[Solved] Primary Volume Becomes RAW After Hard Boot

[Dodge]

Hello, I just built a new computer a couple of days ago and have been having a persisting issue. The computer loads my free copy (from university) of Windows 10 Education without problems, then runs 100% fine without any issues. As soon as I shut down the computer, or it loads from sleep mode, I get either operating system not found, error 0xc00000f, or error 0xc0000225. This does not happen after a reset, but only after I shut it down and then power it back on -- and it happens EVERY time the computer is shut down. The only way I have figured out to get it working is to do a fresh install of windows. I have tried bootrec.exe /scanos, and 0 installations of windows are found. I have tried diskpart - list volume - select volume xx -active, and this is where I think you guys can help me. When I type active, it said 'the selected drive is not a fixed MBR disk. The active command can only be used on fixed MbR disks'. Then I noticed my primary volume, as well as a smaller (hidden) 450 mb volume, are listed as RAW under 'fs', instead of fat32 or ntfs. I am now reinstalling Windows once again, and am going to run testdisk (i'm not sure if this is going to help, but i saw people recommending it in this forum). I will show you the results, as well as supply any additional information necessary to fix this annoyance. Thanks in advance for any help.

Edit: I am not going to run testdisk yet, as I am not sure what it can tell you guys as I have already formatted and re-installed windows onto the drive. I can replicate this issue with ease if need be, but unless someone thinks it is helpful I will wait.

My Setup:

i7 - 6700K
Asus z170 s Sabertooth Mobo
16 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 Ram @ 3200MHZ (2x8gb)
Mushkin Reactor 1TB SSD
MSI GTX 1080
Corsair RM850X - 850w PSU


 

Edited October 18, 2016 by Dodge

[jaclaz]

What you report is "strange", we will need some more details.

Is that UEFI or BIOS (or UEFI/CSM)?

If the disk is not MBR then it is GPT, it could be that - somehow - you managed to have a hybrid MBR of some kind, but it is more likely that you have a GPT disk (where the concept of active partition doesn't exist anymore).

How (EXACTLY) did you install the Windows 10?

How big is the actual hard disk?

How (EXACTLY) did you partition it (or you let the Windows 10 installer do it's stuff automatically)?

Generically speaking a good idea could be to wipe the first - say - 100 sectors AND the last 100 sectors of the disk before attempting to reinstall (and let the Windows 10 Setup do its thing automatically, at least as an experiment).

jaclaz
 

[Dodge]

Thank you for taking the time to assist me.

The hard disk is recognized as uefi_gpt in testdisk.

I have been installing Windows with a USB flash drive. I use the windows media creation tool, which does all the work in burning the bootable. I have tried two ways, which I think are the same, but the first had me put in my license prior to making the bootable, and the second had me enter the license prior to installing on the fresh machine. I just put the flash drive in the USB socket, boot up, and follow the prompts to install.

I have tried two ways of installing Windows: the first was to delete the volumes so I am left with only my primary drive remaining, click 'new', and partition the entire size of the volume, then install Windows on it. The second way was deleting each volume and then just click the remaining primary drive and install Windows on it without any partitions or clicking 'new'.

The hard disk is 1TB, which shows me 931GB.

I will try the experiment of wiping the first and last 100 sectors prior to installing Windows later today. I greatly appreciate you trying to help me, I have been completely lost as I cannot find any solutions to this strange problem online.

I have never gone too in depth within my hard drives, but is there a way to wipe the sectors in the command prompt, under the Windows bootable? Or how would you suggest doing it? 

[jaclaz]

You will need a bootable *something*, like a PE, liveCD or bootable stick (it is not a good idea to wipe the base structures of the disk from which you are running the OS), a common way is to use dd (or a port of it) to directly write a file made of 00's to the very beginning and the very end of the disk.

There are also usually manufacturer tools that can do the same (like Seagate, Western Digital, etc.).

Still, what is perplexing is that you are having some different BSOD Stop Errors, and this would point (also since you said you just built the PC) more to some *random* hardware error. 

jaclaz

[Dodge]

Well that is certainly not good news . I will try this out, but do you possibly have any idea which piece of hardware could cause this? I would presume it would have to be the motherboard or the SSD itself, since everything runs perfectly fine up until I power it down. Thanks again for your time, maybe I will just leave the computer on 24/7 ha...ha...ha....

[Dodge]

I have (kind of) resolved the issue. I purchased a new SSD from a local store to rule it out as the hardware error, expecting to return it if nothing was fixed, but now my machine works great. My Mushkin Reactor 1TB SSD was the problem. Thank you very much for taking your time to help me out Jaclaz, you truly are the best. Now I am going to enjoy my new rig finally! 

[jaclaz]

Good.

I don't know if there is a way (maybe a manufacturer tool/utility) to test the functionality of a SSD (and/or to *somehow* regenerate it).

In theory the controller has a map of "defective" sectors and these are re-mapped to good "spare" ones when the SSD is manufactured, but it should be possible to re-test and re-do the mapping also "at home"  and there should anyway be a method to verify the functionality of the SSD  or it may be hard to get a RMA for it, and it should be around 250 bucks, so not exactly "expendable".

jaclaz
 

[Dodge]

Fortunately it is still within its return period from newegg, so I am sending it back and getting a higher quality one. I did run a deep search on it using testdisk, and it pretty much said the drive is smaller than it should be. I saved the log if you are curious, but I am just happy that I don't have to troubleshoot/RMA any other parts of my PC. That glitch was crazy annoying, and seemed to make zero sense due to the fact that I could use the computer just fine and every test would pass, as long as I didn't turn the power off. 

[Mcinwwl]

More of a question than an answer, but... Is everything with Power supply, cables and other things that might have affected your SSD just fine?

It would have been sad If your new SDD will get damaged by other malfunctioning part. I'm not an expert, but I'd find out if other PC components might have damaged your disk that way. I'm too dumb to say anything more, guess I need help from other community member to prove whether I'm saying anything useful

[Dodge]

That is a good suggestion, and was one of the first things I checked. I tried a different PSU, changed sata cables, moved sata ports, changed my PSU to its own power strip, among other things. Luckily my new SSD is still operating perfectly, and my computer is running without a hitch. So, hopefully nothing goes wrong. Thanks for the suggestions though.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Dodge