Updating to SSD

[Hertz14]

Anyone know of any incompatibility Of SSD drives?

Here’s my new drive specs: Intel pro 2500 120GB SATA III MLC

After physical install, full wipe and reboot with the OS loader, it seems to transfer and save the OS, but on reboot it says that no system launcher can be found or determined.

[rickhunter]

I've been using sandisk drives with no issues. I haven't tried intel SSD's though.

[sirius7]

Did you try doing a full wipe of the SSD drive using a diagnostic key?


This is important to set up the correct boot record type, and the wrong boot record type will cause the error message you are seeing.

[Hertz14]

Full wipe.


I tried putting it in to a PC, and it would read it in the device manager, but wouldn’t list it. Windows said it was due to a conflict, so I’m guessing there is something physically wrong with the drive. I ordered a replacement as well as a Sandisk to try next.

[morspeed]

You need to keep it off your computer and put the ssd in the cpu and run diagnostic and wipe it through the machine diagnostic menu. When you do so, it will install the correct file system used by the machine automatically. then you can install your OS and it should work fine. do not wipe it with your computer that will not install the correct filesystem. I forget what the filesystem is called tthat IGT uses. Maybe someone can help me remember what it is called.

[Hertz14]

You need to keep it off your computer and put the ssd in the cpu and run diagnostic and wipe it through the machine diagnostic menu. When you do so, it will install the correct file system used by the machine automatically. then you can install your OS and it should work fine. do not wipe it with your computer that will not install the correct filesystem. I forget what the filesystem is called tthat IGT uses. Maybe someone can help me remember what it is called.

Yes that’s what I did, what I meant was I tried it in a pc after unsuccessfully in the machine... just to see if it was a hardware issue.

[tjlee]

Drive will not show up in a PC as it is formatted in Linux.  Best way to format this is to first put it back in the slot and run your diagnostic program and wipe it and then format it with OS.  You will most likely get red screen errors that won't clear unless you do this first.  I use PNY drives in AVP machines.  These are the OEM type drives used in them.

[Hertz14]

It was visible in the device manager, but I couldn’t even reformat, I would think the pc should have been able to. Either way I sent it in for an exchange and ordered a Sandisk to try as well. We’ll see what happens.

[morspeed]

Try your new drive but sounds to me like you wiped it in diagnostic right? Then turned it off and put in you ekey and os thumb, then turned it on and let it install. When you turned back on it said no system launcher, It could be that the os thumb is corrupt which I have seen several times before, it will still say it installed even though it did not correctly, or the boots you have are not compatible with the os your installing. But usually if it is compatibility issue you would most likely get a red screen with device light process error or something of that nature.

[Hertz14]

Well after installing the Sandisk I’ve confirmed it was the drive. Not sure if it wasn’t compatible or defective. I have a replacement coming, so I’ll confirm when it arrives.

[Hertz14]

Update- the distributor claimed they tested the drive, said it was good and gave me a refund. So, just for reference, I’m writing off this drive as incompatible.


Another note that maybe of value: my Sandisk is a Slc. This drive type can read and transfer info faster, and as well, has an increased life span when compared to mlc or tlc. The drawback of SLC is the expense as you increase in size but the AVP does not require a large drive. Furthermore, a larger drive than say 120gb becomes relatively pointless, as if you were to load enough games to fill, you will run out of NVRAM.

[rickhunter]

My sandisk drives are all the mlc or 3d nand type.  The type of nand doesn't matter in this case, and the endurance offered by SLC is not a factor since these drives are hardly ever written to.  The read speed is also not an issue since the bottleneck now is SATA transfer rates.  I agree with you, that the intel ssd was probably not compatible.  Whichever controller they used on it, doesn't play nice with the chipset on the IGT MPU's.

[jay]

Not having one of these machines I can't effectively comment on the compatibility but EaseUS partition master has helped me with drives in the past.


I have had drives that came with some hidden partitions and if you used them with Windows they are fine but if you were trying to put them in servers as part of a RAID partition or use with Linux they would not work correctly. You can clean these up with this utility.


SSD drives have a limited life span, especially as it pertains to writes. So one of the tricks used by the better drives - is that when you buy a 128gb drive you are in reality getting a 256gb drive. Only 128gb is visible to the user and the other hidden part of the drive is used to replace bad blocks as they occur, essentially extending the drive life by many times. The drives do this all in hardware so you can't see the hidden bits unless you examine the index blocks in detail and catch it referencing one of the hidden blocks and you can't magically turn a 128gb drive into a larger drive.

[Gameman29]

I used a cheap Team Group SSD on sale. If it works with that it should work with most.