This can mean a lot but one of the possible reasons could be a faulty driver or that something went wrong while installing a driver.
I'm only curious about the HDD check after reboot. This could mean that the boot partition is broken for some reason and in that case you could try a startup repair but I'd say you should do what other users already said:
backup your important files and then format the disk and install a fresh windows.

To backup your files in such case, i recommend a Linux Live system which doesn't need to be installed to run - Garuda KDE for example.
You can put it on a usb drive (with rufus), boot your PC from it and then you can start backing up to another disk/drive.
When finished, shutdown the system, boot from your windows install stick, format the whole HDD on which you want to install
Windows (optionally delete all partitions - then Windows Setup will create a new boot partition as well) and install it.

Rufus is a simple tool to create bootable usb drives.
Just select the usb drive you want to use, drag & drop your iso image into rufus and hit the "start" button

 

No, I don't know any of that.
Thank you for teaching me things ...

Keep rowing...

 

funkman : it was the same for me, be reassured. I did not even want to know about it. Until one day, Windows didn't start, and I tried for 2, 3, 4 days, testing with " all I knew " which was not much.

Then Reflect is really 3 clics : choose the partition ( OS or else ), choose the destination of the image in another partition, go !
For " restoration ", 4 clicks : 1 more for " are you sure ? " as it's gonna replace the existing partition with the previous image of it.

WIN10 x64 : partition is 100 GB, half full*. Restoration I just did took 2:12 min . Image takes approx. the same time.

Click, click, salvation .

In stock I have always ( almost always ) the latest Avast offline and virus def., lastest Opera offline, and Thunderbird will uptate itself. So let's say 2 more min to be " brand new ".

* It's not too big as the audio librairies are installed - in fact simply copied - on another drive. I did images of those too, which, due to their size took much longer ( so I looked at a movie in the meantime ). Now I just copy the second safety of these over the eventually faulty one with the explorer.

 

Last edited: Jul 29, 2022

i never had any partitions

 

Maybe you would want to read about that and get the idea that having the OS and the apps installed " in it " apart from everything else is an excellent safety option. Plus : the OS's size will be smaller of course. Explanations :

For example the VSTi of Addictive Drums 2 is located on the OS drive ( in the plug-in folder of course ), but the samples / Librairies are on another partition, which is easy to setup thanks to the little " AD2_Library_Placer.exe " .

 

Last edited: Jul 30, 2022

in my case i have two 2tb drives
i keep samples in the 2nd drive,although i have videos music and other stuff i wouldnt wantto lose on the C drive.

 

is it a thing to only have the OS on a partitiion?

 

Software and programs belong on a fast SSD on C:/. (250 GB oe 500 GB)
Sound libraries, movies and music belong on a second large HDD. (1 TB - 2TB - 3 TB etc.)

 

Hello funkman, with this free tool, you can completely erase your hard drive, the *.ISO overwrites the data several times, so that really all file remnants are deleted.

Very helpful if the old operating system should really be completely deleted or if you throw the hard drive in the trash.
Download the file and burn it as an image/ iso.

Free Open-Source Data Wiping Software for Personal Use (Darik's Boot and Nuke)

Delete information stored on hard disk drives (HDDs, not SSDs) in PC laptops, desktops,
or servers. Plus, remove viruses and spyware from Microsoft Windows installations.

https://dban.org

 

Last edited: Jul 30, 2022

Yes.
And at old times - rotating discs -, the paging file itself had its own partition.
Even on that little laptop's SSD running right now, I keep it that way. Small partition, 5 GB. It read here and there that on SSDs it's useless - or the contrary - . What I know is : it's of fixed size ( Window tweak ), deleted at shutdown ( Window tweak ), as different partition it does not go in the image of the OS, and so it's a little gain of space .

 

Last edited: Jul 30, 2022

Just hijacking the thread for some related question. I have this HDD that I lightly bumped by mistake a while ago and it refuses to boot now. I plug it, the PC sees it, but I can't click on it and see what's inside, even the size of the disk it can't compute. What can I do about this? I can't even do a check since I can't access it, right?

Sound libraries sould also go on SSD drive, I can't do it on my computer (because it's slightly too old) and I have many issue when using Ableton/Kontakt libraries, it often hits the loading limit capacity of my 2nd HDD drive. Hell, even my current Ableton projects, I temporarily put them on my SSD drive.

 

It is a question of money. Not all users have so much money left.
I got a 1 TB Crucial MX for 100 EURO. My Spectrasonics STEAM is also on an SSD.

 

Is it spinning at all? Listen with your ear - it should rotate, if you don't hear anything - you have produced a hard disk crash and it is then ready for the trash can.

 

Yes, indeed, but I don't think SSD drive are that expensive these days, I had the option to get a 500 GB for 60 bucks or so earlier this year (but couldn't move my OS to the new drive because Acer is doing a planned obsolescence thing...). Now I'm stuck with a small 128 GB SSD drive until my laptop give up the ghost. Anyway, I found out putting your stuff on SSD can greatly improve performances, even for things like game emulation.

Yes, it does, I can hear/feel it rotating.

 

Ok she is probably still alive...!

Do you have the possibility to install the hard disk at a friend?
Can you access your BIOS. if so please reset to factory defaults.

Repair damaged MBR(Master Boot Record)
www.easeus.com/partition-manager-software/fix-master-boot-record-of-this-hard-drive-is-damaged.html

If you have the possibility to disconnect the hard disk, disconnect it - disconnect the cable and start Windows - run it once empty. Shut down the PC - connect the cable again. Restart and wait...!

 

Last edited: Aug 4, 2022

First as always : maker software test
It will tell you a lot more informations than OS

Tell us the result here before doing anything else

 

I tried that software, but as wwith the other ones I tried, it freezes right when I plug the (external) HDD.

What is this?

 

Hello @aghori, no access possible, you can forget it then, maybe plug it in at another PC times.
If you still have warranty please send in, otherwise save up for an SSD.

 

@BEAT16 I guess you're right, maybe someday I'll bring it to a recovery store (there's some professional stuff on it, so...)
The next one I buy will definitely be an SSD drive, at least it won't happen again. But what about the speed of access? Isn't it drastically limited by the speed of the USB port? (something like 2 MB/s vs 500+ MB/s when plug on the motherboard)

 

The throughput depends on the port usb type and protocol for both devices you connect. (like usb2,thunderbolt3,etc). It switches down to the slowest connection type. more or less

something sounds amiss.

 

Last edited: Aug 4, 2022