• Computer will not boot O/S Please help!

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    #200370

    I got the Windows blue screen of death.  It said Unmountable boot volume.  Then it said Bad system configuration. I have hard reset, I have tried to let it repair itself,  reinstall Windows to no luck.  All that happens is the computer gets stuck going in a continuous loop of blue screen, or unsuccessful windows install, or saying it hasn’t installed but going into the same screens in a loop.   

    SO here are my actual questions.  At this point I have no documents I’m concerned about on my hard drive. I want to do a clean install.  Currently my computer has three partitions. Can I delete all three partitions and then try to install Windows 10? I’m concerned if I delete the partitions I’ll ruin BIOS or something I know nothing about. 

    Next question…my computer had Windows 7 Pro. before it was upgraded.  When I do the install it asks me which version of Windows, can I say Windows 10 Pro?  When do I return my boot order back to Hard drive then USB? (I made a window10 flash drive today and some advice given was to change order to get windows to install but never said if I need to go back in an reverse or if it would fix itself upon successful install.)   I leave it on legacy, correct? I do not adjust that setting for any reason do I? 

    Thank you in advance.

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    • #200378

      I want to do a clean install. Currently my computer has three partitions. Can I delete all three partitions and then try Sure not a problem, Boot from your Win 10 disk. At the first screen. Press SHIFT F10 together, type DISKPART, LIST DISK, SEL DISK 0, CLEAN (making sure its your main drive you want to install Win10 on) before you get out of there run CHKDSK C: if you find errors then run CHKDSK /f C: (assuming your main drive is C:\ ) then EXIT, EXIT and follow the screens and install Win10.
      When I do the install it asks me which version of Windows, can I say Windows 10 Pro?
      If you have Win7 Pro certainly you should install Win10 Pro, get a hold of your key before or after install and if its in your BIOS Win10 should find it and activate it for you on first connect to the internet, if not you need to retrieve your BIOS key and install/enter it manually with a utility when you reach your first desktop.
      When do I return my boot order back to Hard drive then USB?
      Probably at the first reboot during install, if that’s going to be a problem, then the OS should take over.
      I leave it on legacy, correct?
      Errm if your installing Win10 (32bit, x86) i.e. that’s all your system can manage and that’s what your USB is then sure, but if you have a Legacy value (not present in a 32bit/x86 BIOS) in your BIOS its highly likely your running win10 (x64,amd64, 64bit) then you would need Win10 x64 and you can install with secure boot enabled and in (U)EFI mode just make your install flash drive with RUFUS as you would with GPT enabled and FAT.
      I’m concerned if I delete the partitions I’ll ruin BIOS or something I know nothing about.
      you probably wont, if your BIOS is “ruined” your machine in all probability wont even BOOT, while your in there you may want to check if your a x64 UEFI (typified by the inclusion of SECURE BOOT and or LEGACY/UEFI mode and if your BIOS is older check to see if the BIOS can find the disk or its listed a sure sign of a bad disk etc if it cant find it or maybe just a loose cable depending on whether its a desktop or Laptop, an easy fix or a hard fix. Hope this helps these are just the Basic steps, chances are if your HDD is gone “belly up” Win10 wont install or CHKDSK will show errors that cant be fixed.

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    • #200393

      Please refer to … https://www.howtogeek.com/197559/how-to-install-windows-10-on-your-pc/

      Nearly all post-2011 OEM computers that came preinstalled with Win 8.x/10 use modern UEFI technology by default = must use GPT disks/drives, 64bit OS and have the Secure Boot feature. But such modern UEFI computers can also be manually set to use the old Legacy BIOS technology = normally uses MBR/ms-dos disks/drives and can install 32bit or 64bit OS = the BIOS setting for CSM(Compatibilty Support Module) or Legacy BIOS.

