[SOLVED] "Reboot and select proper boot device" error after reformatting ?

Jul 26, 2021
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I recently reformatted my system and everything was fine until I applied my cpu OC profile in the bios. After the PC crashed I would get the "Reboot and select proper boot device error". The only ways to get the PC to boot into windows is either to unplug any of the hard drives or the Disk drive and to reboot, although this doesn't work 100% of the time, OR to hold the power button to boot into BIOS and then to save and restart from there. I have done the usual troubleshooting for this error but nothing. I set the boot priority and make sure the proper boot drive is selected but after every shut down or restart, the error comes up. I've linked photos here View: https://imgur.com/a/oA3KlGl
of something odd in the Bios after one restart. Any help other than get a new SSD is appreciated. I could get one but the way this first happened doesn't seem like an SSD problem, which has had no issues at all before this reformat. Thank You

Samsung 850 evo ssd
MSI Z87 G45 Mobo
Intel 4770k CPU
 
Jul 26, 2021
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Have you tried playing with the boot order and putting " UEFI Hard Disk " at the top.

Strange how it lists " Hard Disk : ?? " as the first boot drive ?
The "??" is my SSD which is the proper boot device. This anomaly with the "??" only happened 1 time after getting into BIOS from a restart. I have fidgeted with the order and it hasn't changed anything.
 
Jul 5, 2021
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Make sure anything important is backed up , asap .

Your SSD may be failing :(

Run a Health Check on SSD.

Try using chkdsk /f /r to see if it has bad sectors or corrupted files ?

Could be something silly like a damaged MFT ,
or extra boot files on the other drives confusing things ?

Run a Disk Clean and purge all old restores and tick ALL the boxes to remove all debris , could have some old TEMP entries .
 
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Jul 26, 2021
6
0
10
Make sure anything important is backed up , asap .

Your SSD may be failing :(

Run a Health Check on SSD.

Try using chkdsk /f /r to see if it has bad sectors or corrupted files ?

Could be something silly like a damaged MFT ,
or extra boot files on the other drives confusing things ?

Run a Disk Clean and purge all old restores and tick ALL the boxes to remove all debris , could have some old TEMP entries .
I will try using chkdsk tonight. Thanks. The random way it happened after a full reformat makes me think it is something silly.
 
Jul 26, 2021
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Also, for the first day after the issue started, I was able to boot into windows properly by removing the power from my dvd drive. Then whenever I would shut down or restart and the error happened again, I would plug it back in and be able to boot in again. I would just repeat this but it gets tiresome fast. I also HAVE reformatted from scratch AGAIN since the error, and no dice....just in case anyone asks.
 
Jul 26, 2021
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10
If after trying above nothing improves , remove the data cable on ALL extra drives apart from CD/DVD drive and try running some BOOTREC commands , this may fix any corrupted special boot files.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...p-issues-902ebb04-daa3-4f90-579f-0fbf51f7dd5d

https://neosmart.net/wiki/bootrec/#Bootrec_in_Windows10

These 2 links better explain what I mean.
So I tried all the solutions you gave except the 'easy recover essentials' in the bootrec link you gave. No dice.

I am going to reset bios again and see what happens.
 
Jul 5, 2021
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I assume you have legacy as well as UEFI selected by looking at your first post pic , have you tried only selecting 1 option , to say force UEFI load or Legacy load ?

Have you got Samsung Magician loaded ?
Checking the firmware is up to date and Health of drive with this may give some clues ?
Check your onboard BIOS battery is not dead ?

Check the order of the SATA cables , have you got the active SSD into SATA port 1 , try swapping the SATA cables about and use the CD drive cable on the SSD .

My guess is either the SSD is failing or you have partition corruption , as it seems strange that it only affects boot .

You said once booted it works fine , until rebooted , is this still the case ?

You could take an image of drive , then use an Ubuntu Live CD to really remove ALL partitions ( not just wipe partition table like the windows installer does ) do a full format across whole drive with the Live CD using Diskpart , then put image back on drive.