Bootable media question

patriceltic said:

clean install ... then restore ...

You mean restore a system image?
If you plan to restore a system image then there is no point in doing the clean install.
Restoring the old system image will overwrite the drive entirely.


You seem to have been having continual problems since you fitted that WD drive.
You were even reporting that you had BSoDs stating that the drive could not be detected, weren't you?
The disk itself or its connecting cable or the connection socket that the connecting cable fits into might be faulty.


All the best,
Denis

The most reliable & straightforward way of installing a new disk is to take the old one out first.
You will then be sure that the ancillary partitions, such as the EFI partition, get made on the correct disk. Windows sometimes gets this wrong.
You will then be able to re-connect the SSD for use as a disk for your own files. You ought to reformat it because otherwise your computer might get confused about which one to boot from. So double-check your backup of your own files before doing so.

I know you are used to taking the back off your Dell so do that first so you can see if there is anything obviously wrong with the cable connecting your WD SSD.



Best of luck,
Denis

Well duh me. No need for clean install. I am doing a sys restore from Macrium right now. Then I will attempt all the tests as recommended by Zbook and see what needs to be done with all of this.

Thanks for the input Denis -- Is your image of the River Thames?

All restored -- what is the first thing I should do before another bsod shows up?

- - - Updated - - -

chkdsk /b /v or chkdsk /f /v or chkdsk /r /v

Is there a preference as to which one? I don't see C: -- a little confused on this part. I have downloaded and checked out HD tune and see that the error checking will take a considerable amount of time - will run overnight as suggested. I plugged both D drives in and only WD showed up for testing. I guess they have to be done separately. Will do that. All of this is going to take a lot of time so I'll try to put together a coherent picture based on what these tests show. Thanks again

Make sure all your own files are backed up before running intensive ChkDsk forms such as those suggested.

I think you have already done the standard disk checks - Drive Error Checking - TenForumsTutorials

I think you have already checked that FSUtil reports the disk as Not dirty.
I also thought you had already done what I regard as the most intensive ChkDsk set of switches -

Code:

ChkDsk C: /B /F /X

- If you had other drives then you'd also work through ChkDsk D: /B /F /X, ChkDsk E: /B /F /X, ... [the /X is almost always useless yet not risky on drives other than C:].
- The C: is what is missing from the commands you asked about in your last post. It's not a bother though as it just means ChkDsk will assume you want to run it on the current drive.
- You can check the meaning of each ChkDsk switch by entering ChkDsk /? in a command prompt. It is worth copying all the text in the response and saving it in a text file for easier future reference.

Denis

patriceltic said:

So need to do again?

I don't see any point.
But zbook does seem to specialise in diagnostics so await his next post.


Denis