      BIOS Setup has a Boot Menu setting for booting the computer with the 1st Boot Device or the Boot Order Menu. There are separate F-keys for the users to select the 1st Boot Device temporarily(= One Time Boot Menu) or persistently.
      ___ In the case of Acer computers, the F12 key is to access the One Time Boot Menu(eg to change the 1st Boot Device for one-time only or temporarily) while the F2 key is to access BIOS Setup and the Boot Order Menu proper, eg to change the 1st Boot Device persistently(through reboots). …
      https://au.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/7550/~/changing-boot-order

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      • #200479

        @anonymous glad you raised the subject of the infamous Acer preinstalled Laptops with Win’s 8 to 10, Its not all “Dark before Dawn” if you wish to install Win7 UEFI on those Laptops but requires a good deal of DISM work and, believe it or not, a Win8.1 .iso, plus the insertion of a “Homemade” ei.cfg and PID file thrown in the sources folder. plus a visit to “Driverscape” web site for the drivers pertaining to your Model for insertion/modify the install.wim. Good old HP needs a different approach i.e. installing in “Legacy” using the Orig. Win7 .iso inc. DISM work again with a USB made for UEFI mode until the 2nd reboot (or when the VGA look install screen suddenly becomes crystal clear) then you can flip the setting to UEFI. In either case for Win7 be prepared to “Kiss Secure Boot goodbye” Win7 doesnt like it and one Cumulative update early this year or late last year actually turned it on again much to my consternation, well as I have a Multi-Boot here it could well have been Win10 or 8.1.

        Don’t worry @anepotts I wouldn’t put you through all that its a nightmare and would probably require a web page in its self to explain, but it is doable if your not averse to the CMD prompt 🙂

    • #200400

      If all of your drive cables are plugged in securely, then I think you have a bad hard drive. Your computer came with Windows 7, so it’s at least a few years old. In other words, your drive is at least a few years old, maybe a lot of years old. If it’s not bad now, it could go bad at any time, because a mechanical hard drive won’t last for ever.

      Since you’re going to have to reinstall everything anyway, I strongly suggest that you get a new hard drive and install Windows on it, rather than on your current hard drive.

      If you installed Windows 10 with a Microsoft account, you should be able to activate a fresh install of Windows 10 with that same Microsoft account. Your license is tied to your Microsoft account. Also, the fact that it’s the same motherboard will probably allow you to activate Windows 10 with a new hard drive.

      Consider getting an SSD (solid state drive). They are a lot faster than a mechanical hard drive. (They are also more expensive.)

      Group "L" (Linux Mint)
      with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
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    • #200408

      I appreciate all the good advice thus far. AND the fact I understand most of it.  My computer is indeed older its a Dell Latitude E5550 I got it from the local computer recycler who runs diagnostics etc or computers turned in by companies when they are upgrading their employees,  anyway they put in a new hard drive in April. It said that on the literature and I do see in the system somewhere that it was installed on April 4th.   Great resource for getting affordable devices, unfortunately I have moved away otherwise Id just buy a new device.

      Id like to understand the Legacy vs UEFI, I only question that part as it is an option when I am changing the boot order of computer and then I see a bunch of articles referring to this topic that frankly make no sense to me.  The computer has Legacy currently checked. I will be running Windows 10 Pro.  Obviously the goal is to get back up and running as this is my business computer and I am already 3 days behind on work I need to do for my business. Getting critical to fix or get a new device.

      I appreciate everyone’s advice, and time.

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    • #200419

      You won’t harm anything in the BIOS or UEFI by deleting partitions.  The only thing at risk is the data on those partitions, and you’ve already said there isn’t anything important on them.  The other messages have covered a lot of your questions (please ask for clarification if you do not understand!  We are here to help), so I will try to help with the UEFI and BIOS terminology.

      BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System.  It is the basic instruction set that instructs the computer how to recognize the hardware and load the operating system at boot time.  It resides in the firmware, in a chip on the motherboard often referred to as the flash ROM.  BIOS is an old standard that was initially introduced decades ago.  It is capable of recognizing MBR (Master Boot Record) partitioned disks and performing what we now call a legacy boot.

      UEFI stands for Universal Extensible Firmware Interface.  It has the same job as BIOS, but it’s a much newer standard that takes advantage of newer hardware.  It is capable of recognizing GUID (Globally Unique ID) Partition Table disks and performing a UEFI boot in its native mode.  It is also capable of recognizing MBR formatted disks and performing a legacy, BIOS, or compatibility support mode boot (they all mean the same) if it is put in legacy mode.

      A computer only has one or the other, BIOS or UEFI.  Older PCs will have BIOS, while newer ones will have UEFI.  According to what I read when I looked up your model, it’s a Haswell model, which is new enough to where it would have UEFI.

      When someone says “go into the BIOS,” they mean to press the key during the boot process that will start the BIOS or UEFI setup program.  Because BIOS was the standard for so long, people sometimes refer to UEFI as “BIOS,” since it does what BIOS used to do, so don’t be confused by that.  Sometimes you’ll even see it referred to as UEFI/BIOS or something like that.  When you see this, it’s really UEFI.

