Question OS automatically wiped

JoshRC

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Jun 21, 2015
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Im having a really strange problem with my newish build where ill install windows 10 and a couple of days later ill get a BSOD with different error messages every time. When i turn the pc back on it tells me theres no os to boot! The drive will show in bios.
The strange thing is that i have tried with multiple different drives including:
ADATA 256gb NVME m.2 drive
ADATA 120gb NVME m.2 drive
Samsung 860 256gb sata m.2 drive
Cruical bx500 1tb sata 2.5inch drive
All have had a similar problem...

The most recent drive i tried was the 1tb sata drive and this time i didnt get a BSOD instead i shutdown the PC normally and then the next day booted the PC back up and got a message saying "An operating system wasn't found. Try disconnecting any drives that dont contain an operating system." This is a slightly different message to the other drive although i cant remember what the message was. Anyway disconnecting the other drives results in the same message.

Upon booting a recovery disk iv tried startup repair and that wont run, system restore tell me i must specify which windows installation to restore. In cmd i try bootrec /fix mbr which is successful then bootrec /fix boot which says "element not found" then bootrec /rebuildbcd which finds an os and i try to add it to the boot list but this also says element not found... Notably when using rebuldbcd on all the drives other than the 1tb SATA it will tell me that "total identified Windows installations:0".

All drives work fine in both this pc and others and i can reinstall the os with not problem but on this pc over the next couple of days os appears to be wiped again. I have tried installed Windows with only one drive connected.

PC Specs:
Ryzen 7 3800x (also tried with r5 3600)
Gigabyte Aorus Elite B450
16gb (2x8) TForce Ram
GTX 1070
Wifi card
Deepcool Gammax AIO CPU cooler
At the moment as far as drives go i have the Crucial 1tb sata ssd, the samsung 860 m.2 and a wd blue 4tb hdd.

Just guessing but maybe it has somthing to do with the installation media im using? (just a bootable usb)
Or a motherboard problem? Maybe a driver issue?
Iv been trying to fix this for months now ill likey just end up parting it out and selling it all but hopefully i can avoid that..

SOLUTION: Replace CMOS Battery
 
Last edited:

boju

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Are you, in-between the time of installation and the next day, removing any drives?

This time, disconnect/remove all secondary drives. Just have the one drive you want Windows installed to. This way, Win10 won't be given the chance of locating the boot loader file elsewhere. If it does this and whichever drive it put it on is removed / something happened to this drive, Win10 won't boot.
 

JoshRC

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Jun 21, 2015
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Are you, in-between the time of installation and the next day, removing any drives?

This time, disconnect/remove all secondary drives. Just have the one drive you want Windows installed to. This way, Win10 won't be given the chance of locating the boot loader file elsewhere. If it does this and whichever drive it put it on is removed / something happened to this drive, Win10 won't boot.
So what i have been doing is installing windows on one drive with no other drives connected and then when the installation updates and drivers are installed i connect my other drive back up. Is this the right way to be doing it?

And check your motherboard manual to confirm how many M2 Nvme/Sata drives are able to be installed simultaneously. Depending on the motherboard, one or two Sata ports may be disabled.
According to the manual i can only have an nvme drive in the bottom m.2 slot and also when that slot has something in it sata 5 and 6 dont work. This shouldn't be a problem though because i have my m.2 drive in the top slot and my sata drives in sata 5 and 6
 

boju

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Once Windows finishes installing and next time it's powered down then yeah, connect everything back up. This is just to avoid Windows locating boot loader elsewhere during the initial setup.

Also i think after the first restart once files are loaded from usb stick you can remove the usb drive. Just in case Windows is doing something with it also, as in boot loader related.
 

JoshRC

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Jun 21, 2015
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If you don't hook up your second drive do you still have the problem? If your second drive has an active partition, it may try to boot off it, even if there is no OS; this is also true of any usb you might have connected.
Yeah every install iv have done has been without the second drive. Also there is data on the second drive but it doesn't come up as an active drive and its never had an os installed on it.
 

JoshRC

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Jun 21, 2015
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So the PC hasnt had any issues for nearly a week now so i think it all good. The only change for this installation was i replaced the CMOS battery so i think that must of been the problem. Also i had been installing the gigabyte rgb software and i didnt this time round doubt that had much to do with it though.

Anyway thanks for everyones suggestions!