I have a relatively new 4TB M.2 SSD. I regularly check this hard drive with DISM, SFC, CHKDSK, and CrystalDiskInfo. Data files have been backed up, but I have not yet made a full clone of the drive (although I might do so due to the issue below).
A few weeks ago, I started getting infrequent BSOD on reboot "Inaccessible_Boot_Device." Needless to say, no minidumps are generated (so I cannot provide them). Reading the advice on the Internet (which says this can be an infrequent error that goes away or a faulty driver), and seeing that all the checks above never showed any errors, I just reboot again, and as the Internet pointed out, it went away. However, a few days later it would come back, again not often enough that I was seriously worried, but I thought more than once is a problem anyway. But then it started getting more frequent. And then it took 2 reboots, and then 3. Then today, it gave me a string of BSODs including an IRQL BSOD, and one that went by so briefly I am not sure if I imagined it but I think it mentioned something about"nVME". I couldn't find a BSOD with that code so perhaps I was mistaken.
Just before this series of BSODs that totally prevented me from booting up, I had actually done CrystalDiskInfo because of my primary drive slowdown. It has been incredibly hot where I live (above 90F on some days), and I started to notice for maybe 2 weeks, my M.2 temps going up to 75C or even 85C. This was even when not much was happening in the background, and I was at a loss on how to fix it. I already strongly suspected that my SSD slowdown was due to thermal throttling, but at this time I also started to think it might have caused the BSODs as well.
I had planned to open up my casing and just blow air in with a regular fan in desperation, but didn't get around to it before this series of BSODs occurred.
To recap, at this point, DISM never found an error on my SSD, nor did SFC, nor did ChkDsk with /v/f and reboot. CrystalDiskInfo reported all items in blue with the exception of Composite Temperature, which was of course in the read. None of my other SSDs or hard drives were hot and displayed normal temperatures.
So the next thing I tried was my original plan - I removed the casing, blew in the fan, and at this point I knew that the M.2 was cold because I could physically touch the heat sink. However, the errors continued. I had a meeting so I left and by the time I came back, I went the drastic route and updated the BIOS (I had 3 versions to update A->D). This version of the BIOS was able to check nVME drives for errors (I have no idea if the previous version could, but I did not notice it before), so I checked my C: drive and it came up clean - no errors. Just for completeness, I check all the other nVME drives too, no errors.
Immediately after the BIOS update, the computer boot into Windows. However, now the computer complained about having to reset the PIN (I really hat this feature of Windows - I understand the necessity but it really @#$! up situations like this), and I am going to fast forward about an hour an many curse words as I struggled to get past this stupid obstacle. Eventually though, I had gotten control of Windows again. Immediately I ran CyrstalDiskInfo, and it showed 48 degrees temperature (again down from 75 under the same processing load). Here is a picture of the report for this drive, and you can see some of the other drives up above:
Ok, so now it seems the big emergency is over, but of course it has me still shaken.
All my critical data files have been backed up to other drives and other computers, and much of it is in the cloud (but not all). I typically do not use the C: drive as data storage anyway (except for the unfortunate fact that MS puts the user data directory in C:, but therefore I have that directory backed up as well). As an extra precaution, I have backed up any file that I would need to recreate my system should the C: drive actually die on me including registry settings, user settings, start menu, etc... The issue as you might expect is that, despite all this, if my C: drive were to die, I would have to set up my system from scratch which would be a really bad experience since I have spent a lot of time setting up Windows and customizing the software which would all have to be reinstalled even if they were installed on other drives. On the flip side of it, a 4TB M.2 is about $300 and I don't need another one.
So I ask the following questions:
a) Is there a better way? The safest way I know is to do a direct clone including the MBR, because then if my C: drive were to fail, I could simply replace it with the new one. The problem is that I would have to keep cloning it every time I make any sort of change to the system, and eventually that would cost me more time than simply reinstalling the stuff to begin with.
b) I heard about systems were you can do some sort of image backup, but I have never tried it. I always imagined these were for enterprises with big pockets and IT staff to swap out generational tape drives. But even if it could be done, my understanding is that it wouldn't preserve the boot records so I couldn't simply just download everything from backup to a new M.2 drive and replace the old one, I would still have to go through the whole process of reinstalling Windows etc... Also, I suspect his would be even more costly than (a) once you factor in the software and backup system, although possibly much more time-efficient.
