exit BIOS to reboot.
8. Done.

Note: If you fail to immediately enter BIOS setup and change modes after the registry edit: when Windows boots to the desktop the registry will have reverted to IDE and you'll have to do this all over again.


.

 

[Goros]

Or do that.

 

[Borg20001]

You are cloning a drive that had windows installed in IDE mode, and trying to make it work in AHCI mode.

No go. If you want AHCI to work, you need to install windows from scratch while it's in AHCI mode.

You cloned a drive that windows was installed on in IDE. You created another IDE drive. For either IDE drive to boot into windows, you can't use AHCI mode.

If you want AHCI mode, back everything up, reboot in AHCI mode with a windows dvd in the drive, delete the partitions on the drive and recreate them and install windows from scratch.

Or, just live with IDE mode performance levels.

Thanks for the info Goros and Bubbaleone:

I have this question - My 64 GB Crucial SSD was most likely installed with my BIOS setting for SATA in the IDE mode.

So what you say makes sense if I am cloning the IDE sourced OS onto the 120 GB SSD that now has the BIOS SATA settings at AHCI.

However, I have not yet tried to install the cloned 120GB SSD. Yet I am booting up and running my PC using the original 64GB SSD, but my settings on the BIOS have been changed to AHCI and it works.

So if I install the 120 GB SSD with the cloned info on it, you are thinking that the PC which has been set to AHCI, will not boot up on the 120 GB SSD that was cloned from an IDE 64 GB SSD - is that correct?

My question is, why is my 64GB SSD with Win7 installed on it when it was in IDE mode, when my PC's BIOS SATA setting is still set at AHCI?

Appreciate any insights anyone might have.

I think when I have time this weekend, I will uninstall the 64 GB SSD and try to install the 120 GB SSD with Win7 cloned onto it and see if the PC will boot up or if I still get my error message or if I get a new error message.

Thanks in advance for your answers.

 

[Ketchup]

If your original drive is now working in AHCI mode, you should be good to perform a clone now. When your switched modes, there was most likely an update occurring, which you may or may not have seen.

 

[Borg20001]

If your original drive is now working in AHCI mode, you should be good to perform a clone now. When your switched modes, there was most likely an update occurring, which you may or may not have seen.

Ok thanks for the possible explanation I will have to find some time this weekend to try and install the new 120GB cloned SSD into the PC and see if it works.

 

[Borg20001]

Update: My 60 GB SSD keeps mysteriously filling up and I started getting low to no memory warnings. I tried to clear up the drive but don't see anything that is a space hog (other than my kid's iTunes account that I can't move from the SSD). Turned off System Restore points for now and I have all of 1.5 GB of free space on the 60 GB SSD.

So I decided now would be a good time to put in the cloned 120 GB SSD. So I shut down the PC, removed the 60 GB HD, disconnected the 1 TB HDD (for now) and plugged in the 120 GB SSD. Powered up the PC and immediately got this error - AGAIN:

B1 InitializeLibrary Failed 0xc0000001

Shut down PC, rehooked up the 60 GB SSD removed the 120 GB SSD and put it in its portable enclosure so I could hook it up via a USB connection. Turned on PC with Acronis 2012 disc in and booted up under Acronis. Then ran True Image to try and re-clone the 60 GB SSD onto the 120 GB SSD. Finished that successfully (according to Acronis' software) then shut down, replaced the 60 GB SSD with the 120 GB SSD and booted up again only to get the same error message.

I then thought I would just bite the bullet and start from scratch with the 120 GB SSD and install Win7, then install all the programs somehow, but when I went to boot up my PC with the 120 GB SSD in the PC and put the Win7 install disc in my PC, but I could not get passed the "B1 InitializeLibrary Failed 0xc0000001" error message after the system POST.

Appreciate any suggestions you all might have to any or all of my problems with this PC.

Specifically:

1.) Is there anyway I can figure out why my 60 GB SSD keeps filling up? I'm not installing any new programs, yet it keeps filling up.

2.) Is there any better way to examine the 60 GB SSD to see what it filled up with? Maybe if I can figure that out, I can fix that.

3.) Is there other software to use to clone the 60 GB SSD to the 120 GB SSD? Acronis's help desk has struck out so far with all their suggestions.

4.) If I have to start all over, how can I clear out the 120 GB SSD so that I can install Win7 and everything else on it from scratch? (And does any one have any shortcuts that can help me with that). When I built this PC, I tried to minimize programs on the SSD and just installed my OS on the SSD (except for iTunes which my kid did while I was away). All the additional program files Office, Firefox, Chrome, AVG, AdAware, etc. were all purposely installed on my 1 TB HDD to preserve space on the SSD.

TIA for your assistance.

 

[Ketchup]

As far as the boot error, you may want to check your boot setting and hard disk priority settings in the BIOS. Also make sure your DVD drive is being detected in the BIOS. No matter what is going on with the SSD, you should be able to boot off the Windows DVD if it is set to #1.

 

[Borg20001]

As far as the boot error, you may want to check your boot setting and hard disk priority settings in the BIOS. Also make sure your DVD drive is being detected in the BIOS. No matter what is going on with the SSD, you should be able to boot off the Windows DVD if it is set to #1.

Thanks K, I will recheck them. I believe that Setting #1 is the UEFI (?) SSD drive, then #2 is either the DVD drive or the HDD.

Though with the current settings, when I put in the Win7 disc into the DVD drive and booted up the PC, even though I had the working 60 GB SSD hooked up, it first popped up a timed window asking if I wanted to boot up from the DVD drive (that happened both when I was trying to boot from the Win7 disc and also when I was trying to boot from the Acronis True Image disc), so I'm not sure why, when I have the non-working 120 GB SSD hooked up as the only drive, the PC does not then default to the DVD drive to boot up since it apparently can't boot from the 120 GB SSD.

