Hardware or boot drive problems remain after the drive stopped working and was swapped out.
Hardware or boot drive problems remain after the drive stopped working and was swapped out.
Hey, I'm dealing with a puzzling problem and honestly running out of ideas. Let's break it down: In August, my boot drive (a WD_Black SN750 SE 500 GB) stopped working and needed to be returned for repair. Since I hadn’t been keeping backups, the only way to save my files was by cloning the drive with a Linux boot USB and using DDrescue. I managed that successfully.
However, feeling a bit lazy, I didn’t install Windows on a new drive and instead used the built-in recovery tools to restore the system image from the healthy drive, making it bootable again. When my replacement SSD arrived, I simply transferred the same “fixed” image to it. The main hiccup was that my Bitdefender installation got bricked—still listed as installed but not opening, and even the removal tool from Bitdefender couldn’t fix it.
About a month ago, strange Windows glitches started appearing more often, affecting my ability to use the PC. I experienced occasional BSODs when waking from standby and, less often, during startup. These crashes always showed up as “WHEA_ UNCORRECTABLE_ ERROR.” I couldn’t locate any crash dump files, even after confirming the settings.
Long POSTs or stuck booting became more common. My ASUS ROG motherboard had only four POST LEDs, not a display. I faced problems starting up where the PC would freeze on the boot disk section for extended periods before launching, or just stuck there until I powered off the PSU or pressed reset. Turning it on would usually trigger a power failure warning in BIOS, letting me adjust settings, but my boot drive always appeared as a boot device—until I reset it.
Recently, I encountered several attempts to boot, and I worried about entering sleep mode, which could trigger another BSOD. I tried using Windows 10’s reset feature to refresh the OS while keeping my files, but it made the NVMe drive unresponsive and “repaired” a system image I’d forgotten about on a SATA drive.
At this stage, I’m stuck. It’s been four months since the NVMe failure and a fresh Windows install, yet the same issues persist. I’m worried about needing to return another component—maybe my motherboard or a second faulty drive. If anyone has any advice on what might be causing this or what steps to take next, I’d really appreciate it.
I’m starting to feel like that XKCD joke about the person cursed to deal with endless mysterious errors. My setup details: Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix X570-I Gaming; CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X; RAM: 16 GB G.SKILL; SSD: WD_Black SN750 SE 500 GB (replaced in September); other drives: MSI M470 1 TB; hard disk: 7200 RPM, made around Black Friday 2021; PSU: Fractal Ion+ 2 Platinum 760W. BIOS is connected to a surge protector, though it’s an older model. The area experiences occasional power drops, which seem to coincide with these issues.
I haven’t managed to locate crash dump files for the BSODs, even after double-checking my settings.
It’s clear you’re asking about the right steps to take. Generally, a fresh installation of Windows is ideal. Remove all other drives except the one you intend to use for booting, then utilize a Windows Media Creation Tool for the installation. This method supports both Windows 10 and Windows 11. It’s important to note that "copy" and "clone" serve different purposes. When transferring files between drives, copying works well, but cloning the operating system is not recommended for system files. For cloning, ensure both drives are identical to prevent errors. I hope this helps and wish you success with your setup.
I understand my previous message was a bit verbose, so some details may have been omitted. I want to be precise: I already completed that process. About a week ago, I ran Macrium Reflect to back up my C: drive onto an external storage device. After disconnecting the external drive and all other connected drives from my motherboard, I used a Windows installation media to perform a fresh, clean Windows setup on the C: drive. Despite these steps, I'm still encountering the same problems as before the clean installation. That's why I'm sharing this update; I've tried all the straightforward solutions.
Wow, what a bummer. Removing the extra drives and just using the one drive to boot from to install the OS was my best shot. I have a ROG Strix B550-F Gaming and have not had any problems with it whatsoever. I am having problems with extremely low FPS when playing World of Warcraft (26.6fps) but after all I have done I'm thinking that my CPU is under-powered (AMD Ryzen 7 - 3800X). When I first put the machine together I had a little confusion installing the nvme drive and getting the OS installed on it but after going thru EVERYTHING and ALL settings in the BIOS I was finally able to get it worked out. I did not have any experience with an NVME drive before. Now I'm looking to get rid of all my SSD's and install a second NVME drive and that should clean up my machine real nice. What about the BIOS on your machine? Updated lately? Just this week I found that Asus had issued an updated BIOS for my board a month ago so I took care of that but I really didn't see or notice any differences in how the board worked. I sure hope that you get the problem figured out soon. For me, they are like big puzzles and just have to find the correct piece to fit to get the problem taken care of. Good Luck.