Need to replace solid state drive

[halfdeaded]

A pop-up stating that the SanDisk SDSA5DK-016G-1006, 16GB mSATA Disk Caching solid state drive is failing, and should be replaced, keeps showing up on my girlfriends computer.

I was looking for the correct procedure, including formatting if needed, to do this.

I've been searching the internet to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[old_geekster]

@halfdeaded, welcome to the forum.

I suggest that you read the specifications on the SSD and make certain that you buy one that is as close to it as possible.  You can check HP Partsurfer to see if HP has a replacement available.  I believe that SSD caching is limited to 64 GB.

Here is a guide that should give you the information that you need to get it replaced.  I don't believe that you will have to change any settings in the UEFI/BIOS since it has been setup previously.  The main thing is to assure that it is set to RAID.  Also, here is the "How to" section for the computer.

Please click the Thumbs up + button if I have helped you and click Accept as Solution if your problem is solved.

[WAWood]

@halfdeaded

Just to give you a heads-up ...

Ordinarily, replacing an HDD or SDD and migrating the old setup to it is a simple operation involving a USB-to-Drive adapter and free cloning software.  You plug the adapter into your PC, connect the new drive, run the cloning app -- and a while later, your setup is copied to the new drive.  You swap drives, reboot, and all is OK.

But with m.2 SSDs this has become more difficult because, as least as far as I can find, there are no USB-to-SSD adapters for the m.2 form factor.

There are m.2 SSD to standard SSD adapters,but I do not have an m.2 SSD, so I have not tried such an adapter to see if it will work.

An alternative approach, if you can not find such an adapter, or if it does not work, is the following:

1) Attach an external drive to your PC

2) Clone the contents of the m.2 SSD to that drive

3) Create boot medium using the cloning app

4) Power off your PC and attach the new SSD

5) Boot using the cloning app boot medium

6) Connect the external drive containing the image backup to your PC

7) Use the cloning app to restore the new SSD from that image

😎 Reboot your PC

If you're not familiar with cloning apps, let me recommend Macrium Reflect

1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR)
2) Connect the new drive to the PC using a USB-to-Hard-Drive drive adapter
3) Follow the instructions in this link: http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Cloning+a+disk

Good Luck

[halfdeaded]

Thank You old_geekster for the information.

I checked with Partsurfer, but they didn't have the part or any recomendations, even though they say that it is used on over 200 of their products.

So I ran a search and found a couple of exact matches on Ebay. The closest one I found to new, was pulled from a supposedly new computer. The SanDisk part number, as well as the HP part numbers match, as well as the revision number. I made sure to get a 6 month warranty when I bought it, total cost under $15. I should have it before the end of the week.

The guide from overclock kind of helped, but they were only dealing with Windows 7 & Vista. I'll use what I can to apply it during switching of the ssd's.

The "how to" section of this site just shows the basics of working on computers & nothing at all concerning the ssd at all.

I would imagin that I'll need to make a clone & copy it to the new drive after I get it installed. There is only 1 screw holding it in place, so I'll just have to be careful.

I want to see what other members say about this.

[halfdeaded]

Thank You WAWood for the information.

I was just answering old_geekster with the same plan. Just not as detailed a  reply as you had posted.

I already down loaded MR and have been going over the instructions.

It seems that it should do what I need it to.

Now just have to wait for the ssd to arrrive.

[Grzwacz]

Hello.

Would like to add some thoughts on your situation based on my previous experience. Please excuse me for this as I am trying to offer other viewpoint.

Had the same problem as you.

Made sure I had previously created HP recovery USB media and also had an offline disk image created using Paragon Hard Disk Manager.

Instead of buying a replacement m.2 caching drive I replaced the 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA drive with a 500 GB SSD.

Then restored the Paragon disk image to the new SSD.

System is running very fast without the 16 GB m.2 disc caching drive.

Grzy

[halfdeaded]

 old_geekster,

 

Sorry about the late reply, I was trying to remove Webroot from the computer & this computer that I'm posting with keeps crashing(07 vostro xp home) and should have been recycled years ago...

 

You said "The main thing is to assure that it is set to RAID."

You were refering to the BIOS, correct?

Because the original SSD itself is not set in the RAID according to Speccy Piriform :

 
SanDisk SDSA5DK-016G-1006
Manufacturer: SanDisk
Heads: 16
Cylinders: 1,946
Tracks: 496,230
Sectors: 31,262,490
SATA type: SATA-III 6.0Gb/s
Device type: Fixed
ATA Standard: ACS2
Serial Number: 124719404377
Firmware Version Number: CS.54.06
LBA Size: 48-bit LBA
Power On Count: 1259 times
Power On Time: 818.3 days
Speed: Not used (SSD Drive)
Features: S.M.A.R.T., APM, NCQ, TRIM, SSD
Max. Transfer Mode: SATA III 6.0Gb/s
Used Transfer Mode: SATA II 3.0Gb/s
Interface: SATA
Capacity: 14.9 GB
Real size: 16,013,942,784 bytes
RAID Type: None
 
Just want to make sure that I'm understanding what you are saying
 
WAWood
 
You said:

1) Attach an external drive to your PC

2) Clone the contents of the m.2 SSD to that drive with Macrium Reflect.

 

According to MR written definition, it's an unformated drive. But according to the image it shows for the drive, the line representing disk space shows that it is fully formatted.


When I tried to clone it to the external drive, it gave me an unknown error.


The same thing happens when I use Seagate Disk Wizard that came with the new HDD.

The pop-ups warning of possible failure also have stopped.

Should I consider this to mean the SSD has more or less died?


Grzwacz


Thanks for the advise, bot have already bought the replacement SSD, as well as a new 1TB HDD to replace the original 500GB HDD. Possibly in the future..
 

[old_geekster]

Thank you for the additional information, @halfdeaded.

Yes, the SATA setting in the BIOS should be set to either RAID or AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface).  This is necessary for the SSD to perform properly.