Drive being lost during boot?

jimthebob

jimthebob

Gawd
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
889
So long story short, I got on my PC last night and played some Minecraft for several hours with zero issues. When I was done, I shut down for the night. This morning, I go to start my PC and it does the "Windows was shut down improperly, how do you want to start?" BS. Curious as to why it did that but brushing it off, I select start Windows normally and then...nothing. After several reboots, swapping in new SATA cables, trying different plugs on my PSU, disconnecting all other drives in the system, and even different onboard SATA ports that correspond to different onboard controllers, I have determined the following: when I turn on the PC from a cold boot, it will detect my 850 Pro long enough to get the Windows boot prompt but once it tries to actually start, it drops the drive. If I reboot, the UEFI won't detect the drive no matter what I do until I turn off the PC and turn it back on.

I'm kinda lost at this point. I'm currently booted off of a Windows USB boot drive and when I selected repair Windows (to see if it'd actually see the drive or what) it has been stagnant for quite a while now. It did what it does every other time the PC has tried to read from the drive: the drive activity LED will illuminate for a minute or so then go dark and I'm guessing not finding the drive.

What the hell can I try now? I'd rather not have to reinstall Windows but at this point that's not even an option as the drive won't stay detected long enough to install Windows!!

Thoughts guys? I of course have backups but I'd still hate to go to the trouble of a new drive, reinstalling, etc. It's got to be something else...right?

Of course, I could just use this as an excuse to build a new PC haha "Sorry honey, the PC died overnight, better build a new one". Yeah, I enjoy sleeping on the couch haha
 
PS PC specs from my sig in case anyone can't see them.

i7 4820k @ 4.4ghz | Asus ROG Rampage IV Black Edition | CM Nepton 280L | 32gb DDR3 | XFX R9 280X Black Edition | Samsung 850 Pro 512gb SSD | 2x24" Dell U2410 3840x1200 | Corsair RM850X PSU | Fractal Design R5

Plus a 128gb Samsung 850 Evo that for some reason wasn't listed in the specs.
 
A couple of things to try, first try optimized defaults in BIOS and turn off the O/C if you have any. If that doesn't work, try booting off another drive, like that 128 if it is available to be wiped. This may be a failing drive, or a drive on its way out.
 
I'm starting to think a failing drive :( I took it out of my main PC and hooked it up to an external USB dock on my server. It detected it and let me browse it which gave me hope but then when I tried to copy some files off of it, it quit responding. That bites, this drive isn't even that old and a Samsung Pro at that...
 
Well looks like Samsung agrees; they approved the RMA today and we got the process started. I've read mixed reviews on Samsungs RMA process so we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm pretty sure after reading the fine print that I'm not going to get a new drive back, no matter what. It says that the drive will either be "repaired" or a refurbed drive will be sent out. At this point, I don't really care as long as I can actually get more than a few months to a year out of it. Wish me luck!
 
Sorry to hear about the bad drive. I was going to suggest you put it in a usb enclosure and try it with another system, but you beat me to it.

Hope the RMA process goes well and the new drive lasts longer.
 
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