Question Recently my PC Froze & Crashed, Now windows won't boot. Bios will automatically boot up, and when leaving the bios it shortly goes back into the bios.

[Lukusdukus]

Hi, I built this PC just over a year ago.

Recently my PC froze and crashed. When turning it back on windows won't boot, and will only go into the BIOS. no settings in the BIOS have been changed, and they are all the original settings. When I leave the BIOS, it will attempt to boot, however, around 3-5 seconds later my BIOS will load up.

MB - MSI MAG B660 TOMAHAWK WIFI DDR4, Intel B660, S 1700, DDR4, SATA3, PCIe 4.0, 3xM.2, 2.5GbE, WiFi 6/BT5.2, USB 3.2, ATX
GC - MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 VENTUS 3X PLUS OC LHR 8GB GDDR6 Ray-Tracing Graphics Card, 5888 Core, 1755MHz Boost
CPU - Intel Core i9 12900, S 1700, Alder Lake, 16 Cores, 24 Threads, 2.4GHz, 5.1GHz Turbo, 30MB Cache, 65W
RAM - 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair DDR4 Vengeance RGB PRO Black, PC4-28800 (3600), Non-ECC Unbuff, CAS 18, 1.35V
PS - 1000W Corsair HX1000, Full Modular, 80PLUS Platinum, SLI/CrossFire, Single Rail, 83.3A, 135mm Fan, ATX PSU
CPU Cooler - NZXT Kraken Z73 RGB, 360mm All-In-One Hydro CPU Cooler with 2.36" LCD Display, 3x 120mm RGB Fans, CAM Control, Intel/AMD
SSD - 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus, M.2 (2280) PCIe 3.0 (x4), NVMe SSD, MLC V-NAND, 3500MB/s Read, 3300MB/s Write, 600k/550k IOPS
Hard drive - 2TB Seagate BarraCuda ST2000DM008, 3.5" HDD, SATA III - 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 4.16ms, 256MB Cache, NCQ, OEM

Case: NZXT H7 Elite, Black, Mid Tower Chassis w/ Tempered GlassWindow


What I have attempted to fix the issue:

- Drained the CMOS battery
- Checked hardware connections
- Attempted Windows Start-Up repair - however gives an error code and won't work.
"Start-up repair couldn't repair your PC. Press "Advanced options" to try other options to repair your PC, or "Shut down" to turn off your PC"
- Attempted to try to get into safe mode startup - however, I can't get into the recovery mode. and the troubleshooting advance options I have using a USB don't give me those options
- Attempted the command chkdsk /f however no luck with this as my drives are in read-only and i don't know how to edit that.
- may have done more but can't remember everything.

I haven't re-installed windows yet - mainly as I'm unsure if my drives have been corrupted. Just want to know what i can attempt to do to try fix this. If anything else is needed just let me know.

Many thanks.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Hard Drive - 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus
+
SSD - 2TB Seagate BarraCuda ST2000DM008, 3.5" HDD
Did you have any other drives hooked up to the platform when you were installing the OS after the new build(a year ago)?

Does your SSD/storage drive with the OS on it, show up in BIOS? What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

 

[Lukusdukus]

Hi,

So both my SSD and my Hard Drive show up under the Storage Section in the BIOS under SATA PORT B & M2_1.
The current BIOS version is E7D41IMS.2H0.

The current drives i have, are the same ones i started with when i installed OS and made the new build last year.

Note - the 1TB is the SSD and not the hard drive and vice versa.

 

[ubuysa]

From the symptoms it does rather sound as though the system drive may have failed. If you can boot the Windows installation media OK (and it seems you can) then a bad system drive would seem the most likely.

It may just need removing an reseating. It's worth a try.

 

[Lukusdukus]

From the symptoms it does rather sound as though the system drive may have failed. If you can boot the Windows installation media OK (and it seems you can) then a bad system drive would seem the most likely.

It may just need removing an reseating. It's worth a try.

Yes can confirm i can boot the windows installation media.

sorry but what do you exactly mean by 'removing and reseating'?

 

[mikemid]

Turn off XMP mode in BIOS if it is turned on, Scan for Malware and Viruses, also try to Restart File Explorer on Windows

 

[onespeedbiker]

Yes can confirm i can boot the windows installation media.

sorry but what do you exactly mean by 'removing and reseating'?

Remove and reset simply means to remove and reinstall your OS SSD in the event some corrosion have have formed on the connection.

I appears your boot drive has failed. Just to be sure, when you did the original install, was only the SSD connected? In some cases, someone will upgrade and do a fresh install on a new drive, but leave the old drive (with the old OS connected). This will often lead to the boot sector being left on the old drive, while a new OS is on the new drive. In that case your old hdd could have failed along with the boot sector, but the SSD is still functioning but won't boot. Regardless I would disconnect the hdd to make sure so it is removed from the equation. Than I would boot from an installation media and try to repair the SSD.

 

[Lukusdukus]

Remove and reset simply means to remove and reinstall your OS SSD in the event some corrosion have have formed on the connection.

I appears your boot drive has failed. Just to be sure, when you did the original install, was only the SSD connected? In some cases, someone will upgrade and do a fresh install on a new drive, but leave the old drive (with the old OS connected). This will often lead to the boot sector being left on the old drive, while a new OS is on the new drive. In that case your old hdd could have failed along with the boot sector, but the SSD is still functioning but won't boot. Regardless I would disconnect the hdd to make sure so it is removed from the equation. Than I would boot from an installation media and try to repair the SSD.

Okay, I understand about the removal and reinstalling of the OS. When I did the original installing, both the SSD and the Hard drive were brand new - however, I believe they were both connected when i did the installation of the OS.

When you say boot from installation and try to repair the SSD. do you mean the startup repair? or just reinstall windows as you previously mentioned.

Would you recommend when i do the reinstallation to keep the hdd disconnected?

 

[onespeedbiker]

Okay, I understand about the removal and reinstalling of the OS. When I did the original installing, both the SSD and the Hard drive were brand new - however, I believe they were both connected when i did the installation of the OS.

When you say boot from installation and try to repair the SSD. do you mean the startup repair? or just reinstall windows as you previously mentioned.

Would you recommend when i do the reinstallation to keep the hdd disconnected?

The R&R is the physical SSD, not the OS. I would disconnect the non OS hdd, boot from an install USB and chose Repair. If the USB can not repair the SSD, follow the instructions on this forum for a fresh install. If that doesn't work, the SSD likely has failed and will need to be replaced.

 

[Lukusdukus]

I have attempted to reinstall Windows following the fresh installation guide on the forum. However, when i get to select the location and delete all the partitions, my unallocated space gives me an error message stating 'There is an error selecting this partition for install. please select a different partition or refresh selections'.

Is this a sign that my SSD has failed and would need to be replaced?

 

[onespeedbiker]

Yeah, it's not looking good. Windows is usually pretty good at trying to fix a drive. If it can't find any unallocated space to partition it usually means your drive has given up the ghost. There are some partition programs available that let you make a bootable partition utility, that would be able to evaluate your SSD, but you'd need a functioning PC to run the program and create the USB. I believe your Samsung SSD has a 5 year warranty, so they should warranty it. I would certainly contact their customer support and see what they say.

Edit: Make sure your bios is set to UEFI only.