So should I change the DVD Drive to the #1 boot position, and then the SSD as the 2nd boot position?

 

[Ketchup]

So should I change the DVD Drive to the #1 boot position, and then the SSD as the 2nd boot position?

That sounds right. Looking at page 30 of your manual, make sure the correct order is set in Hard Drive BBS Priorities as well.

 

[Borg20001]

That sounds right. Looking at page 30 of your manual, make sure the correct order is set in Hard Drive BBS Priorities as well.

Ok thanks. The 60 GB SSD is laboring, it keeps filling up. I finally had to compress the data on the SSD to regain about 10 GB so I should have some breathing room. Though I must confess I am disappointed in the difficulties I'm getting with the SSD vs. the old HDDs. I'm wondering if even after I set up the 120 GB SSD, am I just delaying the inevitable result of running out of space on the drive and having to again upgrade and go thru all this again? I'm sorely tempted to just buy a 2 TB HDD, install my OS on it and reinstall everything and just run the PC with two HDDs. I like the speed of the SSD but the size limitations and hassles are starting to change my mind.

BTW, is there any other software that might work better to clone the 60 GB SSD to the 120 GB SSD - better than Acronis True Image 2012? Cuz I have zero faith in Acronis after all these tribulations and problems.

And if I do reinstall my OS onto a new drive (whether its SSD or HDD) are there any shortcuts so that I don't have to install every program back onto the boot drive? I mean except for Win7 and iTunes, all the other programs have been installed on the HDD.

Thanks again to all who respond.

 

[Ketchup]

I am sure someone here can give you some input on the SSD, but there are a few things on the space issues. What web browser do you use? For example, Firefox won't let you set a limit on History. It is all or nothing. I don't know why they started doing this, as Thunderbird will let you do this.

Is Windows System restore turned on? At least it lets you set a limit.

If you have an nVidia card, it saves the uncompressed drivers and software from each driver installation.

Of course, those are only the ones that are obvious to me ATM.

 

[Borg20001]

I am sure someone here can give you some input on the SSD, but there are a few things on the space issues. What web browser do you use? For example, Firefox won't let you set a limit on History. It is all or nothing. I don't know why they started doing this, as Thunderbird will let you do this.

Is Windows System restore turned on? At least it lets you set a limit.

If you have an nVidia card, it saves the uncompressed drivers and software from each driver installation.

Of course, those are only the ones that are obvious to me ATM.

Thanks K, appreciate the guidance. I have IE9, Firefox and Chrome on the PC with Firefox as the default. I did not know that about the History for that browser. Occasionally, I go in and clear the History. I will go and check on that.

I did have Windows System Restore on and when I was down to 50 MB of space left, I shut it off. Since I have set the file compression on for the SSD, I turned the System Restore back on and set it at 1% (600 Meg) for the limit.

As for the video card, I have a preference for nVidia & did not know that about the drivers, but for this PC I actually have a Radeon HD 6870 video card so I am not sure if the drivers are an issue or not.

I'll go back and check this all to be sure.

Maybe I'll post a question in the Memory and Storage forum. Thx

 

[sm625]

So I figured okay I'll retry it. Reinstalled the 64 GB SSD that was just working and after boot-up get this error:

MBR Error 1
Press any key to boot from floppy.

Tried then to recover/repair the 64 GB SSD with my Win7 disc but when I select Repair computer, I get yet another error message stating that This OS is not compatible with the version for this disc (Its the same install disk - Win7 Home Premium).

First of all you should never just haphazardly run a repair operation on a disc you know is just fine. That should be your first clue that something else is wrong. Your old disc should work the same way it did before you started, and if not then something in your bios probably changed.

 

[Borg20001]

First of all you should never just haphazardly run a repair operation on a disc you know is just fine. That should be your first clue that something else is wrong. Your old disc should work the same way it did before you started, and if not then something in your bios probably changed.

Thanks, at the time I had no other options because the 64 GB SSD that was just working was now giving me that MBR Error 1 and I had changed nothing in the BIOS or anything else.

I had read that if there was an MBR Error 1 then I should run Windows Repair and run bootrec.exe and fixmbr so that I could once more boot from that SSD. In the end, I had to disconnect the HDD during reboot and then that allowed me to run Windows 7 disc and get to the point where I could fix the MBR Error and boot from that SSD again. But all of that is not the main problem. I am more concerned with why I can't clone the 60 GB SSD onto the 120 GB SSD.

Is there better software than Acronis True Image?

And the other question I have is why is my 60 GB SSD keep mysteriously losing storage space? For now I have enabled compress files on the SSD and was able to get my free space on the SSD from 50 MB to 10.5 GB. Now, 3 days later and that Free Space is down to 8.5 GB and I don't know what is filling the drive.

All my storage and programs are installed on the HDD so other than Win7 OS and my kid's iTunes account (12 GB) there should not be anything else on there but there is. The iTunes account has not grown as I check that storage space as well and at most 3 songs have been purchased so that is less than 10 meg added there.

Appreciate any suggestions as to how to diagnose this loss of free space.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Use this to find what is consuming your space

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/

 

[Borg20001]

Use this to find what is consuming your space

http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/

Thanks for the link Rad, I ran that and found a few culprits. The two that I can't remove are hibernate.sys and pagefile.sys.

I changed my pagefile to reduce its size down to 250 Meg (since I have 8 GB of RAM) and switched it to store the file on my HDD but I can't get rid of the 6+GB file pagefile.sys.

Also I can't delete the Hibernate.sys file either.

Anyone with any suggestions about handling these two files would be greatly appreciated.