disk keeps failing to boot and needs startup repair

[lordsnake]

I am having an issue with one of my machines. With increasing regularity, when I reboot, it will stop booting from the SSD and will try to boot from the secondary HDD instead and fail since there is no OS on there. If I remove the HDD, it will then give me a message that the SSD disk is not compatible and to enable CSM mode. Doing this made no difference, and even with CSM enabled it gave that message.
If I reboot a few more times, that message goes away, and it just boots directly into the bios instead.

Everytime this happens I have to stick in my Windows USB stick and perform a startup repair, which will fix it for a a short while, then the issue occurs again.

SMART reports that he disk health is good. It is an OCZ Vertex 4.

 

[mazboy]

So, two things: how full is your SSD? If it's more than 90% full that could be your problem.

If not, it's time to repartition/reformat the SSD and do a clean install of Win10. Not a repair. A clean, virgin install. Get the latest version here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

When asked, you select "custom install" NOT "Upgrade". I'd do this with the old HDD removed from the machine.

Immediately after the install completes, go to "settings->Update & security->Windows Update->Check for updates" and get all the latest stuff downloaded and installed

 

[lordsnake]

The SSD still has plenty pf space.
I have discovered that having the 2nd HDD connected seems to be a major problem, I use this disk for backups.
With the HDD connected, when this happens, I cannot do anything with the SSD, it shows as empty, no partitions, no OS, I cannot repair or format it.
I have used gparted on a linux live boot to verify this as well as the Windows CMD tools.

If I remove the HDD, then the SDD is working and I can see the volume/partitions and perform a repair.

Since the issue is obviously not related to Windows, I don't think reinstalling windows is going to help.

 

[mazboy]

I won't argue about what's causing what, but if you suspect the HDD then the best thing you can do for it (if you intend to continue using it in this particular computer) is to delete any partitions on it, repartition/reformat it, and go from there.

It is entirely possible that Win10 is confused about what your HDDs are doing. If you've moved them around between SATA ports, removed and reinstalled them, or otherwise disabled them, then you have mucked up the registry, and in the end it may be necessary to reinstall the OS.

 

[lordsnake]

I won't argue about what's causing what, but if you suspect the HDD then the best thing you can do for it (if you intend to continue using it in this particular computer) is to delete any partitions on it, repartition/reformat it, and go from there.

It is entirely possible that Win10 is confused about what your HDDs are doing. If you've moved them around between SATA ports, removed and reinstalled them, or otherwise disabled them, then you have mucked up the registry, and in the end it may be necessary to reinstall the OS.

I don't think you have understood what the issue is.
The SSD is completely inaccessible when this happens. The partitions are not visible, It cannot even be formatted, let alone reinstall Windows.
Unplugging the HDD, makes the SSD work again, and the partitions show up again, but I have to run windows startup repair.

The HDD does not have windows on it, it is just a backup drive.