Solved Windows 7 blue screen crash/hard drive booting issue/NTLDR missing

[altek]

 

[altek]

Ok. Posted above.

 

[Pedroc1999]

my uncle has once come across this, the clip that clipped into the HDD was mildly broken and when anyone accidentally banged the computer, it would freeze and the missing ntldr would appear, all he done everytime was check his connection from the PSU to HDD and SATA cable and it would start working again

 

[altek]

I just don't know what else to do. I don't want to go out and buy a new HD for nothing right now, especially since I would have to replace an SSD drive. I mean if I knew 100% that was the issue, then I would have no choice and it would be fine. It's just such a vague problem. Windows freezes about every hour or so, occasionally get the "NTLDR is missing" screen if it crashed and restarts on it's own. Other than that, I manually restart it and everything is fine for another hour or so. I am checking the wire connections, system temps, it's not malware, trying different boot options and orders, tweaking BIOS, etc and it just seems nothing is working. I don't even have an extra hard drive to check to see if it's my current one with the problems. I have a USB external, but it wouldn't read it when I tried installing Windows onto it. I am at my wit's end here.

 

[altek]

I am also noticing when the computer/Windows freezes the RED LED in the front of the case goes on.

 

[gregrocker]

What's on the expansion HD and why is it marked Active which is only for partitions booting an OS? Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

Did you wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command before following the Best Practices to get a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7?

It looks like you had a 200mb factory System Reserved partition that was abandoned and might be conflicting until boot code is wiped.

I'd also want to know whether there is somehow boot code on the expansion HD that is interfering, so after marking Inactive unplug it if the problems persist.

Otherwise work through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows

If you continue getting BSOD's then post up the bugcheck file in our Crashes forum for expert analysis: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions - Windows 7 Forums

 

[altek]

What's on the expansion HD and why is it marked Active which is only for partitions booting an OS? Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

Did you wipe the HD with Diskpart Clean Command before following the Best Practices to get a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7?

It looks like you had a 200mb factory System Reserved partition that was abandoned and might be conflicting until boot code is wiped.

I'd also want to know whether there is somehow boot code on the expansion HD that is interfering, so after marking Inactive unplug it if the problems persist.

Otherwise work through these Troubleshooting Steps for Windows

If you continue getting BSOD's then post up the bugcheck file in our Crashes forum for expert analysis: Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) Posting Instructions - Windows 7 Forums

Yea I am not sure why it's marked active as you say it's not supposed to be. I just use it for storage: media, music, games, movies.. no system files. But as I have been reading, it might have conflicting boot code on it if I installed Windows with it plugged in, which I think I did. But also, I have had it unplugged now trying to work this out with my primary drive and I am still getting the freezing and crashing. But it's not BSOD, it just freezes and restarts. I am also not sure what you mean talking about the 200mb partition on my primary. Could that be the issue here? I really don't want to clean wipe and re-install, but it seems like I may have to try that one last time.

 

[gregrocker]

Go ahead and work through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 then after marking expansion drive Inactive.

 

[altek]

I marked the USB drive inactive. I also tried extending the unallocated partition into my disk, but it said something like "extent is less than the minimum". I'll hold off on a clean install a little while longer and see if the problem is still persisting. The worst thing about this is how my computer will run perfect for a specified amount of time. I mean I could do anything like I normally do, but after about an hour or so I will get the crash (forcing a restart manually) or leaving it go to the error screen. So, I have to sit here and fumble for a while every time I change something to see if I am still getting the freezing/crashing.

 

[gregrocker]

Did you use free Partition Wizard to Resize C Partition - Video Help?
Be sure to use the Partition Wizard boot CD burned to disk using Windows Image Burner or ImgBurn.

After resizing, confirm Win7 partiiton is still Active and then Rebuild MBR with Partition Wizard -Video Help.

Then run a Disk Check on the HD.

If these don't resolve it then work through the Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7 to cover all bases, report back results for possible additional steps.

 

[altek]

Just an update for everyone: I figured out the problem and solved it. It only took me 2 weeks and endless frustration and the fix was so simple.

Apparently my SSD drive, Crucial M4 series and other Crucial hard drives have a problem where about after 5000 hours of use something happens which causes the freezing almost hourly, the forced restarts, BSOD's and the boot device errors. I was just about to go out and buy a new drive too when I came across a post on another website with the same EXACT problem. All I needed to do was download the firmware update/fix from Crucial's website and bam problem solved. Computer runs perfectly. So if anyone has a Crucial M4 or other series and you are having problems, look into that. It happens after roughly 5000 hours of use. So with my machine being 9 months old and seeing so many of the same problems in people's new rigs it makes sense. Crucial discovered the problem months ago and released the firmware update to fix it. I calculated my hours of use on this new machine/drive and it was roughly ~5,500 hours which falls into the error zone. Simple fix. The problem was driving me insane. After all these malware scans, reboots, formats, re-installs of Windows, etc all I had to do was apply an update which took 3 minutes. I took apart my entire rig today and cleaned everything out and tightened all connections too trying to solve it. That's the only good thing about it. At least, my machine is running at optimal performance now. The drive was really slow because of this error too, but all is fixed and dandy now. I hope this information can be of use to someone.

 

[Layback Bear]

Thank you very much for letting us know the solution to your problem. No doubt it will help others.

 

[gregrocker]

Good work. You can mark the thread Solved at top when ready.