Winload.exe missing, along with my SSD with OS

[richardm1994]

Fix: Completely wiping my HDD and doing a fresh install onto that seemed to do the trick. Also, swapped my boot priority 1 to HDD after the install (which wouldn't work before for some reason). SSD is toast.

I hope this is the right section!

So, I custom build this PC a year and a half ago. Everything has been working perfectly until yesterday... Before I went to work I shut my PC off by holding the power button, and when I got home, I clicked the power button and got a blue screen saying winload.exe is corrupt or missing/error code 0xc00000e.

I inserted my windows disk and tried to run the repair, but I get stuck with spinning dots or a blue, blank screen when trying to repair. I also tried booting from disk & setting my priorities.

I checked my bios and noticed my ssd (Samsung 850 Evo) was no longer detected in my SATA ports... And my os was on it... I've tried swapping cables and ports, and tried disconnecting my hdd/optical drive. Made sure bios settings were correct and set them back to default. Unfortunately, it's still not being detected... Is my ssd dead? Or maybe my psu is acting up? It's a year and a half old and this is my first issue with it.

Specs:
Msi z97 gaming 5
I7 6700k
Msi gtx 1070
WD 1tb Caviar black
Samsung 850 Evo 250gb
PSU Evga supernova 750 b2
16gb ddr3

Thanks!

Edit: Currently installing windows on a USB to see if repair works on that instead.

 

[Colif]

It seems odd you get a BSOD if the PC cannot see the SSD. Is there an item at top of boot order called Windows Boot Manager?
Did you turn off Fast Boot in bios as its likely its just ignoring your USB. May need to turn off secure boot as well.

Is this win 10? Do you always power off PC by holding power in? Have you turned Fast startup off?

If its win 10 and you haven't turned off fast startup, I would suspect the winload.exe got corrupted because of how you shut it off. It may not have given win 10 the time it needs to prepare shutdown.

windows can't run without it. You can try startup repair but I doubt it help
try running start up repair (its in troubleshoot/advanced menu), it might fix it.
Maybe try running chkdsk C: /f from command prompt (hiding in troubleshoot/advanced menu of the repair option)
while in command prompt, try using this to copy info off PC onto USB or another hdd

I typed notepad in which obviously opened the notepad. From there I went to file > open which opened a file explorer.

if you can copy stuff off, fastest answer is likely a fresh install of win 10
Fresh install steps: boot from installer
follow this guide: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

when you reach the screen asking for licence, click "I don't have a key" and win 10 will continue to install and reactivate once finished

On the screen where you choose where to install win 10, if it gives you an error about GPT drives, delete all the partitions on the hdd and press next. If it still gives error, cancel out of the installer and restart PC and start installer again, it will accept next on that screen this time (some PC just need a restart here)

 

[richardm1994]

It's windows 10! And fast boot/secure boot are off. Only device not being detected is SSD and I'm unable to get past the "install" "repair this pc" screen because when I click repair, the screen just goes blue with my cursor hovering on it. My other hdd, optical drive are both detected in bios. Boot mode is legacy+UEFI, boot priority is;
UEFI hard disk
UEFI Cd/DVD
UEFI USB Hard disk
UEFI USB cd/DVD
UEFI USB Key
UEFI Network
Hard Disk
CD/DVD
USB Hard Drive
USB CD/DVD
USB Key
USB Networking
Network
(My HDD/Optical drive aren't plugged in right now)

I tried swapping UEFI cd/DVD to 1 and UEFI Hard Disk to 2 but nothing... I normally shut down using the widows option but I was in a hurry to get to work.

 

[Colif]

hmmm

I was going to suggest booting using a Ubunbtu live USB but if BIOS can't see SSD, Ubuntu won't either.

Can you try ssd in another PC?

There are ways to test ssd but many require windows to run them. There are a few suggestions here for an all around tool that might help but they all rely on BIOS seeing ssd - https://www.tenforums.com/software-apps/53559-looking-hirens-bootcd-replacement.html

Samsung warranty on evo 850 is 5 years (I have one myself).

 

[richardm1994]

So Samsung has voided my warranty. I'm Canadian and bought off a seller at newegg and since the seller was outside of Canada, my warranty is void.

Right now I'm trying to install windows onto my hdd but now when I try to boot from DVD/USB, it just shows the MSI mobo screen (press <del> to run bios setup, or F11 to run boot menu) and it shows a black square with spinning circles in it. If I boot from my DVD drive without the UEFI in it (there's a UEFI DVD drive & DVD drive in priorities) it'll load up the windows logo and the spinning dots. Either way after waiting 40+ minutes they just keep spinning. Also, when I power my PC down 3 times, the repair thing isn't showing up. Just my mobo screen followed by "press any key to boot from DVD". I boot from DVD, stuck on spinning dots.

Edit: So I waited about an hour and a half and it finally went to the install/repair screen. I hit repair and now I'm sitting on a blank blue screen. I'm going to wait again and see if anything happens.

Edit: Waited a couple hours and got to the troubleshoot, startup repair screen. Hit startup repair, it froze, went upstairs, came back down 20 minutes later and it restarted. Now I see the MSI screen again with the spinning dots...

 

[Colif]

have you removed the ssd from the system? that might be slowing down the process and is best removed if you want to install win 10 on the hdd. Can put it back in after.

the installer shouldn't be anywhere near that slow to install on a working hdd

 

[richardm1994]

I'm going to remove the ssd and see if it speeds things up.

But I managed to run startup repair but it was unable to fix it. Went into the command prompt and tried;
Bootrec /fixmbr
Bootrec /fixboot
Bootrec /rebuild bcd

Scanned all disks for windows installations, 0 found. Going to restart and see if I can just install on hdd without ssd.

Edit: Removing the ssd sped things up considerably! Thank you! But now when I click "reset this pc" "keep my files" it says "the drive where windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again". Running chkdsk right now.

Chkdsk /f /r /x on my hdd reads "Failed to transfer logged messages to event log status 50" and chkdsk /r reads "windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it's write protected".

 

[richardm1994]

Now I'm getting "The boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors."

File: \efi\microsoft\boot\bcd
Error code: 0xc000000f

Can't even do a fresh install. "Unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing." And with "keep my files", "the drive where windows is installed is locked (my dead, unplugged ssd?) unlock the drive and try again". Startup repair couldn't repair your PC.

Edit: Managed to install windows on my HDD but every time I booted, it showed;

Choose operating system:
(Default volume 2 in 3 seconds)
Windows volume 2 (my hdd)
Windows

Booting from volume 2 got me to wifi settings -> express settings, but it would say "just one moment.." and restart my PC and repeat itself...

Booting from Windows 1 gave me the old boot message I was getting... Now I'm resetting volume 2/clearing files and reinstalling to see if it fixes the endless loop.

 

[Colif]

yes, running diskpart/clean on the hdd is best idea since the ssd was disturbing it from installing, then reinstall.

I don't think that ssd is going to be much good going forward, as that same slow down might happen on any PC its attached to. Sounds pretty terminal. worth a try getting data off it if you can though