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The morning, the following scary scenario happened:

  1. I woke up my Windows system
  2. Typed in my username and got an error (something like "could not load security xxx", but unsure of exact wording)
  3. System auto-restarted after cliking OK
  4. It didn't boot up anymore to the SSD with Windows 7 OS (I have another disk I can boot to, but that doesn't see the disk either).

Obviously, this happened right after I instantiated a backup procedure, which hasn't succeeded either. The BIOS can't find the drive when I connect to SATA. And it can't find the drive when I connect it to SAS. I have a Dell Workstation T7400, most recent BIOS (version A06), version of SAS Host Bus Adapter BIOS (HBA) is MPTBIOS (2007.09.29) from LSI Logic Corp. Other findings:

  • When connecting to SATA, the DELL Logo screen stays really long (5 minutes) and then at the end of POST it says that a drive is not found
  • When connecting to SAS, the SAS HBA initializing phase takes long (2 minutes, against normally 15 seconds)
  • When running Dell Diagnostics, it doesn't finish and gives the error Exception occurred in module MPCACHE.MDM file "IOAPICSP.ASM" line 1645.
  • I contacted Dell. On their advice I tried different slots and different cables to no avail.
  • I use an APIC battery power, spikes in the power are thus unlikely.

My conclusion so far: the disk is dead. I need this disk very badly because it contains the last few days of important development of which not all code was checked in the moment this happened. Are there any ways to recover dead SSD drives? The drive is a new X25-M G2 160GB model SSDSA2M160G2GC 2.5" in an extension bay and has been running without issues for 3 months on SAS.

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2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Late answer to my own question. It appears that Intel's SSD drives had (have?) a problem after the system wakes up. This has been reported on several forums, but Intel hasn't any mention of it themselves.

Solution is rather sore: buy a new SSD.

Unfortunately, Intel SSD's cannot be repaired by special repair companies because its contents is encrypted by a proprietary (?) encryption format. That too is not publicly mentioned by Intel as far as I can tell.

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Intel firmware updater might be able to bypass BIOS, find the drive and make it functional again if you upgrade the firmware:


If that doesn't work, your SSD might be dead. :(

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Thanks for the tip, your google-ability is better than mine ;-). My Linux skills are limited, but I'll try some of the suggestions –  Abel Aug 2 '10 at 10:55
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