[SOLVED] Inaccessible Boot Device after BIOS update

[mfoley312]

I have a custom built machine that I built in 2012 and have upgraded a few things as I went. The most recent upgrade was with RAM - I had 2 sticks of 4 gb GSkillz DDR3 1333 RAM and I added 2 sticks of 8 gb DDR3 1866 RAM for a total of 24 gb. After adding the sticks, it showed 24 gb in the system info screen but I thought that it was actually slower.

So, I started looking around and ended up updating the BIOS - my version was F4 from back in 2011 and there was an F7 update from the most recent, but still was released back in 2015 I think. Got the update on a flash drive, went through update and all seemed fine until it went to restart.

Ever since then, I have been getting BSOD showing Inaccessible Boot Device, I got on my laptop, re-formatted my flash drive and put the F4 BIOS on there and rolled back the update, but that didn't help. I started in safe mode and tried a system restore back to yesterday, still no help. Really lost now.

OS - Windows 10
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3
RAM : DDR3 1333 GSkillz (4 gb x2) and DDR3 1866 GSkillz (8 gb x 2)
Processor - AMD FX-8350 8-core Vishera
GPU: GIGABYTE Radeon R9 270X
HDD: WD Blue 1TB Desktop Hard Disk Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s 16MB
PSU - 800w

 

[Colif]

try changing your boot method, updating bios resets it to defaults. So try swapping it from legacy to UEFI or visa versa. It might be CSM in the bios.

 

[mfoley312]

So I've seen that advice thrown out on different threads that I've read, but haven't been able to see anything similar in my BIOS. Where would I find it? Is it under the Advanced BIOS Features? I've included some pictures.

 

[ragnarok0274]

You could also try reinstalling Windows. If you're running Windows 10, you can keep all of your files but still reinstall the OS.
It might work with Windows 8/8.1. Not sure about 7.

 

[mfoley312]

Yes Windows 10 is running. Left that out. I'm not sure if reinstalling windows would help though, because the computer is not booting correctly. But I'm the one that's lost, so I could be way off.

 

[mfoley312]

The windows disk I have is windows 7. I set boot device to CD drive and run it, then select upgrade but it says I have to start the computer normally and then put the disk in there once it's loaded.

The other option is to do a fresh install which loses all my files.

 

[Colif]

So I've seen that advice thrown out on different threads that I've read, but haven't been able to see anything similar in my BIOS. Where would I find it? Is it under the Advanced BIOS Features? I've included some pictures.

looking at your pictures I suspect your bios is legacy only so that advice won't help here.

If windows currently works and it just randomly does it? try running this on HDD - https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=en&p=3
if windows doesn't current work - https://community.wd.com/t/data-lifeguard-diagnostic-for-dos-iso-is-here/170243

 

[mfoley312]

I had to walk away for now, been messing with it for 5 hours and haven't gotten any head way. I may just try a fresh install of windows later and see where that gets me. I have an external hard drive that I backed everything up with a few months ago.

Just kind of frustrating, I was just trying to make my computer faster and then this happens. Oh well. I have an SSD already on the way that I planned on upgrading too before all this happened.

Is it possible that I've permanently damaged my motherboard? It is a rather old one, maybe I need to just bite the bullet and get a new one, but not sure if that'll help things and would require a full tear down and rebuild.

Idk

 

[ex_bubblehead]

This is a prime example of why you never update/upgrade BIOS unless you are having problems specifically addressed by such an update/upgrade.

If you haven't already start with "Load Fail-Safe Defaults" (shown in your first picture).

 

[Colif]

If win 10 currently doesn't work, here is how to copy anything off C you want to keep now - On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type notepad and press enter
in notepad, select file>open
Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or another hdd

 

[mfoley312]

Thanks y'all.
You live and you learn