New Build Windows Fails to Start

[gecoker]

Hi, I am having an issue with a new build. I assembled everything and installed windows 7 pro 64 and everything seemed fine until the windows installation restarted. After restart Windows Boot Manager appears with a message:

Windows Failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix: Insert Windows disk and Click 'Repair your computer'
File: \Windows\system32\drivers\elxstor.sys
Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: Windows failed to load because a critical system driver is missing or corrupt.

When I tried to repair, windows repair just suggested removing any cameras or mp3 players I had plugged in.

I ran memtest86 with no errors
I reformatted the disk to ntfs in diskpart and tried reinstalling windows from the dvd, but the error persisted. Plugged the hard disk to my other machine and started the machine and receive the exact same error. I am beginning to think I have a bad hard drive?

The system parts are:
MB: AsRock z77 x4
cpu: i5-3570k
ram: corsair cmz8gx3m2a1600c9b
dvd: asus dvd drive
hard disk: wd10002faex

Thanks for the help!

 

[maestro0428]

Is everything stock clocked?

 

[thx1138v2]

It almost sounds like either the UEFI BIOS is misidentifying something and/or Windows and the UEFI don't agree on something. Here's what I would do but take it with a grain of salt because I'm not familiar with the Asrock BIOS.

Strip the machine down to minimum bottable - PSU, mobo, CPU, and RAM. Disconnect everything else like hard drives, SSD's, CDROM, anything in the PCIe slots. Boot into BIOS. If it has a "reset to factory settings option" use it. Or if not and it prompts you to save new settings or changes, do so. Then power down and disconnect cord to PSU for a minute or so. Then reboot once more to saved settings. Exit or power down again.

If you have a second machine use it or a friend's machine to format the HDD to NTFS.

Now start adding items back in one at a time with the HDD first. Go through the format and install again. Then power down again and reboot to see if Windows installed OK. If so keep adding hardware items back in one at a time and doing reboots between each item. If it stops booting again or giving you the error message again remove the last item installed and try it again.

 

[tiny voices]

Is your copy of Windows legit?

 

[gecoker]

Is everything stock clocked?

No overclocking.

Is your copy of Windows legit?

Brand new copy, just took it out of the packaging.

 

[tiny voices]

And it is a proper copy, not an Ebay special or anything right?

I would completely wipe the drive and reformat it. Then reinstall.

Also, moving a HDD with an installed OS to another computer will ALWAYS give problems so that will not prove anything.

 

[gecoker]

Thanks for the help guys. I reformatted and reinstalled Windows, but continued to have failure starting the os.

Reformatted again and ran WD diagnostics on the hdd and they failed. Bad hdd, rma'ing now.