GA-H67MA-UD2H with OCZ RevoDrive stopped working suddenly

[dmkdmkdmk]

Hi Folks

I build a completely new rig in January and after some installation trouble finally got it working. It runned like a charm for 3 months. Within the last week, my second hard disk drive (WD 2TB) disappeared in Windows a few times. After a reboot everything was fine again. But last Sunday my computer didn't start up. It hanged after POST on the screen "Loading Operating System...".

I wanted to boot from the DVD-Drive with the original Win7-Disk. This did not work because I used the SATA2-Ports on my Mainboard. All the Intel Sandy Bridge non-B3-stepping boards seem to have this problem. I put the DVD-Drive to a SATA3-Port and suddenly I was able to start the Windows7-Setup. My plan was to do a recovery of the installed Windows on the RevoDrive. Unfortunately the Driver could not be loaded in the Windows-Recovery-Screen. It always says "Driver Installation failed".
But if I try to make a new Windows-installation, the Driver can be successfully loaded and after that I can browse through the two partitions (System & Temp) on the RevoDrive. It seems the RevoDrive is not corrupted. I also checked out the RevoDrive-BIOS (Ctrl-S or F4). No conflicts were found. Nevertheless, I cannot see any partitions on the Windows restore screen because I cannot load the Driver.
I can go into the next menu where I can repair the Windows Installation. This always is successful by saying "partition table repaired". But this repair does not have any effect.

So I know my mainboard has some issues and I know I would get a new one from my dealer. But I would have to wait a few weeks. The real issue with this board does not affect me because I can use the two SATA3-Ports and PCI-Express for the RevoDrive.

But my rig does not work anymore. My question is: Is this hanging on "Loading Operating System..." a common issue with a defect RevoDrive or does it more look like a problem with the mainboard? It would be too bad if I send in my mainboard and wait for some weeks just to find out that the real problem was the RevoDrive.

Is there a trick how to load the driver in the Windows Restore Tool?
Is it possible that the issues with the Sandy Bridge chipset can also affect PCI-Express-Cards?

Thank you for every kind of help you can provide.

Windows 7 x64.
Gigabyte GA-H67MA-UD2H (non-B3)
Intel Core i7-2600K
OCZ3RPR1333C9LV16GQ (4x4GB Ram)
OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB
Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB
400W power supply

[Dark Mantis]

Hi

It sounds a bit complicated but if we break it down I can see no reason from what we have been told about this problem with the Gougar Point chip and the SATA2 port controller issue for it to affect the SATA3 ports in any way or the PCIE bus with the Revodrive installed.

I would suggest asking the question on the OCZ forum as it could be a drive issue.

You don't mention what graphics card you are using but your PSU looks a bit on the low side for my liking. It doesn't sound like a power problem but sometimes they can show in funny ways.

I have a board with the P67 chipset (non B3) and use the SATA2 ports for DVD every day without problem so just because there is the potential for failure of the controller it is still more than likely that they should work ok.

[dmkdmkdmk]

I would suggest asking the question on the OCZ forum as it could be a drive issue.

I already did this. Just wanted to hear both sides (Gigabyte & OCZ) before sending one of the components to the dealer.

You don't mention what graphics card you are using but your PSU looks a bit on the low side for my liking. It doesn't sound like a power problem but sometimes they can show in funny ways.

I'm using only the on-board graphics. I had an 300W PSU before, but it never worked out with it. So I upgraded to the 400W one. It runned without any issues for about 3 months, so I don't think this can be the point. I also removed all RAMs and disabled 3 cores to rule out a power problem.

I have a board with the P67 chipset (non B3) and use the SATA2 ports for DVD every day without problem so just because there is the potential for failure of the controller it is still more than likely that they should work ok.

I know that my board is affected because I wasn't able to boot from DVD@SATA2. Sometimes the drive disappeared or was shown with some strange characters. Windows setup never started. After plugging it into the SATA3-connector, everything worked fine. This will most likely be the cause of the disappearing hard disk drive too.
So it can be very likely that my board has some further issues. They may be common or unique. But fact is, that I was able to browse through the RevoDrive during the Windows Setup, so the Drive seems to be at least not completely corrupt.

[Dark Mantis]

If possible the best thing would be to try your Revodrive on another computer if you have a friend with a compatible one or something like that.

[dmkdmkdmk]

Problem solved.

I plugged in the WD harddisk back to one of the SATA3-ports and voilà: everything worked like before. It seems that the MBR is located on the hard disk even if Windows is installed on the SSD. Or Windows was unable to start just because I moved the documents, pictures and music away from the system partition.

[Dark Mantis]

I think your second guess was the most likely as I have run Windows off just a SSD with no other drive and it worked fine.