      Many UEFI computers (but not all; the one I am using now is one such exception) contain an option for Secure Boot.  Secure boot is an option that can help make the OS more secure, but it also can interfere with people trying to install operating systems other than recent versions of Windows. It relies on a Microsoft signature on the bootloader, which rubs a lot of people the wrong way (why is Microsoft the authority here?).

      Many people are confused about this, and they think that UEFI and secure boot are the same thing.  They’re not!  Secure Boot is an option within UEFI.  Computers that came with 8 or 10 will have Secure Boot enabled by default, but it can be turned off.

      The thing to remember when installing Windows is that you want to make sure that the type of boot you perform starting the Windows install media is the same type as what you will permanently use to start Windows from then on.  If you use a legacy boot to start the Windows install DVD or USB drive, it will install Windows in legacy MBR mode, and every boot into Windows will have to be done in legacy mode from then on.  This generally works just fine, but it ties you to the same restrictions that BIOS has long had: No option to turn on secure boot (which many of us don’t use anyway, since it can interfere with Linux and older Windows), inability to use very large (more than 2 terabyte) disk partitions, and some other even more technical things, like the inability to use more than four primary partitions on a single physical disk.

      Generally, with a newer PC, you would be doing a UEFI boot with Windows 10, not a legacy one.  When you start the installer, make sure to boot it in UEFI mode.

      Unfortunately, even within the Dell laptop lineup, the UEFI setup program can vary wildly from model to model, so I don’t know exactly what to enable or not in the settings.  If it says the mode is UEFI with secure boot off, you should be in good shape for now.  You should be able to turn secure boot back on later, after this is all fixed, if you wish to.

      MrJimPhelps wrote that he suspects you may have a bad hard drive, and that was also the first thing that popped into my mind reading your message.  It’s possible that the data on the disk just got (badly) corrupted but there is nothing wrong physically with the drive, but the question then would be one of how that happened.  That kind of thing doesn’t just happen… we may not always know the cause, but it makes me really suspicious that there is a disk problem.

      BobbyB’s information would help you narrow down the cause.  If you get an error during the process, it could well be that the disk is having problems.  If the repartitioning and Windows installation works, we can be cautiously optimistic, but still the drive has to be considered suspect until we have reason to believe otherwise.  If you get Windows installed, you can use Windows to check the disk for further errors and to pull the SMART data from the drive and see what we can learn about it.

      Of course, if Windows won’t install on the drive because of errors, then it really looks like time to replace the disk.  I would also suggest a SSD if the budget allows… they really make the PC more responsive, and they also draw less power (creating less heat inside the case and extending the battery run-time).  Personally, I prefer and use Samsung SSDs, which also have the feature of being self-encrypting (which is great on laptops that can easily be stolen).

       

      Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
      XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
      Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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    • #200434

      MrJimPhelps wrote that he suspects you may have a bad hard drive, and that was also the first thing that popped into my mind reading your message.

      Check your drive cables. If they aren’t plugged in securely on both ends, it could look like your drive is bad.

      The thing to remember when installing Windows is that you want to make sure that the type of boot you perform starting the Windows install media is the same type as what you will permanently use to start Windows from then on. If you use a legacy boot to start the Windows install DVD or USB drive, it will install Windows in legacy MBR mode, and every boot into Windows will have to be done in legacy mode from then on.

      I did not know this. This is very helpful information.

      How do you choose the type of boot when booting with the Windows install DVD? Do you go into Setup and choose it there, then reboot to the Windows install DVD?

      Group "L" (Linux Mint)
      with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server
      3 users thanked author for this post.
      • #200441

        @anepotts #200408 wrote: “The computer has Legacy currently checked. I will be running Windows 10 Pro.”


        @Ascaris
        explained why UEFI is necessary for Win10


        @MrJimPhelps
        re:#200434

        “How do you choose the type of boot when booting with the Windows install DVD?”

        How to configure Boot Settings in Windows 10 (official Dell Tech Support)

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPzzxZPyNf8

        Lots more videos on the same youtube page about BIOS-UEFI stuff.  Hope this helps.

