PC won't boot from SSD after BIOS flash

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Nick Hant

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Jul 22, 2017
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So, a couple of days back I started getting a memory management BSOD when playing Starcraft 2, a decently intense game, after running it for just a few minutes. I had played it for quite a long time before the event with no real issues.

I didn't try running any other games in the meantime, and although there was no other apparent problem, I got a notification from Windows to "fix drive errors" or something like that, a notification I also noticed while tabbing out of SC2 earlier, before a BSOD. I clicked it and nothing happened, and a bit later I restarted.

At this point, I had done a bit of digging around and found a thread that appeared to have the same issue with me, with a similar setup, as well.

One of the fixes suggested by the solution was flashing the BIOS, which I did, successfully. Problem is, after rebooting when the flashing process was completed, I got a "Reboot and select proper boot device" message, so I couldn't access Windows anymore.

I tried reseting BIOS to default, running startup repair through a Win10 USB I made on another PC, which gave me a "startup repair couldn't repair your PC" message, and sfc /scannow found no integrity violations. So here I am, looking for any advice.

OS: Win10 Pro 64bit
Mobo: MSI H110M PRO-VD
CPU: Intel i5 6500
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
RAM: 1x 8GB Corsair DDR4
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB
SSD: Corsair 120GB (Windows are installed on this, don't have the exact model on me right now)

Note that I built this rig about 5 months ago, with my only other issue being a couple of random, not reoccuring BSODs while playing GTA4 a couple of months back, which I dismissed as Win10 being trippy, and nothing had come up ever since, until just now.

PS: If the formatting looks bad, blame my phone.
 
Solution
Colif
And yet, once a month win 10 will run defrag on the ssd, its not as bad as you think. Win 10 will defrag it if you have shadow copy turned on, and since that is on by default as it is how system restore works, every ssd is scanned once a month by defrag


Storage Optimizer will defrag an SSD once a month if volume snapshots are enabled. This is by design and necessary due to slow volsnap copy on write performance on fragmented SSD volumes. It’s also somewhat of a misconception that fragmentation is not a problem on SSDs. If an SSD gets too fragmented you can hit maximum file fragmentation (when the metadata can’t represent any more file fragments) which will result in errors when you try to write/extend a file. Furthermore...
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See if this helps

boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
We need to use the Bootrec.exe tool. Click on command prompt and type in the following commands, one after the other:
bootrec /fixMbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /RebuildBcd
Exit
Now go ahead and reboot your system. In some cases you may need to run some additional commands.
bootsect /nt60 SYS or bootsect /nt60 ALL

start up repair should have been able to fix this.

one thing you could try is disconnect all drives from PC and start it up. naturally it won't boot but this might force it to rebuild the boot order. Is there a choice in boot order called Windows Boot Manager as it should be at top?
 
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I did all the bootrec stuff, rebooted, nothing changed, did bootsect /nt60 ALL, didn't help either. What I noticed when doing /RebuildBcd is that a message saying "Total identfied Windows installations: 0" popped up, and I'm assuming that's not what is supposed to show up.
Also yes, the Boot Manager option did show up, although it wasn't there before. Should I just try disconnecting the drives, or is there anything else I should try first?
 
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one of these days I will just refer to this link right away, it shows what to do if it finds 0 installations - https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-rebuild-the-bcd-in-windows-2624508

If this works, it can adjust values in BIOS so you may not need to know the below info

whether you want wbm as top or not really depends how drives are formatted - was this current install an upgrade from win 7 or is it a upgrade from 8 or fresh install of 10?

if it was win 7, you might not want wbm as top choice as it matches the new boot method that win 8 & 10 use. I said might not as it can boot win 7 drives as well, they just have to be set up to boot in the UEFI method when installed (if it was win 7 64 bit, it might have been)

win 7 used legacy boot method, it relies on the MBR partition being the 1st on the drive and boot order normally includes the boot drive as 1st in line
win 8 & 10 use UEFI boot method, it searches the entire drive for a file name and saves its location in the Windows Boot Manager, as GPT drives don't always have boot partition as 1st on drive.
 
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This was a fresh install of Win10, so I guess I'll just leave that as is. Another issue has come up: while following the guide you linked, I had to use the command "attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s". Problem is, when I try to do that, I get a message saying "path not found - c:\boot". If that means that what I think it does, then something else might be going on, cause I know my SSD is my C: drive, unless moving the SATA cables around messed with that, which I don't think it should(?)
 
