Check if the boot disk (m.2) is not being recognized by the system following a crash during a Windows sleep state.
Check if the boot disk (m.2) is not being recognized by the system following a crash during a Windows sleep state.
A new computer was assembled recently. Everything seems to be functioning correctly.
Last week, upon checking my machine in the morning, it displayed a blue screen indicating it couldn’t restart properly. I hadn’t triggered a restart, yet the system should have entered Sleep Mode.
Once I rebooted, the computer performed a disc error check on the Mobo Logo screen. After completing the check, I restarted again, but the Windows 11 OS drive wasn’t recognized by the system—not in BIOS nor in Windows.
The setup includes four hard drives: two new M.2 drives (WD black SN770) and one SSD (with my old Windows 10 installation), plus another HD for storage.
My PC was initially booting from the old Windows 10 drive instead of the new M.2 drive. In Windows 10, I could see the M.2 hard drive wasn’t detected, and it also failed in BIOS.
After several restarts, I ran additional disk checks via Command Prompt and eventually the computer recognized and booted from the M.2 drive. It seemed to fix itself.
A week later, the same problem occurred again. In the morning, after it should have been in sleep mode, the screen displayed a blue error message about failing to restart. On restarting, the drives were once more not detected. A power cycle finally allowed the system to restart with the boot drive recognized again.
Now it’s functioning properly, but I’d rather avoid going through this process again. I also don’t want to face these issues when my M.2 hard drive warranty expires. I’m unsure whether the blue screen and restart problems are due to a failing drive. As mentioned, eventually after some restarts or power cycles, the drive should be detected and operate normally again.
Any thoughts on what might be happening?
What is the make and model of your motherboard? What is the current BIOS version for it? It would also be helpful to verify if any SSDs require a firmware update at this time.
Could only locate this information in the BIOS settings.
“UEFI Version: Z690 Steel Legend 6.03” – is that the BIOS version?
I have two WD black M.2 SN770 drives, both brand new and still covered by warranty. One serves as the boot drive (continues to fail) and the other as a Game Storage drive (no issues).
Running the command “wmic disk drive get caption, firmwarerevision” in the command prompt revealed Firmware Revision: 731100WD for both drives.
I also just installed the Western Digital Dashboard and it confirmed the firmware is current for my SN770 drives. Performing a SMART check via the dashboard shows no issues detected. Still puzzled about why my computer crashes and fails to recognize the drive after a restart. Appreciate your assistance so far, and I’m hoping we can resolve this together.
Random thoughts: why is the computer asleep; I just have the power options set to turn off the display and leave everything else alone. It might also help if you opened up the Task Scheduler and checked to see what it is that the computer may be scheduled to do during the time when its supposed to be asleep. Is it updating itself or performing other maintenance instead of just sleeping?
It’s a device with many RGB lights, so I thought putting it to sleep would save power even when it wasn’t active. In my previous setup, I never put it to sleep and it worked perfectly.
My computer enters sleep mode after 2 hours of inactivity. Would the task scheduler still display scheduled activities during that period?
I’m not very experienced with the task scheduler, should I check the “Active Tasks” section to find out what’s running when it’s asleep? There are 125 tasks listed there. Some mention multiple triggers, others custom triggers, and some specify a time and repeat every hour. I assume some of these scheduled times might overlap with night hours when I think the computer is off. But how can I tell which ones might be causing the issue?
You might begin with the Task Scheduler Library, which offers a concise selection. If tasks are set to run during periods when the machine is asleep, adjust the timing to midday and record the outcomes. When the computer freezes at one of your recorded times, you'll identify the task responsible. The same approach applies to the Active Tasks list.
Alternatively, temporarily disable the Sleep function and observe if the issue disappears. Since the crash was noticeable, it could indicate the system attempted to enter sleep mode, triggering the failure.
Computer troubleshooting often involves testing different variables, gradually narrowing down causes until the root is found. Otherwise, you might need to perform a full system reinstall or replace hardware components.