HELP! (inaccessible_boot_drive)

joefuego

My fellow PC nerds, I have run into a problem that is becoming more and more of a head scratcher.

One day, I go to restart my PC to adjust the LED settings in BIOS. Next thing I know, my PC will not boot, my motherboard goes into automatic repair, which does nothing, and I am met with the blue screen with the error message: inaccessible_boot_drive. I am able to enter my BIOS, reset everything to default, and my 970 EVO Plus does indeed show up in the bootup BIOS, where I can switch the order to prioritize the Windows USB.

The Windows Boot USB also failed me, I would enter my product key but no drive will appear to download Windows onto. In the Windows Repair bootup (not the USB, but the built in repair software), most of the troubleshoot options do nothing, or give me an error message. I have also tried multiple command prompt fixes, but I would not get the same response in the code. Also, I tried switching it to a different M.2 slot, and this gave me the same results, pain.

All this leads me to believe that my drive is corrupted. It is a shame, as this is a new build at just a few months old. I would love to know if anyone has run into this problem, how did they fix it? Is my drive save-able? Please, any info would help!

Kevin_m

unfortunately, an issue like this does point to a failing drive. if you are referring to your actual data, its possible using an external connection via nvme to usb to get your data off but if that doesn't work it will need to go through a recovery specialist (your nearest micro center can help with that). however the drive itself is not fixable and will need to be replaced. the easiest way to find out would be to swap it with a good or new m.2 and reinstall windows

joefuego

Very unfortunate. Thank you for answering. Do you know what might have caused something like this to happen? Is it possible that I could have accidentally broken something in the hardware, or is it something like this software related?

joefuego

Also, would it be smart to utilize two m.2 slots instead of just one? So that way i can have a backup drive? Or is that not a good idea

Kevin_m

its unlikely that you broke something with the hardware since it started before you moved the drive. its very difficult, especially on the consumer level to determine the exact cause of a failure, sometimes drives just die. I also had a Samsung drive die on me within 6 months of buying it. Utilizing multiple slots for a backup drive isn't a bad idea but an external back up drive would be safer in the event (worst case) your pc fries for any reason. at least your backup drive wasn't directly connected

PowerSpec_MikeW

@joefuego

Based on the description, my first thought is your storage controller mode changed. Check that in the Advanced section of your BIOS. If it's switched to RAID, set it back to AHCI. If it's RAID, you're not going to see any storage devices from the windows boot media without installing a RAID driver. The automatic repair won't work, but if you can get it into safe mode it'll solve your problem automatically. From the automatic repair can you go into the advanced repair options after the repair fails?

Lambdaben

Hi @joefuego

Just wanted to also pass on an option that no one else seems to want to suggest, but have you tried buying an NVMe enclosure and connecting the drive to another computer if you have a spare? Samsung has the Samsung Magician that will give you diagnostics on the drive and let you know 100% if there is an issue with the drive.

Another option would be to run chkdsk /r C: which would check the drive for corruption of data. You would do this by booting into the Windows Installer USB and pressing Shift + F10 to open a command prompt in administrator mode.

My only question for you would be did you install the Samsung NVMe driver or did you leave it the default Windows NVMe driver? By not running Samsung's driver, you are not running your 970 EVO as efficiently as possible.

Hope this helps!!