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I did everything on step 1.3, nothing helped (I followed the UEFI boot instructions, since those matched what I was seeing) what I noticed after adding the installation successfully, rebooting and getting the "select proper boot device" message again, after I went back to the command prompt and tried doing what the post called a "last resort", the changes I had made before rebooting hadn't been saved, so I had to assign the letter Z: to the drive again before doing that. According to cmd, the boot files were created successfully, but obviously not, since I'm still here.
 
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Yes, Windows Boot Manager is on top. Here's the pic(I hope)
70YETwT.jpg
 
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that looks fairly normal, system partition is the boot partition.

I don't know why its not booting though, have you tried the d/c all drives from PC and start up trick? once its not booted properly, reattach the drives and see if it can see the boot partition (this is something i thought up before for someone else, I wish there was an easier way to reset the WBM though resetting bios to defaults might as well. This resets less settings)

I suspect it won't work only as updating the BIOS should have reset all the settings, I wonder if one was set differently in previous install.
Are drives set up as AHCI? (they should be).

is there anything on C drive you want to rescue? try making this on another PC: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/use-ubuntu-live-cd-to-backup-files-from-your-dead-windows-computer/

I wonder if system restore would fix it? Its good at fixing driver problems but not sure about boot.

shouldn't need to reinstall windows 10 but might want to try a reset as it should fix this (its the hammer approach) but you would need to reinstall all your programs again.
 
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I tried the disconnecting trick, didn't work, as expected. The drives are indeed set up as AHCI. I thought about using system restore, but I hadn't set up any older images, unfortunately.
Just a question, since this is the first time using 2 different drives for my pc (HDD for general storage and SSD for Windows and minor stuff), how exactly is my HDD gonna be affected by my resetting my SSD, if at all? Is there anything I need to watch out for, except for files I might need? (Which I don't think I do) We've gotten to here, after all.
 
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Main effect on hdd is anything you had installed on it (like if you ran applications off it, they won't be installed on C anymore. If you have all your document libraries there, or like me, music, documents, pictures, downloads and movies all saved on hdd, you will need to redirect the default library locations to these folders again. May need to take ownership of the folders as well.

IF you have games on the hdd, they may need to be reinstalled unless they are wow, steam, origin or GOG games. the last 4 can all be reused again.

reset only effects C, it will leave hdd alone otherwise.

BIOS updates shouldn't force you to reset windows... hmm.
 
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Oh, this just keeps getting better.
So I got on with trying to empty my SSD, and even that isn't working. I tried deleting the 4 partitions on it through the "install now" process, and whenever I click on "delete", I get the warning that the drive might contain important things or whatever, click on "OK", and nothing happens. The partition is still there.
I also tried using diskpart to clean the disk, that didn't work either, cause I got an error saying "clean is not allowed on the disk containing the current boot etc.", even though I'm booting from my USB, and not the SSD. So, stuck again.
 
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Right, so, secure boot is apparently disabled by default. Also, I tried using a partition assistant (the AOMEI one, cause I'm kinda short on cash atm), it performs the wipe, and then immediately reloads everything. I looked around, and the program seems to be working fine for other people. I really don't know, I'm starting to think that the SSD itself is somehow defective, even if it's only been working for 4-5 months.
 
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I don't get why you can't wipe ssd at all. If it was a hdd, I know a program that would do it but this is strange... never seen ssd protect partitions like this before.

try making an ubuntu live USB and see if linux can see the ssd. I don't know linux at all but you could probably use it to wipe ssd...
 
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Double check. I highly doubt the motherboard only accepts SATA as a connection type in the BIOS. My server from 2005 has IDE, SATA, RAID and AHCI. Also my old AMD system from 2000 has most of those options...

What is the motherboard make/model?

And AHCI mode offers SATA. AHCI is not SATA, which is why its a different option in the BIOS. Just FYI.
 
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Mobo is MSI H110M PRO-VD (MS-7996) (I assume this is the information you wanted)
I answered your question the way I did because this is what I'm seeing:
Vxlpec4.jpg

And this is the whole advanced menu:
Sxxe6S1.jpg
 
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Right. See in the first pic under Sata Mode. It says AHCI, there is a drop down there. Select that and try another type like SATA instead of AHCI.

If that doesn't work try IDE.

While not ideal. It is part of troubleshooting. Try each mode.

If that doesn't work, another thing you can try to do is again, reset the BIOS to factory defaults. It will most likely change that back to IDE, change it back to AHCI and try it again.
 
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