Disk Read Error

[ramziabb]

Hello.

I was using my PC fine last night. This morning, also working fine. I decided to restart for no real reason, just a fresh boot before starting work for the day.

I rebooted and got a Disk Read Error.

Samsung SSD 850 EVO has my windows install. I have a 2TB drive for storage.

So I disconnected both hard drives then reconnected both. The storage drive is not showing up in the bios SATA configuration. Only the SSD and CD Rom are showing up. I moved around the power and SATA connectors but in every configuration the SSD is recognized but the storage drive is not.

The hard drive is spinning and not making strange noises.

Now after the above manipulations the boot error is “Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key”. Different from the error this morning.

When I go into BIOS and force it to boot off the SSD (where windows is installed) it goes to the “select proper boot device” error.

Any help appreciated. I can’t localize the problem. Which drive is not working? If it is the storage drive, why won’t the PC boot off the SSD which has windows? Why this new error message?

Thanks a lot.

 

[Tanyac]

It sounds like the boot manager is on the 2TB storage drive. This is common when Windows is installed with other drives connected to the system, and that is why it is recommended to always install with only the one drive connected.

You can try to create a boot manager on the SSD (There are a million hits on google on how to do that), and on these forums.
This is fairly technical... https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di

Whatever you do, make sure you have a back up image of your boot drive before starting. I'd suggest Macrium Free to create an image.

It also sounds like the disk controller may have died on the 2TB drive, which is why there are no strange noises. You could try installing the drive in a different system see if you can get it running long enough to back up any data, but it doesn't look promising. Is it a Seagate drive?

 

[ramziabb]

Yes the 2 TB is a Seagate. So you think I need to replace the 2 TB hard drive and do clean windows install.

 

[Tanyac]

Yes the 2 TB is a Seagate. So you think I need to replace the 2 TB hard drive and do clean windows install.

I suspected as much. The Seagate drives have a tendency to suffer controller failures, whilst the anecdotal evidence suggests that Western Digital drives are more likely to suffer head crashes or other mechanical failures.

Data recovery services are extremely expensive and not always guaranteed to work. I would take it out of the system and leave it for a day or two then plug it in boot off a recovery cd or USB and see if you can access the drive. If you can, back up what ever is on there, then dispose of it if it is not covered by warranty.

As to completely re-installing Windows, That's certainly an option, but it is possible to create the boot record on the SSD without doing that. Because of the way I build systems I've never actually had to do that on any of my computers or computers I've built for customers or friends and family, so my experience with that side of things is thin.

There are others here who have more experience with using such tools. Hopefully someone will jump in and offer assistance in that regard.