HELP! Win 10 won't boot when secondary SSD removed

Hi all,

I have encountered an issue where my win 10 will freeze during startup. I have two SSD drives on my PC, C and D, where C drive is the one with Win 10 installed, while D drive is used to store documents, photos, etc as well as large non-system applications such as games.

Recently I noticed that all changes to my D drive (creating new files or deleting old files) reverts back whenever I reboot. Searched online suggested that the SSD has worn out and entered into read-only mode.

My C drive is still space, so I moved all my D drive files and applications to C, and proceed to remove D from the PC. Now however, when I try to reboot, PC freezes at the startup screen (the screen that dots running in circles). Searching online, suggest that it might be because boot files are installed into D drive which is needed at boot, if you install windows with both SSD connected to the motherboard (which I think was the case for me). However I cannot be sure if boot record misplacement is the cause for me, or it may simply be some windows config issue? because:

- I can enter into safe mode without D drive, should I be able to do that if it's boot file issue?
- In BIOS it only shows 1 bootable partition, which I belive that partition is located in C drive, not D.
- my disk management shows the following:

- bcdedit shows:


Can some expert help me identify the cause of the issue and what steps I can take to verify the cause? I'm at a loss here and does not know where to begin.

Very appreciated!

@pinghsien422 hello and welcome to TF,
Experts will probably appreciate a screenshot from Disk Management clearly showing all partitions on both drives.

steve108 said:

@pinghsien422 hello and welcome to TF,
Experts will probably appreciate a screenshot from Disk Management clearly showing all partitions on both drives.

Hi thank you for replying steve. I'm new to the forum and just figuring out how to insert screenshots. I've edit the post now to include them. Please let me know if anything else is needed. Thank you!

John

Can you download an run HD Sentinel and post the screen showing the SSDs' health?

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Free one works fine: Download Hard Disk Sentinel

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Thanks for the good screenshots

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Since you mentioned a problem with a SSD, both SSDs health may be relevant here.

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Post the disk health results image here.

C: drive partitions look fine to me, so wait for to help you after you do that or update us if you resolved it please. Thanks.

steve108 said:

Can you download an run HD Sentinel and post the screen showing the SSDs' health?

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Free one works fine: Download Hard Disk Sentinel

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Thanks for the good screenshots

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Since you mentioned a problem with a SSD, both SSDs health may be relevant here.

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Post the disk health results image here.

C: drive partitions look fine to me, so wait for to help you after you do that or update us if you resolved it please. Thanks.

Installed Hard Disk Sentinel but whenver I run it it just crashes my system immediately. So I'm unable to use it. However, I did manage to install Samsung Magician and SeaTool.







I should mention that the SSDs were given to me from a relative who works at a electronics company who makes SSDs and supply to other laptop brand companies. These SSDs were samples given to him, so they are not official commercial products.

Thanks for posting screenshots.

Is your BIOS set for UEFI mode? A picture of you boot partition in BIOS would be useful.

Hmmm, if you can boot into safe mode without D, then it seems that D shouldn't be required to boot to full Windows.

Any experts/Guru reading, please jump in with your thoughts

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Put your specific Windows 10 version from CMD prompt or winver into our My Computer profile information.

Run sfc and dism (restorehealth option) from Use DISM to Repair Windows 10 Image to see if it finds any issues.

I'm seeing double in the BIOS. Can't tell one SSD from another.

What does BIOS look like with D: removed? How do you get it to boot to safe mode with just C: ?


Do you have a Windows 2004 bootable install USB?

Can make one from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10 using Media Creation Tool Option, boot from the USB, and select the repair option with just C: drive installed unless someone has a better idea.

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Can you try this with just C: Run Startup Repair in Windows 10 before making that USB? If it works, it will save some time.

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Option 6: Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10 with just C: drive installed.

steve108 said:

I'm seeing double in the BIOS. Can't tell one SSD from another.
What does BIOS look like with D: removed? How do you get it to boot to safe mode with just C: ?

I'm not totally sure what it would be like with D remove, maybe it would just be one line instead of two, I will have to take the computer apart again to remove the SSD it's deep down inside. However, I think both of those two lines are from C? Because both says "M.2_1", (The first M.2 slot is M.2_1 which is C, D is slotted in M.2_2) I'm not exactly sure why there are two.

pinghsien422 said:

I'm not totally sure what it would be like with D remove, maybe it would just be one line instead of two, I will have to take the computer apart again to remove the SSD it's deep down inside. However, I think both of those two lines are from C? Because both says "M.2_1", (The first M.2 slot is M.2_1 which is C, D is slotted in M.2_2) I'm not exactly sure why there are two.

Ugh! Some BIOS' can disable drives from the BIOS. You might want to check your BIOS - maybe you'll get lucky .

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Boot option #1/#2 pulldowns in BIOS - is there a disable option in the pulldown? https://www.tenforums.com/attachment...oved-bios1.jpg