PCIE SSD Won't boot -Missing MBR error.

riniks92

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The model of my motherboard is infamously known to have issues with usb ports malfunctioning.
Sometimes I'd have this little issue where some or all of the usb peripheral devices ie. mouse, keyboard would seize to perform upon waking up the computer after I had sent it to sleep when also having my midi keyboard powered on and plugged.
A simple restart used to do the trick except once when it took a few to get the mouse and keyboard working again.
It happened again and now I'm greeted with the cursed ''missing MBR'' error.

I'm not sure whether the MBR file got corrupted by restarting the pc at the wrong time or the usb hub got zapped and reset bios settings needed for the PCIE SSD to be bootable. I know i'm taking shoots in the dark here.
I've attempted the commonly suggested method of launching the automatic startup fix as well as manually entering cmds from a bootable windows 10 flash drive to no avail.
The cmd exec promt window didn't recognize the drive in question nor did Partition assistant.
However it does show up in the windows installation screen but as if it would have been formatted, being 100 percent free space. Is the reading reliable or could it be that it's just that some partition table of sorts can't access written files?
I've been messing around changing boot mode settings in BIOS without knowing really what I'm doing causing various freezes occurring before and after MB bios splash screen. Had to clear cmos a couple of times.

Here I come again humbly asking for an expert advice I'd greatly appreciate to help solve my troubles of the silicone era. =)
Am ready to provide any additional details if necessary.



Primary Storage - Plextror M8Pe (y)
OS - Windows 10 LTSB enterprise N x64
Motherboard - Gigabyte z77x-ud3h rev.1.1 BIOS ver. F18

Motherboard settings:
csm support - Always
fxe boot option controls - UEFI and legacy
storage boot option control - Legacy only
display boot option control - Legacy only
other pci devices rch priority - UEFI oprom
network stack - disabled
 

Colif

Win 11 Master
Moderator
where did you get windows 10 from?

Windows 10 LTSB enterprise N x64 is not a version individuals can normally get, its more for Corporate business and LTSB in particular is only upgraded once a year and isn't an ideal version of windows for individuals.

You probably need the boot method to be Legacy as it matches the MBR drive format.

can you test hdd in another PC and see if it shows up as RAW. As that would explain why win 10 sees it as blank
 

riniks92

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LTSB enterprise N is a solution to rid the bloated spyware side of the current computer experience. I take it I can manually update if necessary.

Which setting of the ones I listed above could I try switching to Legacy? I might attempt to do it blindly again, it's gonna freeze bios if I mess up and will need to clear cmos which is a little bit of a hassle. Maybe the fact that it freezes instead of simply failing to recognize storage drives is relevant and could help point to the source of the issue?

It could take a while till I get a hold of someone willing to lend their PC to check the drive.

The external bootable utilities I mentioned failed to show the drive apart from the installation dialogue where I'm asked to pick the partition I want the OS to be installed in nor does it show up on my secondary OS(win7) (doesn't really mean anything as it didn't even when the primary OS was running fine.)
Tried to install drivers for the SSD on the secondary OS to see/access the files to recover if I try to install win10 on the ''blank'' primary drive.
I get an error saying something around ''the device is not present''.
The manufacturer(Plextor) states compatibility with win8 and win10 but I've seen people having win7 installed on it.

I could install win10 on my current storage drive or overwrite the second OS and see if I can install the drivers and access the files on the primary drive.
Unfortunately they are both filled with tons of data I don't really want to lose.
I hope it's possible I can salvage the Primary OS intact. I'll try to clear up some space to for a partition while I'll attempt more befitting solutions.
 

riniks92

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Turns out the sdd is split into two partitions and one of them is accessible through windows diagnostics explorer tool.
It contains all kinds of boot logs that could possibly lead to the answer. I copied the contents to an external media but for some reason some of the files are missing/not showing even though I made sure all were copied, I have set explorer settings to show hidden files and folders.

Pics in a bit
 

riniks92

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