Cananot get my SSD to work - HELP

My motherboard is a 5 year old Asus P5Q3 Deluxe running an Intel Q9550 quad core CPU (NO OC'ing) in a Digital Storm Desktop 76611 and have been running Windows 7 64 bit Pro from a Velociraptor for OS and programs, data being stored on other drives. To postpone a rebuild of this computer but speed up the loading of Photoshop, Capture One Pro and some other hoggish programs, I decided to swap the Velociraptor OS/Program drive for a Samsung 840 Pro SSD.

I went into the BIOS and switched the SATA drives to AHCI, also editing the registry Msachi and IastorV values to support the AHCI and the three SATA drives are working great. Then I connected the SSD to a USB 2.0 port and to an external SATA power source and used the latest OEM Samsung migration software to clone the OS/Program drive which appeared to go smoothly. Next I connected the SSD via SATA cable to an empty port and ran the Samsung Magician software to check for firmware update (none needed). Also, I used the Magician software to tweak Windows specifically for the SSD instead of a HDD and double checked that all items had been changed. After powering down and swapping the SSD for the Velociraptor and rebooting, it would only get as far as finishing the POST and all that appeared on the screen was a blinking single hyphen or underscore line in the upper left corner, otherwise the screen was black -- would NOT boot up.

I compared the folders and numerous various files in the folders and they appeared to be exactly the same on the SSD as on the OS/Program HDD.

Is it possible that this motherboard is simply too old to be able to handle an SSD? Any suggestions as what to try next IF it still should be able to handle the SSD?

Thoughts/opinions??

Thanks,

MikeSp

I unplugged all SATA drives except for the Velociraptor OS/Program drive and plugged in the SSD after migration so that it became Drive (D:) and was able to see all of the data that had been migrated and was able to write to it -- thus it appeared to be working -- EXCEPT it will not boot.

As for reloading from scratch -- that is OUT (YIKES!!!) -- there is too much software that has been tweaked/customized in look and feel with many plugins (Office, Capture One, Photoshop, Qimage and others) that would take days to get back like they were in look and feel. I realize that starting from scratch is ideal, but in this case, it is not practical due to lack of available time BUT will be done when I later do a total rebuild or have Digital Storm take my empty case and build me a new computer.

IMHO, the OEM migration software should have made a correct clone -- I could understand if I had used Acronis or Norton Ghost and it did not quite work, but using the Samsung software should have insured a working SSD boot drive with identical contents to the original boot drive.

MikeSp

Actually, there are two SATA controllers, a Marvell for two ports (unused) and the Intel controller with four ports, three of which are used. Will try a different port as you suggest, but don't hold out much hope since the BIOS sees the drive on the same port as the Velociraptor OS/Program drive.

Thanks,

MikeSp

Forget the Marvell ports, test the sata 1 with other drives, if its not working then you may have a problem with your sata 1 port.

I think the samsung software did a crap job then.

I use acronis for back up all the time, I clone off of the cd you can make with it.

also I think you need to press escape for boot menu not f1, unless that is how your mobo is setup and you are sure of that.

Glad you have it worked out. Looks like what you dreaded the most, a re-install, was needed.   

Thanks for getting back to us.   

Honestly, there's nothing worse than a backup failing. Especially if you no longer have the original info to work with. In any case, glad to hear it's working!