Computer boot up issue

Last December I built a windows desktop and bought a Samsung 960 PRO NVMe M.2 1TB drive as the "C" drive.  The data drives are separate so this only runs windows, PS and LR.  Today when I turned the computer on I got the "Reboot and select the proper boot device" screen...

The Bios shows this drive as the primary boot device so beyond the drive failing, I am not sure what is going on.  Samsung customer support or chat is not open today of course.  We did clone the drive when we built it and I can plug it in the top of the case - I have not done that yet but wanted to see if someone had any thoughts before I head to that route.

Thanks

Dan

Make sure you check the cable connections to the SSD!

Thanks EJ-it plugs right into the the motherboard (snapped in). I can check it all tomorrow but if that were the case would it still show up in the bios as the boot drive?

Dan Wolin wrote:Thanks EJ-it plugs right into the the motherboard (snapped in). I can check it all tomorrow but if that were the case would it still show up in the bios as the boot drive?

Yes, that is possible if one of the connections was a bit ajar.  If that doesn't do it, boot the system from another drive and see if it shows up in Disk Management.  If this was a Micron drive I'd try a few other things but those don't really apply to samsung drives but maybe try it anyway:  Disconnect the drive's data cable but not the power cable, then power up the system.  It won't boot of course but just leave it like that for a 10 minutes.  Then disconnect it completely and power up the system followed by a complete power down including unplugging the computer.  Now hook everything back up, enter the BIOS, reselct it as your boot up drive and see if that works.  Like I said, I've never seen this restore a Samsung drive but this is almost always a fix for a Micron (Crucial) drive.

Finally, did you do anything to Samsung Magician by chance?  If so, you might need to boot up from the cloned drive (you will need to switch your BIOS to it), reformat the original drive, clone the backup drive back to the original drive.

If none of that works, you have a very rare SSD failure.

HI EJ,

Thanks - a short little update - luckily when we built the computer we clone the drive in case this happened. I plugged in the clone to boot the computer last night and tried (using Acronis) re-writing the drive. The drive erased but it would not clone. I spoke with Samsung and they recommended trying to erase the disk using disk manager. I have not tried that yet but I do think the drive is likely bad. I will try what you suggest also.

Very frustrating but in the end all data is safe and my lightroom catalog is all backed up.

Thanks

Dan

Is this, by chance a Windows 10 computer and did you just update to v. 1803 of Win 10. I've had two computers that I manage brick after that update and the SSD had to be completely reimaged, basically treated as a new drive fresh from the manufacturer. One was a Microsoft Surface Pro!!! Basically what happened in both cases is that somehow the update saw the drive as compromised and then encrypted it without providing a valid decryption code. After several tries of starting it, it was erased by the OS for security reasons.

ME.J. Peiker wrote:Is this, by chance a Windows 10 computer and did you just update to v. 1803 of Win 10.  I've had two computers that I manage brick after that update and the SSD had to be completely reimaged, basically treated as a new drive fresh from the manufacturer.  One was a Microsoft Surface Pro!!!  Basically what happened in both cases is that somehow the update saw the drive as compromised and then encrypted it without providing a valid decryption code.  After several tries of starting it, it was erased by the OS for security reasons.

It is windows 10-I am not sure about the update but it is possible.  I going to try to reformat it using disk manager and see if I can then reimage it.  What a PIA. Thanks for the information.