EDIT: I found that Windows has a free Backup and Restore tool, and even though it says its only for Win 7, I read it works on Win 11. The only problem is that it does not create a bootable image, so apparently you have to boot from an external USB with Windows Recovery on it. So its a janky solution, but you could boot from the USB, then use the USB to restore the image to the new SSD. The question is, how would you make the new SSD bootable? Is there something like an FDisk command where you can SYS to transfer over the OS (sorry for the really dated reference, but this is literally the last time I had to do something like this, so I don't know the modern equivalent)?
c) I create a Windows System Recovery Image. I have never actually restored from one of these before, but it's free, so my main question for this is - how much does it restore if the SSD goes down? If I were to have to use a new SSD, can I restore from this Image, or would it only work if I restore on the original drive that is being backed up (i.e. it is not a complete image, which would be my guess considering that it is only a 3-6GB file according to the documentation)? I have doubts this is actually a useful option as a backup other than as a tool to fix Windows corruption.
d) Just continue with the periodic backups of the essential data and settings, monitor CrystalDiskInfo and DISM/SFC/CHKDSK and replace the drive when it shows signs of deterioration again.
To which I have the follow up questions, to help me decide:
e) How likely, given the information that I have at hand, is the C: drive to fail again, soon? If not likely, then I would probably not do a or b since it would end up costing me more time and money than c. On the other hand, if it fails next week, I would definitely be kicking myself for not doing a clone since I would now have to spend many days at least bringing it up to operational status, and it would probably be months before it is back to exactly how I like it setup.
f) Other than CrystalDiskInfo, and the Windows tools (DISM, SFC, CHKDSK), and the BIOS nVME test tool that I used, are there any other tools I should be using to check my SSDs for errors? This is not a Samsung drive btw (they don't make 4TB drives) so Samsung Magician won't work, unfortunately.
System Information below:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name MARKS-NZXT
System Manufacturer Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
System Model MS-7D25
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU Default string
Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700KF, 3600 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends International, LLC. 1.D0, 7/10/2023
SMBIOS Version 3.6
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
BaseBoard Product PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4(MS-7D25)
BaseBoard Version 1.0
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.22621.1413"
User Name *****
Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 64.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 63.8 GB
Available Physical Memory 35.0 GB
Total Virtual Memory 67.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory 37.1 GB
Page File Space 4.00 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection On
Virtualization-based security Running
Virtualization-based security Required Security Properties
Virtualization-based security Available Security Properties Base Virtualization Support, Secure Boot, DMA Protection, UEFI Code Readonly, SMM Security Mitigations 1.0, Mode Based Execution Control, APIC Virtualization
Virtualization-based security Services Configured Hypervisor enforced Code Integrity
Virtualization-based security Services Running Hypervisor enforced Code Integrity
Windows Defender Application Control policy Enforced
Windows Defender Application Control user mode policy Off
Device Encryption Support Elevation Required to View
A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed.
Thanks in advance!
A few weeks ago, I started getting infrequent BSOD on reboot "Inaccessible_Boot_Device." Needless to say, no minidumps are generated (so I cannot provide them). Reading the advice on the Internet (which says this can be an infrequent error that goes away or a faulty driver), and seeing that all the checks above never showed any errors, I just reboot again, and as the Internet pointed out, it went away. However, a few days later it would come back, again not often enough that I was seriously worried, but I thought more than once is a problem anyway. But then it started getting more frequent. And then it took 2 reboots, and then 3. Then today, it gave me a string of BSODs including an IRQL BSOD, and one that went by so briefly I am not sure if I imagined it but I think it mentioned something about"nVME". I couldn't find a BSOD with that code so perhaps I was mistaken.
Just before this series of BSODs that totally prevented me from booting up, I had actually done CrystalDiskInfo because of my primary drive slowdown. It has been incredibly hot where I live (above 90F on some days), and I started to notice for maybe 2 weeks, my M.2 temps going up to 75C or even 85C. This was even when not much was happening in the background, and I was at a loss on how to fix it. I already strongly suspected that my SSD slowdown was due to thermal throttling, but at this time I also started to think it might have caused the BSODs as well.
I had planned to open up my casing and just blow air in with a regular fan in desperation, but didn't get around to it before this series of BSODs occurred.
To recap, at this point, DISM never found an error on my SSD, nor did SFC, nor did ChkDsk with /v/f and reboot. CrystalDiskInfo reported all items in blue with the exception of Composite Temperature, which was of course in the read. None of my other SSDs or hard drives were hot and displayed normal temperatures.
So the next thing I tried was my original plan - I removed the casing, blew in the fan, and at this point I knew that the M.2 was cold because I could physically touch the heat sink. However, the errors continued. I had a meeting so I left and by the time I came back, I went the drastic route and updated the BIOS (I had 3 versions to update A->D). This version of the BIOS was able to check nVME drives for errors (I have no idea if the previous version could, but I did not notice it before), so I checked my C: drive and it came up clean - no errors. Just for completeness, I check all the other nVME drives too, no errors.