        HF

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        • #200526

          MrJimPhelps,

          It seems like every PC has its own way of selecting legacy mode or UEFI mode for booting.  My desktop PC (using an Asus P8P67 motherboard, from about 2011 or so, with AMI firmware) lets the user select directly from the boot override menu. When I press F8 during POST, it brings up the boot override menu, and each device is listed as “Whatever the device or bootloader is called” and also “UEFI: Whatever the device or bootloader is called.”  If I select the first option, it attempts a legacy boot from that device, and if I select the second, it attempts a UEFI boot.  I prefer this method, since it gives me all the options right up front with no fooling around.

          My Dell laptop from 2017, also with AMI firmware (their Optio product, in this case), has a boot menu that clearly states that it is in UEFI mode or legacy mode at the top.  It lists all the boot devices available, and it will attempt to do the indicated type of boot on whichever option the user selects.  It also has a menu option to change the boot options, and if the user selects that, it gives two choices of these three (it doesn’t give the option to change to the option already selected):

          • Change to Legacy boot mode (Secure boot off)
          • Change to UEFI boot mode (Secure boot on)
          • Change to UEFI boot mode (Secure boot off)

          When you select one, the laptop will restart with the new mode the user selected.  It won’t automatically bring up the boot menu; the user will need to hit F12 once again to bring that back up.

          This way is unambiguous, but is a little less convenient than the way in my desktop.

          My other low-end laptop, a new addition to my collection, is an Acer Swift 1 (manufactured 2017) with Insyde UEFI.  I don’t know how much of what Insyde does is a function of Acer’s customization and how much is Insyde itself, but… well, suffice it to say I wish it was something else.  It has a few bugs and annoyances that I could do without.

          On this laptop, selecting UEFI or legacy mode means pressing F2 during the splash screen (the big Acer logo) and going into the UEFI setup program.  Tab over to the “Boot” menu, then select the mode (UEFI or Legacy) from the boot mode option.  Save and exit the setup program, and it will then be ready to boot in the mode you selected.  Like with the Dell, you will have to press F12 to get the boot override menu again if desired.

          Well, that’s how it is supposed to work.  It’s stuck in UEFI mode, with no ability to change it to legacy, which has apparently been the case for several firmware revisions.  The option is visible in the Insyde UEFI options, but it’s grayed out and cannot be selected or changed.

          Note that this doesn’t mean I dislike the Swift 1… I like it a lot despite the flaws Insyde, but for the time being, a legacy boot is not going to happen.  It’s also one of those that won’t let you go backwards in firmware versions.

          It is because of this that the author of the popular Rufus USB drive utility wrote the program so that it only makes either a legacy-booting USB drive or a UEFI-booting one, but not both.  That way, the user writes the USB stick for whatever mode he requires for the task at hand, and it either works (indicating the mode is correct) or it doesn’t (meaning the PC is in the wrong mode).  That’s the theory, anyway.

          If the user presses a certain key combination (alt-E or something like that) once in Rufus, it unhides the menu option to write a stick that supports both UEFI and Legacy boot modes.  I use this for all of my bootable USB drives because one of my daily-use PCs uses BIOS, and can thus only do a legacy boot, while my other PCs are all UEFI (and set up for UEFI boots with GPT partitions).  I like my Macrium Reflect, Aomei Backupper, Windows install, and Linux install USB drives to work from any PC without having to rewrite the drive or to try to keep track of separate ones for each mode.

          Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
          XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
          Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

          4 users thanked author for this post.
          • #200567

            @Ascaris ahh yes the infamous Insyde H20 Rev 5.0 Bios the bane of my existance, have it on 2 machines at home. The Rev 3.5 at least you could unlock the Hidden functions if you felt brave enough to modify the BIOS, at least you could work with it for more advanced scenario’s, as it stands the Rev 5.0 is not very flexible. As for booting from a USB Win’s 8-10 just get on with and don’t reboot from the stick, Win7 occasionally goes back to the initial screen again at first reboot, if you take out the USB and close out it then carries on with setup. That’s what I thought @Anepotts was talking about. I will rue the day when they lock out or discard the “Legacy” setting or Secure Boot on/off switch like they were kicking the idea around a couple of years back although I have yet to see one both at work or here at home, probably would be a “final nail in the coffin” for Win7 lovers. Win7 EFI GPT is doable on an Acer but its a lot of hassle not for the average user but no doubt you’ve figured it out, but they sure don’t go out of their way to advertise it or make it simple alas.

            Well, that’s how it is supposed to work. It’s stuck in UEFI mode, with no ability to change it to legacy, which has apparently been the case for several firmware revisions. The option is visible in the Insyde UEFI options, but it’s grayed out and cannot be selected or changed.

