[SOLVED] "Windows operating system not found" ?

[mere_mortal]

Hi,

My PC has an ASRock X570 Taichi motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X CPU.
It's been running brilliantly for years but a few days ago I let it do a Windows update (I didn't check what it was) and shut it down. Since then it's not been able to start, with a "Windows operating system not found" error message.

I have two SSDs in the PC a 1 TB M.2 and a 1 TB SSD. The 1 TB SSD is the boot drive. Also have a 6TB HDD and a DVD drive.

All drives can be seen by the BIOS however not by the Boot Loader.

So both SSD's are unavailable to boot from or load a fresh install of windows onto.

Here are some images of the BIOS

https://ibb.co/39kBL614
https://ibb.co/d0TqSbkC
https://ibb.co/HfWxgHvZ

It seems to me that because it's both the SSD's it's more likely to be a software issue within the BIOS or MBR rather than a hardware fault as it's unlikely both SSD's died at the same time and also they are both still visible in the BIOS.

The PC hasn't been moved but even so I've checked all the plugs and everything else is securely in place.

Appreciate any advice.

Kind regards

Lee

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

If CSM is enabled in your BIOS, disable it and see if your drives show up in the bootable devices menu. To add, you have a BIOS update pending. I'd flash the BIOS to the latest version, then clear CMOS and see if that changes anything.

One other thing you could do is remove all drives from your platform except for the one that has the OS on it.

 

[mere_mortal]

Hi,

Thankyou so much for your response very much appreciated. I tried the recommendation to check CSM. Then tried all of the bootrec options and a few others. I've not tried disconnecting all drives except the boot/OS drive yet.

The boot drive is actually F: for some reason.

I've tried a range of things. At a bit of a loss for where to go. I guess a reinstall is probably all I can do.

https://ibb.co/wqS5xLN

Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-05-51cb1d0c hosted at ImgBB

Image Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-05-51cb1d0c hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

https://ibb.co/pv7n1xqj

Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-06-f2beceb5 hosted at ImgBB

Image Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-06-f2beceb5 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

https://ibb.co/fY5t9sD9

Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-07-c27cdeed hosted at ImgBB

Image Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-07-c27cdeed hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

https://ibb.co/dsMjky1j

Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-08-792adbf3 hosted at ImgBB

Image Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-08-792adbf3 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

https://ibb.co/MDgq0qFB

Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-09-95f35f8b hosted at ImgBB

Image Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-09-95f35f8b hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

https://ibb.co/RpHxXkJp

Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-10-52d5e3ab hosted at ImgBB

Image Whats-App-Image-2025-03-05-at-20-12-10-52d5e3ab hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

Any other ideas would be very much appreciated.

 

[digitaldata77]

Please make sure your boot drive C: your Windows installation drive is plugged into the SATA 1 port on your motherboard. Keep this drive plugged in and unplug your other drives. try to start your pc and see if it will POST to the BIOS then check your Boot orderthat it is set to your Windows boot drive(your Samsung EVO 860 SSD to boot first). Then see if you can successfully boot into Windows. If it does boot up you can shut down and connect your other drives. I agree with Lutfij to clear the CMOS and see if anything changes, Please Advise of your progress and if the issues are successfully solved or if you need more diagnostics.. Thanks.

 

[CountMike]

Looks like your disk UEFI is your original BOOT/system windows disk. Windows installed UEFI (CSM disabled) mode.
Disconnect all other any try like that.

 

[mere_mortal]

Hi all thankyou so much for all your assistance. Just following up on this. In the end after endless troubleshooting it appeared the issue was the M.2 boot drive. I just could not get the PC to boot from it. I ordered a new M.2 drive as well as an external USB 3.0 M.2 adapter to be able to access an M.2 drive on a PC via USB and it's still not playing ball. It's odd as I WAS able to see the drive in the BIOS but when it came time to view it within the Windows Setup it wouldn't show up.

Long story short I just couldn't spend more time troubleshooting and used the new M.2 drive to rebuild the PC and it's happily working now. Thanks for all your time. One day I will hopefully find the time to figure out what is wrong with that original M.2 drive but if not it's currently making a desk decoration. Thanks again.