Immediately after the BIOS update, the computer boot into Windows. However, now the computer complained about having to reset the PIN (I really hat this feature of Windows - I understand the necessity but it really @#$! up situations like this), and I am going to fast forward about an hour an many curse words as I struggled to get past this stupid obstacle. Eventually though, I had gotten control of Windows again. Immediately I ran CyrstalDiskInfo, and it showed 48 degrees temperature (again down from 75 under the same processing load). Here is a picture of the report for this drive, and you can see some of the other drives up above:
Ok, so now it seems the big emergency is over, but of course it has me still shaken.
All my critical data files have been backed up to other drives and other computers, and much of it is in the cloud (but not all). I typically do not use the C: drive as data storage anyway (except for the unfortunate fact that MS puts the user data directory in C:, but therefore I have that directory backed up as well). As an extra precaution, I have backed up any file that I would need to recreate my system should the C: drive actually die on me including registry settings, user settings, start menu, etc... The issue as you might expect is that, despite all this, if my C: drive were to die, I would have to set up my system from scratch which would be a really bad experience since I have spent a lot of time setting up Windows and customizing the software which would all have to be reinstalled even if they were installed on other drives. On the flip side of it, a 4TB M.2 is about $300 and I don't need another one.
So I ask the following questions:
a) Is there a better way? The safest way I know is to do a direct clone including the MBR, because then if my C: drive were to fail, I could simply replace it with the new one. The problem is that I would have to keep cloning it every time I make any sort of change to the system, and eventually that would cost me more time than simply reinstalling the stuff to begin with.
b) I heard about systems were you can do some sort of image backup, but I have never tried it. I always imagined these were for enterprises with big pockets and IT staff to swap out generational tape drives. But even if it could be done, my understanding is that it wouldn't preserve the boot records so I couldn't simply just download everything from backup to a new M.2 drive and replace the old one, I would still have to go through the whole process of reinstalling Windows etc... Also, I suspect his would be even more costly than (a) once you factor in the software and backup system, although possibly much more time-efficient.
EDIT: I found that Windows has a free Backup and Restore tool, and even though it says its only for Win 7, I read it works on Win 11. The only problem is that it does not create a bootable image, so apparently you have to boot from an external USB with Windows Recovery on it. So its a janky solution, but you could boot from the USB, then use the USB to restore the image to the new SSD. The question is, how would you make the new SSD bootable? Is there something like an FDisk command where you can SYS to transfer over the OS (sorry for the really dated reference, but this is literally the last time I had to do something like this, so I don't know the modern equivalent)?
c) I create a Windows System Recovery Image. I have never actually restored from one of these before, but it's free, so my main question for this is - how much does it restore if the SSD goes down? If I were to have to use a new SSD, can I restore from this Image, or would it only work if I restore on the original drive that is being backed up (i.e. it is not a complete image, which would be my guess considering that it is only a 3-6GB file according to the documentation)? I have doubts this is actually a useful option as a backup other than as a tool to fix Windows corruption.
d) Just continue with the periodic backups of the essential data and settings, monitor CrystalDiskInfo and DISM/SFC/CHKDSK and replace the drive when it shows signs of deterioration again.
To which I have the follow up questions, to help me decide:
e) How likely, given the information that I have at hand, is the C: drive to fail again, soon? If not likely, then I would probably not do a or b since it would end up costing me more time and money than c. On the other hand, if it fails next week, I would definitely be kicking myself for not doing a clone since I would now have to spend many days at least bringing it up to operational status, and it would probably be months before it is back to exactly how I like it setup.
f) Other than CrystalDiskInfo, and the Windows tools (DISM, SFC, CHKDSK), and the BIOS nVME test tool that I used, are there any other tools I should be using to check my SSDs for errors? This is not a Samsung drive btw (they don't make 4TB drives) so Samsung Magician won't work, unfortunately.
System Information below:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
Version 10.0.22621 Build 22621
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name MARKS-NZXT
System Manufacturer Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
System Model MS-7D25
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU Default string
Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700KF, 3600 Mhz, 12 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends International, LLC. 1.D0, 7/10/2023
SMBIOS Version 3.6
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
BaseBoard Product PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4(MS-7D25)
BaseBoard Version 1.0
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State On
PCR7 Configuration Elevation Required to View
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.22621.1413"
User Name *****
Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 64.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 63.8 GB
Available Physical Memory 35.0 GB
Total Virtual Memory 67.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory 37.1 GB
Page File Space 4.00 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection On
Virtualization-based security Running
Virtualization-based security Required Security Properties
Virtualization-based security Available Security Properties Base Virtualization Support, Secure Boot, DMA Protection, UEFI Code Readonly, SMM Security Mitigations 1.0, Mode Based Execution Control, APIC Virtualization
Virtualization-based security Services Configured Hypervisor enforced Code Integrity
Virtualization-based security Services Running Hypervisor enforced Code Integrity
Windows Defender Application Control policy Enforced
Windows Defender Application Control user mode policy Off
Device Encryption Support Elevation Required to View
A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited:
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