            Have you tried setting a supervisor password in the BIOS? that unlocked it for me if you need to change the options that are greyed out works on Rev 5.0 BIOS for a 2015 Acer Aspire E15. yeah I know its another little thing they never go out of their way to tell you I had to dig deep to find that one 🙁

            • #200574

              BobbyB,

              Yes, I too had to look that bit up (setting the supervisor password to unlock settings).  It unlocked most of them, but the UEFI option remains locked.  It is indeed the 5.0 release of Insyde.  I’ve only ever used Phoenix, Award, and AMI before.

              The refusal to boot in legacy mode hasn’t been a major problem.  Some USB images, like the Ultimate Boot CD, only offer a legacy boot, so this great tool won’t work for me on the Acer.  There are others that can be used instead, but it would be nice to be able to have this function available.

              I tried and thus far have not been able to get Windows 8.1 running properly on the Acer.  It installed okay, but the device manager was full of unrecognized devices.  The touchpad did not work at all, and it had no entry in the device manager even in a non-working form. In order for it to be recognized in Advanced mode (selectable in the UEFI settings), the I2C drivers must first be installed and working, and as far as I have been able to tell, there are none for Windows 8.1.  The Intel “chipset” driver worked fine, and so did the Intel thermal framework.  Those took a few of the unknown devices out of the device manager, but many remained, and most of those were I2C devices.

              I’ve tried several releases of the I2C drivers from Intel, all listed as Windows 10 drivers (only), and none have worked in 8.1 as supplied.  I could install the package, if I remember correctly, but the devices it was supposed to apply to in the Device Manager would still be unrecognized.

              When I edited the .inf files to make them install with 8.1 by changing the compatibility tags from 10.0 to 6.3, they installed okay (once I disabled signature enforcement), but after the requisite reboot, each one showed a ! in the device manager (device could not start).  It looks like these Windows 10 drivers actually were not compatible with 8.1, as opposed to the other Intel drivers (like the iGPU video driver), which worked fine once spoofed into installing on 8.1.

              Since the Apollo Lake SoC in the Swift post-dates the release of Windows 10, it appears that Intel never made any drivers for it for anything other than 10.  In all the years I have been changing Windows versions on Intel and AMD PCs, I’ve never seen such a complete embargo on old version Intel drivers for any new CPUs.  MS is trying to force me into 10, but what they are really doing is forcing me off Windows.

              I did have Windows 7 booting in UEFI mode (GPT volume) on my desktop PC before I switched to 8.1, FWIW.

               

               

              Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
              XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
              Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

              1 user thanked author for this post.
            • #200603

              @ascaris  re: #200574 you wrote:

              “Some USB images, like the Ultimate Boot CD, only offer a legacy boot, so this great tool won’t work for me on the Acer.  There are others that can be used instead…”

              Please list your favorite alternatives.

              Thank you,  HF

            • #200619

              HiFlyer,

              I haven’t actually tried the alternatives as yet.  I’ve read Hiren’s BootCD and Falcon BootCD as alternatives, and if I ever had a circumstance where I needed UBCD, I would certainly give them a try.

              Anonymous,

              Thanks for the links; I will be looking through what is posted there.  It looks like the quality of the Acer Insyde firmware is well known, and not in a good way.

              I do have Mint successfully set up on it (using the Acer from Mint to write this now).  I had Windows 8.1 successfully booting too… I just could not find any drivers for the various I2C serial communication controllers as shown in the Device Manager.  I haven’t given up completely on it, but it’s not really a priority either, as I don’t really have any special need for Windows on the laptop.  I have set up Virtualbox on it and run Windows 7 successfully as a guest (despite the paltry 4 GB of RAM on the laptop).

              I might try next finding some Windows 8.1 I2C drivers and changing the INF to apply it to the various devices within the Apollo Lake setup (as opposed to changing the Win 10 drivers that applied to the devices themselves but were not listed for Win 8.1).

              I think we should move this discussion into another thread if we are going to keep going with this new topic… this is Anepotts thread about a non-booting computer and installing Windows 10 anew.

               

               

              Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
              XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
              Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

          • #200571

            @Ascaris,

            Certain OEM Win 8.x/10 computers, eg Acer, Asus and HP, have an obstructive UEFI-BIOS setting for “select an UEFI file as trusted for executing”,(= Linux cannot boot). For the fix, please refer to …
            https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/543729/efi-dual-boot-not-seeing-linux-on-nitro-5-an515-51-78c6
            https://itsfoss.com/no-bootable-device-found-ubuntu/
            https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=236560

            The above latest (= 2017) OEM Win 10 laptops, eg Acer E and S series, (Acer Swift 1 SF113-31-P8AJ??) may have even removed this UEFI-BIOS setting (eg “No bootable device” after installing Linux and cannot be fixed), but may be restored by a new BIOS firmware update from the OEMs = update through Windows only. This was after many complaints from affected users. …
            https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=254948
            ___ Another workaround is …
            https://askubuntu.com/questions/862946/unable-to-install-ubuntu-on-acer-aspire-es1-533

            2 users thanked author for this post.
    • #200806

      UPDATE: Reinstalled windows 10 Pro.  Two days later: Unmountable Boot Mount AGAIN,

      So Im going to check the connections and see if that is potentially the issue since this hard drive is 2 months old.  However, after that I feel like this is just a ton of time wasted vs tossing $50-75 at a new hard drive.  The hard drive is the only part it could be correct?

      So now I’m at how do I shop for a hard drive?  I went to a website told me to put in my laptop Model- among others these were options:

      500GB 7200RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 32MB Cache 2.5 Inch Hard Drive

      500GB 5400RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 2.5 Inch Hard Drive

      750GB 5400RPM 16GB MLC NAND Hybrid SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 2.5 Inch (SSHD)

      Can I go to any website like Amazon or micro center and just get any SATA 2.5 inch with the numbers below?  Seems to easy.  If that is true maybe I can just take my hard drive out of my last laptop? Is there a company that people recommend vs another? I know the one I have is a toshiba.

      As always thank you in advance and I have enjoyed learning from everyone.

      Anepotts

      (Edited to remove HTML tags)

       

       

      • #200816

        I’m sorry to hear that, Anepotts.

        There are other possibilities besides the hard drive. According to the Dell manual for the Latitude E5550, your laptop does have a cable-style attachment between the motherboard and the hard drive.  If it is faulty, it could be causing the issue you’re seeing.

        Less likely possibilities would include a failing SATA adapter within the PCH (Platform Control Hub, also called “chipset” sometimes) or something similar, but the odds of that compared to the odds of it being the hard drive or cable are slim.

        If you want to replace the drive as a means of narrowing down the issue to save yourself the trouble of further investigation, that is certainly understandable.  That’s up to you, of course.  Personally, I would like to have a look at the drive’s SMART parameters and other diagnostic data before suggesting someone go replace the drive.

        Your PC has on-board diagnostics that may be helpful in further diagnosing the hard drive.  If you turn off the PC, then press and hold the Fn key on the keyboard as you turn it back on.  That should start the diagnostic program, in which you should be able to select the hard drive and do some tests.  I’m not sure what kinds of things it reports, but any information it gives will be useful.  If it is too much to write down, you could take a picture and post it here.

        If you decide on replacement of the drive:

        According to the Dell official in this post, you should be able to use any SATA 2.5 inch hard drive that is 7mm thick.  The thicker ones won’t fit.  It narrows your choices a bit, but there are plenty of them in the 7mm thickness, including the 2.5 inch SSDs.

         

        Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
        XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
        Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

    • #200818

      I would definitely run some hard disk diags before spending money. The disk manufacturer’s web site will have such a program.

      As this is your business computer it may be best to lash out on a new(er) device and put this one away for fixing later.

      cheers, Paul

    • #200828

      Totally agree with @PaulT with disk diagnostic tests before splashing out on a new drive.

      The hard drive is the only part it could be correct?


      @Anepotts
      , this may be of value based on experience:

      In the past I’ve encountered a faulty motherboard SATA port with issues similar to yours on a desktop system whereby things seem to install as intended with intermittent data corruption was on SATA port itself at motherboard controller level.

      I certainly would test the memory on the laptop and also the HDD on another PC before doing anything.

      Windows - commercial by definition and now function...
    • #200837

      @ Anepotts

      Please refer to … https://www.technipages.com/windows-10-fix-unmountable-boot-volume-error

      Try unplugging, replugging and securing/screw-in the internal hard-drive. It may not be seated or connected properly.

      Avoid hybrid SSHD, ie avoid … 750GB 5400RPM 16GB MLC NAND Hybrid SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache 2.5 Inch (SSHD)

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    Reply To: Computer will not boot O/S Please help!

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