Locked SSD and boot issues

So my computer froze and I restarted it. and I ran into a bunch of boot issues. In all Scenarios, all fans,case lighting, GPU lights turn on and stay on.

-When I reset the PC, it goes to the bios screen and my motherboard Dr. Debug shows A9 ( failure to post). While at this screen, I can go to the boot options and there is nothing listed to boot from. If I exit the bios, it just reloads the bios. It is like it is looping back to the bios main page.

-If I do a complete power cycle and press F11 to go to boot options, I see my SSD as an option. When I choose to boot from the SSD, windows will do one of several things:

A- The windows logo will appear with the spinning dots beneath. It will then load to a Black screen with the cursor visible and able to be moved around. I tried doing the log-in process and seeing if the display driver or what not was being wonky as some suggested. Nothing happens and the screen stays black with the cursor available.

B- Windows logo will start with the spinning dots but then will tell me that windows didn't load correctly and will give me the option to either power off my PC, or go into trouble shooting steps. When I go into troubleshooting, I have done several things.

1- If I try to repair the install, the computer goes into "Diagnosing your PC" indefinitely.
2- If I try a system restore, I am told I have no system restore points.
3-If I try and reset the PC, the computer goes into "Resetting this PC 8%" indefinitely.
4-I have gone to the command prompt and started Diskpart to see my drives. I am greeted with the following information:

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- ----- ------ --------------------- --------- ------------- ----------- ------------ --------
Volume 0 C System Rese NTFS Partition 100MB Healthy
Volume 1 D NTFS Partition 111BG Healthy
Volume 2 E NTFS Partition 450MB Healthy Hidden

My 2TB HDD is not shown here.


C-If I put in my Windows 10 USB boot media, I can do a couple of things. If I had restarted my PC, the only boot options are "USB: PNY" and "UEFI: PNY". By selecting one of those, I can start the windows install menus. If I had power cycled my PC, then I can see my SSD and my USB as bootable options. I can get to windows install menus. If I try to reinstall windows with both previous options, I can get to about the 3rd menu when it tells me to remove the USB, restart windows normally, and run the USB upgrade from within windows. If instead I go to the repair Windows option on the initial Windows install dialog box, I can select repair windows install. Upon selecting Repair Windows install, I am met with the text "The drive where Windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again."


-If I start in safe mode (with or without networking), the Windows logo with spinning dots beneath appears. Then the screen loads black with the cursor visible and movable. It sits like this indefinitely.

-If, from a complete shit down, I let the PC just run normally (No safe mode, no boot menu, no bios, etc), the Windows logo appears with the spinning dots. It will either:

A- Boot to the black screen with visible cursor.
B- Bring up the "Windows did not start properly last time" options. In which I can go to the troubleshooting steps that were done in the previous options with the same outcomes.



When I went to my bios after a restart and looked at the things hooked up to my motherboard, I saw everything except the SATA connection to my SSD. If I do the same but after a power cycle, I see my SSD connected via SATA. I tried taking everything out except cpu and HHD, tried with RAM installed and out, Same deal. I switched SATA cables on my SSD, I switched which SATA port I used on the Motherboard. I tried different power connections. I reset the CMOS. I checked my Bios and I have the latest version and that didn't need to be updated. I hadn't installed any programs recently. I was just using the computer and it froze. So I hit the reset button and that is when the issues arose. I had been doing regular Malware bytes scans, and everything had been consistent.


So is there something else I can try? How did my SSD get locked? Can I unlock it? Do i need a new SSD?

So is there something else I can try? How did my SSD get locked? Can I unlock it? Do i need a new SSD?

Yes, get a Linux LiveCD or LiveDVD and boot to it to see if you can access the drive/s and whether the computer still works. Also check the format of the drive, should be NTFS but could have gotten changed, have seen RAW format giving issues.
Hard to say, many things can screw it up.
See first answer.
Maybe, see first answer. If the drive appears to be sound might have to do a clean install of Win10.
Fortunately, that Linux disc usually lets one copy their data to an external USB drive.

Berton said:

Yes, get a Linux LiveCD or LiveDVD and boot to it to see if you can access the drive/s and whether the computer still works.

I do not have a disc drive in my PC. Can I make like a live USB?

Berton said:

Also check the format of the drive, should be NTFS but could have gotten changed, have seen RAW format giving issues.

The format when I checked Diskpart said NTFS.

Berton said:

Maybe, see first answer. If the drive appears to be sound might have to do a clean install of Win10.
Fortunately, that Linux disc usually lets one copy their data to an external USB drive.

I already tried doing a clean install from my Win10 USB and was told to boot windows normally and run the utility from the USB with windows running already.

So i made a linux live USB. The SSD is in the file browser but when I try to access it, I am met with the error "Windows is hibernated, refused to mount. The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shut down Windows fully."

revaew said:

So i made a linux live USB. The SSD is in the file browser but when I try to access it, I am met with the error "Windows is hibernated, refused to mount. The NTFS partition is in an unsafe state. Please resume and shut down Windows fully."

Ouch. I've seen a couple and the issue was a bad drive. Apparently it failed during the process of hibernation.

So it seems like there isn't much I can do for this drive? I am assuming all of the data is lost and i will need a new drive?

Hi,

Although less severe a similar scenario happened to me with an older SATA II ssd drive and brand new UEFI bios PC.
The two just decided to not get along and I finally had to resort to a new ssd and everything went well ever since.

The offending SSD drive was put back in an aging Dell OptiPlex sans UEFI bios and it's very happy there.

Cheers,

I;ll have to pop this drive in somewhere else and see if i can salvage it. Thanks for the heads up.

Hi,

You're welcome.

Can you let us in on the offending SSD and the PC you're trying to use it with ?
Sometimes the SSD needs a firmware update (mine was too old already) to help it back on it's feet in a newer environment.

Cheers,

It is a pc that I built myself. I7-3770k, ASRock extreme 4, 2x EVGA 780ti, Corsair TX 750, 16 GB G.Skill Ripjaw, a 2TB WD, and a 120GB SanDisk Ultra SSD.

The SanDisk is going on 3 years old so I'm not sure if that is the issue.