On Tuesday Windows 10 installed an update. On Wednesday when I booted my laptop it loaded Windows normally and as it was starting up the usual background processes a pop-up appeared letting me know that the Samsung Magician app failed (my understanding is that app manages the SSD). Next thing I know the computer crashes. Now, no matter whether I boot normally or in safe mode, when I log onto Windows I get a black screen with an arrow (that's responsive). I can bring up the Task Manager. It appears only to boot using the ROM version of Windows (I hope I'm explaining that right). I've tried using a USB boot with the recovery software, but no luck there either - same results.
In the laptop BIOS there is no hard disk drive available to boot from; it just doesn't see the Samsung SSD at all. I've tried the usual: repairing the startup, running a chkdsk on the drive, restoring it to a previous restore point before it all went haywire...but nothing changes. The odd thing is if I'm at the command prompt I can look at the SSD, navigate around in it, etc. I've run diagnostics on it and the results are that everything is good. How can I access the drive via the command prompt, yet the BIOS doesn't see it? Could a Windows update have broken something? Is my drive broken in some way that the diagnostics missed? I'm at a complete loss of what to do next.
I'm trying to implement solutions from least severe to most severe. At the more severe end of things would be to buy a new SSD. (Most severe is buying a new laptop. Yikes!) Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Laptop: HP Envy 15t-j100
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO
In the laptop BIOS there is no hard disk drive available to boot from; it just doesn't see the Samsung SSD at all. I've tried the usual: repairing the startup, running a chkdsk on the drive, restoring it to a previous restore point before it all went haywire...but nothing changes. The odd thing is if I'm at the command prompt I can look at the SSD, navigate around in it, etc. I've run diagnostics on it and the results are that everything is good. How can I access the drive via the command prompt, yet the BIOS doesn't see it? Could a Windows update have broken something? Is my drive broken in some way that the diagnostics missed? I'm at a complete loss of what to do next.
I'm trying to implement solutions from least severe to most severe. At the more severe end of things would be to buy a new SSD. (Most severe is buying a new laptop. Yikes!) Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Laptop: HP Envy 15t-j100
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO