Question Cannot Boot from SSD

[tesuji]

Hello,

My wife and I recently returned from vacation and we turned on her computer (working fine before we left) to find a blue screen with error code 0xc00000e9. There are no peripherals plugged in, so I unplugged the hard drives (her computer has the OS on a SSD but has two HDDs for storage) and the disc drive one by one and got the same error until it was down to just the SSD. Now it instead gives me the "reboot and select proper boot device" error. The BIOS still recognizes the drive and has it in the first boot position, so I take the drive out and look at it from my computer, and all the files are still there. I have a Windows 10 install on a USB drive, so I plug that into her computer and put the SSD back and boot from the USB stick so I can run the boot detect and repair feature. It goes through its process and reboots the computer but now when it boots it's giving me an error that says "Error: Legacy boot of UEFI media. This drive can only boot in UEFI mode. It can not boot in BIOS/Legacy mode." I've never seen this before and I'm not sure how to change it back. I've combed through the settings in the BIOS and can't find anything of help, but I don't know much about this. Is there anything I can do here?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Colif]

Is it giving that error booting off the USB or ssd?

If the USB - Where did you get the win 10 USB installer from?

Perhaps make a new one: On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB as it should be bootable off both boot methods.

What are specs of her PC? Is it a brand name PC or custom? If brand name, what make/model? If custom, what parts?

Have you ever clean installed PC? If so, were the hdd in PC when you did it? Its always possible the boot details were on one of the drives.

So BIOS is set as Legacy yet SSD is formatted to use UEFI. Once I know what type of PC you have I can find a manual for it hopefully and see how to change boot method. Board has to have both since the drive is formatted to use it.

 

[tesuji]

It's giving the error booting off the SSD only - it'll boot to the USB fine. I've had the ISO for Windows 10 sitting around on my computer so I made a new installer using Rufus.

It's a custom PC, most of the parts are below but I can't remember what the CPU is.

Motherboard: ASUS Z170-E
RAM: 2x8GB PNY Anarchy DDR4 2400
GPU: EVGA GTX 970 FTW Edition
PSU: Corsair CX600
SSD: PNY 120GB
HDDs: Seagate 500GB and 160GB

I'm not sure if the HDDs were wiped when Windows 10 was installed on the SSD as I think my wife did it herself. Could that have affected it? I can try to pull what she needs off of them tomorrow and then wipe them if so.

Thanks!

 

[Colif]

hdd should be okay

Good thing about Asus is their manuals are all online so don't need to download them to read the things: https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1151/Z170-E/E10826_Z170-E_UM_WEB.pdf

Look on the boot tab of BIOS and scroll down to the CSM choice - what setting is it currently showing?

Asus motherboards let you choose between CSM and UEFI. CSM = Legacy. The default setting of CSM is Auto which means it should be able to boot off both types, just restarting PC is normally all it takes to swap between both. See page 2-54 of your manual above to see the choices, you should set it to auto

Did you try the 2nd fix for the error she got? checked to see if drive is okay? - https://appuals.com/how-to-fix-error-0xc00000e9-on-windows-7-8-and-10/

 

[tesuji]

CSM was set to Enabled, so I switched it to Auto.

Now the only boot device it is showing is the USB. I can still see the SSD in the SATA Information list but it doesn't seem to see it as a bootable disk.

 

[Colif]

Try putting both hdd back in and running it again, just to confirm windows hasn't (at some stage) put its boot partition on one of the other drives.

Look at the appuals link in my last post and check drive is actually okay using those tools. One cause of the error you got can be a bad drive.

Was PC left plugged in while you were away? Windows 10 isn't actually off when you turn it off, its hibernating. So its possible a power outage or something could have caused the problem

 

[tesuji]

Okay, I plugged both of the HDDs back in and it won't see either of them as boot devices either.

I ran the tests overnight on all three of the drives and it appears that the SSD and one of the HDDs are fine, but one of the HDDs is toast. I'm not sure why that would affect booting from the SSD though, but maybe you have an idea?

The PC was left plugged in while we were away, yes. I wasn't aware of any power outages but that is entirely possible.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Colif]

With both drives attached, boot from the usb
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type diskpart and press enter
type list vol and press enter

this will show all the connected partitions, can you either type them out below or give me a screenshot, we looking for a system partition, it should say that under Info column

for example, this is mine

without a system partition, it won't boot. So if you don't have one, it could be on the hdd that is toast now
Illogically, the boot partition above is actually C drive as that is where windows is but not what BIOS looks for to boot... not sure why its even called boot.

 

[tesuji]

Interesting. Here is what I see when I perform the operation:

Volume 0	I			DVD-ROM	0 B	No Media
Volume 1	C	Primary	NTFS	Partition	149 GB	Healthy
Volume 2	D		NTFS	Partition	111 GB	Healthy
Volume 3	G		NTFS	Partition	450 MB	Healthy	Hidden
Volume 4	E		NTFS	Partition	465 GB	Healthy
Volume 5	H		NTFS	Partition	450 MB	Healthy	Hidden
Volume 6	F	WIN10 BOOT	FAT32	Removable	14 GB	Healthy

I believe the C drive is the one that the bad block diagnostic tool said was all bad blocks and the D drive is the SSD. The E drive is the other HDD that the diagnostic tool said was okay.

 

[littleleo]

If you don't have your computer attached to surge protector or UPS I would recommend unplugging them if you go on a trip. Some time power surges can come thru the lines and damage your computer.

Looking at the chart above D is your SSD and primary boot drive? I guess F is the USB drive with your O/S installer. Well I'd unplu everything but the SSD and try a fresh install. You should reset the SSD before you start. Only have the drive you want to be your boot drive attached when you do the install. Colif is really putting in the effort to help you so don't foroget to reward him.

 

[tesuji]

I do have my computers on a surge protector so no problems there.

Yes, you're correct about the drives. I'll go ahead and start over with a fresh install on the SSD.

Is there anything else I can do besides the upvotes? I really appreciate all the help.

Thanks!