Windows Boot Drive help

[DevilsHand676]

So my computer started to act really slow, like a couldn't open file explorer with out windows refreshing itself. I restarted my computer and was greeted with the image below, that said

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"

I restarted about three more times and it kept saying this. On like the fourth boot it went to repairing the C drive. 

 

Now this has been the second or third time that it said it repaired the C drive, within the past couple of weeks. The boot drive is on an SSD that is about 2 months old and I have a HDD thats about a year old. 

 

Is this an issue with windows or an issue with the SSD? I've checked the integrity of the drives and it says they are all healthy. 

 

 

 

(It might also be good to know that windows has crashed for me recently with the stop code "UNEXPECTED STORE EXCEPTION") 

[TheGlenlivet]

Do you have any devices plugged into anything (USB, Thunderbolt etc)?  Just making sure there isn't a conflict with another bootable device.

[DevilsHand676]

Just now, TheGlenlivet said:

Do you have any devices plugged into anything (USB, Thunderbolt etc)?  Just making sure there isn't a conflict with another bootable device.

Well my HDD does have windows installed into it still, but other than that nothing that windows could boot off of. 

[TheGlenlivet]

1 minute ago, DevilsHand676 said:

Well my HDD does have windows installed into it still, but other than that nothing that windows could boot off of. 

You have 2 instances of windows?  HDD and SSD?  This might be the problem.  Can you get into the Bios and see the 2 drives?

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, DevilsHand676 said:

Well my HDD does have windows installed into it still, but other than that nothing that windows could boot off of. 

When you said you have a SSD as boot, did you reinstall Windows when you added it? I'm a bit confused as to what you did. If you didn't reinstall Windows, my best guess is that the HDD itself is dead or the Windows installation is beyond corrupted (even the Recovery partition with your boot files is corrupted). If you did reinstall Windows, make sure the system is actually booting off the SSD rather than the HDD. 

[DevilsHand676]

1 minute ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

When you said you have a SSD as boot, did you reinstall Windows when you added it? I'm a bit confused as to what you did. If you didn't reinstall Windows, my best guess is that the HDD itself is dead or the Windows installation is beyond corrupted (even the Recovery partition with your boot files is corrupted).

I installed widows on the SSD and still have windows installed on the HDD as well (i never removed it). 

[Windows7ge]

I've had instances where Windows has installed important boot files in secondary drives just because they were plugged in while doing the windows install. If you unplug the HDD does the system fail to boot into Windows 100%? It's possible all this time windows has been booting to the SSD using key files installed on the HDD and the HDD might be failing causing the SSD to no longer want to operate properly.

 

It's quite a stretch but it could happen. Unplug the HDD and try to boot. Report back what happens.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Just now, DevilsHand676 said:

I installed widows on the SSD and still have windows installed on the HDD as well (i never removed it). 

Remove the HDD (physically unplug the SATA data connection) and see if it boots from the SSD with no issues.

[DevilsHand676]

5 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

You have 2 instances of windows?  HDD and SSD?  This might be the problem.  Can you get into the Bios and see the 2 drives?

yes i never deleted windows from the hdd after putting the ssd into my system. yea I can get into the bios and see the two drives

[TheGlenlivet]

4 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Remove the HDD (physically unplug the SATA data connection) and see if it boots from the SSD with no issues.

As suggested, do this and see what you get.

[DevilsHand676]

8 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

As suggested, do this and see what you get.

Okay, I removed the sata connection to the HDD and got the same screen as before. I now switched it (removed the SSD sata and kept the HDD sata in) and it is now on a Getting Devices Ready screen 

[TheGlenlivet]

So there is no bootable install of windows on the SSD.  Not good.

I would reinstall windows on the SSD with the HDD removed from the system, just to make sure there is no confusion.

 

[DevilsHand676]

21 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I've had instances where Windows has installed important boot files in secondary drives just because they were plugged in while doing the windows install. If you unplug the HDD does the system fail to boot into Windows 100%? It's possible all this time windows has been booting to the SSD using key files installed on the HDD and the HDD might be failing causing the SSD to no longer want to operate properly.

 

It's quite a stretch but it could happen. Unplug the HDD and try to boot. Report back what happens.

When I unplug the HDD it goes to the screen that says to insert the boot drive, but when I unplug the SSD it boots from the HDD just fine. I'm now going to reinstall windows on the SSD without the HDD plugged in to see what happens 

[DevilsHand676]

30 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

So there is no bootable install of windows on the SSD.  Not good.

I would reinstall windows on the SSD with the HDD removed from the system, just to make sure there is no confusion.

 

Do i need to delete windows off of the SSD or will the media tool do everything for me?

[TheGlenlivet]

20 hours ago, DevilsHand676 said:

Do i need to delete windows off of the SSD or will the media tool do everything for me?

Try the tools first, but a clean install is usually the best.