I had auto-updates disabled for a reason ... but today I got the "flag" displayed again that windows updates are waiting and I should install ... and stupid me said yes ...
 
clicked one button ... 66 updates were downloaded, installed and when win 8.1 was trying to reboot it stops with "no bootable device found".
 
when going into BIOS no HD is listed anymore ...
 
but can't really be a HD failure because everything was fine until the update was executed ...
 
BTW this is an ACER Iconia W700 windows tablet ...
 
<< currently waiting for a 2 hour download to complete to get a hopefully bootable USB stick >>

brilliant :-(
 
We couldn't create an installation USB drive
Sorry, something happened and we couldn't finish creating the flash drive in drive G:
Restart Setup and try again.
 
Where are the days when error messages were precise ??? or at least giving an error code ???
 
off again, 2 more hours to wait ...

Timely ... just when I started thinking it might be time to go SSD.  Now I can buy something else instead :)

2nd time around ... again "something happened and we couldn't finish creating the flash drive in drive G:" ... despite using different fully functional flash drive ...
 
this is so ridiculous - the darn download is not even stored locally ???? this is the sickest joke I've come across in a long time

How close are you to the capacity of the drive? Updating can add a lot of MB to the Windows installation, and if the process causes your SSD to run out of space it might fail. 

I usually keep at least 10-12 GB free to have a safety margin ... the update was about 330 MB download ...

FreeFlyBertl
when going into BIOS no HD is listed anymore ...
 

 
I suspect that's a key clue. As far as I'm aware Windows simply can not prevent the BIOS from seeing a physical drive because the BIOS loads before Windows does and the drive hardware will tell the BIOS it's a drive.
 
I'd suggest opening up the case and unplugging then re-plugging the relevant SATA cable as a starting point.

I agree with tlw, something is wrong in BIOS. Try resetting defaults in SETUP, check the battery (see if BIOS date/time is correct), verify UEFI boot settings and any motherboard logic.
I presume it is a SATA-based SSD, so check if AHCI is set, etc.
 
Hard to imagine how a Windows update would have change a BIOS setting, though. Perhaps you got a new driver that needs some attention?
 
As long as you are opening things, you could test the SSD by plugging it into another system.
 
Another alternative is to use a 3rd party boot disk with some partitioning intelligence, like Acronis Disk Director or any of the similar things. That can tell you if it is still visible in another way and has proper partition structure. A linux boot might also show you similar stuff. Basically you just want to make sure the SSD is still alive.
 
 
 

Hi
 
Thanks for your replies and suggestions.
 
A little more info: I googled and tried a lot. It appears that (although strange) others have had the same problem that a disk is no longer found after executing updates in win 8 or win 8.1 ... however, most threads end in nirvana ... the usual suggestion found there (SFC, scandisk, etc.) don't help ...
 
The tablet win 8 PC comes only with a single USB port and, of course, no disk drive BUT strangely enough it ships with recovery DVDs (instructions say go and buy a DVD drive! which is what I may try next)
 
Stupid me never created a USB recovery drive directly from that particular tablet PC ... I created one from another win 8 machine this morning but I can't recover using it ... it displays the following messages when executing
 
Refresh your PC: The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again.
Start-up repair: couldn't repair, press "advanced options" to try other options ...
 
I still can't say whether the SSD itself is dead or not (taking it apart is not easy and I want to exhaust other options first), so I tried the LINUX boot from USB ... and here it gets really strange because (while the USB boot to Linux works on my desktop PC and boots to GPART and memtest) I get the following message on the tablet ...
 
 
 
[USB DRIVE LINUX] has been blocked by current security policy. 
 
So this thing just locks me out ... can't go the Linux boot way ... seems like some windows 8 stuff is hardcoded in the BIOS????

Now when trying with a bootable USB created from ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE I also get ...
 
USB HDD: JetFlashTranscend 4GB has been blocked by the current security policy.