Solved PC usually hangs at Starting Windows

[DaralenManta]

Hello,

I wasn't sure where to post this so forgive me if this is the wrong place to start.

I recently installed a new secondary SSD in my Alienware desktop replacement. I've been running with two drives for a while, but just recently started using this latest drive. In my rig I run one drive as my work drive and the other as my personal drive. Both drives have a Windows 7 (Pro for work, Ultimate for personal) installation on them. I forgo the Windows boot menu and instead tell the PC which drive to boot from using the PC's boot menu. This has worked well for me in the past with other drives.

With my latest personal drive however, the PC seems to run well in all aspects except startup. About 70% of the time, the PC hangs at "Starting Windows." The little flower logo continues to animate, but the PC never actually finishes booting. I think I left it that way for a couple hours once and seem to remember the PC going to recovery mode of some kind, but I don't remember the details. Usually I just power the PC off with a hard shut down, then power it back on and try again. This usually prompts a "startup repair" menu which I ignore.

I've had no luck with the repair methods that I've tried so far which include:

System Restore - this issue started immediately after Windows is done installing, so not much to restore to.

chkdsk /r /f
Here are the edited results. Seems pretty innocuous.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
Cleaning up instance tags for file 0x46e55.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
323072 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 445 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 445 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 445 unused security descriptors.

sfc /scannow
No problems detected.

Startup Repair - Heres the only error I saw in the report:
Root cause found:
-----------------
Unspecified changes to system configuration might have caused the problem.

Repair action: System Restore
Result: Cancelled

Repair action: System files integrity check and repair
Result: Failed. Error code = 0x490
Time taken = 193332 ms

As far as I know, all the latest drivers and Windows Updates are installed.

I'm starting to suspect that there is a problem with the SSD itself (the Samsung listed in my system specs) as it has a clean Windows installation and during the initial install, I ran into this problem as well. I wiped the drive and started again and the issue returned.

I have Samsung Magician 4.5 installed, but I don't see any tools on there to check the integrity of the drive. The screenshot I've attached is about all I can get out of it.

Any help would be appreciated.

-Daralen

 

[georgeks]

Have you clicked on the S.M.A.R.T. button?

 

[DaralenManta]

Yes. All the items on there say "OK." I can post details later if anyone wants em.

 

[georgeks]

Also:
Why is the AHCI mode deactivated?
Why the SATA interface is listed as N/A?

 

[torchwood]

I would rerun chkdsk
But make sure that BOTH drives are checked, you only reported one set.
(unplug 1, then swop drives)

Roy

 

[DaralenManta]

Have you clicked on the S.M.A.R.T. button?

SMART data attached.

 

[DaralenManta]

Also:
Why is the AHCI mode deactivated?
Why the SATA interface is listed as N/A?

The only drive option I have available in my BIOS is "SATA Operation."

The three choices are
ATA
AHCI
RAID

I currently have it set to RAID. I think it started out AHCI but a while back when I was trying to run Windows 8, the only way I could get it to work was by switching the SATA Operation option to RAID. I've been running with that since even though I'm not actually using RAID.

Setting it to AHCI means I'll have to start from scratch. I'd REALLY like to avoid having to do that unless we're certain it's what's causing the problem I'm having.

 

[DaralenManta]

I would rerun chkdsk
But make sure that BOTH drives are checked, you only reported one set.
(unplug 1, then swop drives)

Roy

The two drives don't see each other in Windows. They're disabled in the Device Manager. The work drive (Intel) is working flawlessly.

You think I should run another chkdsk /r /f on the drive that's giving me trouble though?

 

[Megahertz07]

You don't have to start over if you set SATA=AHCI on BIOS. Try it.

 

[AddRAM]

Just backup your data and reinstall Ultimate, you`ll be done in less then 15 minutes, and updating Windows 7 is now a piece of cake.

You did right by keeping them separate and using the boot menu, that`s the best way to do it.

You must have installed in IDE mode, check your bios.

You can switch it to AHCI, but then windows won`t boot, the experts can tell you how to fix that.

But none of that will fix your startup issue.

Wow, you just started using it and it has 492 GB of used space already

Holy Halibut !!

 

[DaralenManta]

I tried setting it to AHCI and get BSOD when booting from my both drives.

The setting hasn't changed from RAID in over 2 years.

I've got a lot of games installed so that's why the space is being used quickly.

Anyone have any other ideas? I'm certainly willing to try switching to ACHI and then reinstalling Windows from scratch on both drives, but it's going to be a lot of work to back both of them up, get them fully updated and get both of them working the way I want them to again.

I don't want to go through all that though unless we're fairly certain it'll actually fix the issue.

 

[AddRAM]

I figured you would have an issue with that.

Now your work install probably won`t boot either.

This may help.

AHCI : Enable in Windows 7 / Vista

But if you think the drive is bad, then there`s only 1 thing to do

 

[DaralenManta]

So I made those registry changes, then power-cycled and changed my SATA settings from RAID to AHCI again. Unfortunately I was still getting BSODs.

Reading through that and the "Information" at the bottom prompted me to check my storage controller driver though and sure enough, it was 8 something and the latest is 12 something.

Intel(R) Mobile Express Chipset SATA RAID Controller

After updating the driver, my personal drive boots just fine after multiple tests.

Out of curiosity, I tried booting in AHCI again after the driver update and once again received BSODs. I wonder if I can find the name of the storage controller that would be installed if I had AHCI enabled from install and then install that controller as well...
I think it might be helpful to try to use AHCI still as it looks like it will enable some features on my SSDs. I'll keep poking at it, but in the meantime I'll call this issue resolved.

Thanks for the help.