Windows 10 wiped everything from my new build! 6950X, 950 PRO NVMe, Asus X99 Deluxe II

kanter

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Hello

Hoping for some advice here. Basically does it sound like the hardware has anything to do to blame here at all? ...if so its got to go!

Just made a new build my best spec ever:

i7 6950X
64GB Corsair LED Memory
ASUS X-99-DELUXE II mobo
Samsung 950 Pro 512 NVMe

Fresh Win10 install from USB 3.1 Drive

Installed all the drivers for the mobo and my GTX 970, and all mobo apps

Installed some other stuff, inc steam and couple games

Tested overclocking capabilities, inc XMP capabilities, all running fine last couple days.

Today all running fine, I switched off and flicked the XMP switch to on on the mobo, I have done this before, I also connected an older 2TB disk that did not have Windows installed.

Next Windows 10 hangs every time, no matter what I do it hangs, XMP switch off or on

I run the startup repair tool

When Windows comes back on apart from Chrome and ASUS USB driver there is nothing left installed.

Windows 10 is not even registered again!

Windows runs fine again now, but nothing left

Any ideas what could have caused such a mess so quickly? Is this just Windows 10 itself or do you think any of my hardware is to blame ie my mobo as I will be returning if so.

Samsung magician states the drive is fine but the data written over the lifespan has doubled to 250GB (there is only 125 used on the drive as of yet)

Any ideas on this would be great

Thanks
 
By running the "repair" tool you accidentally deleted everything. Most likely your overclocking related activities screwed up your BIOS settings and made the Windows boot not work as intended (easy to fix by just loading the boot menu and selecting your drive)
 

kanter

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So the startup repair tool has the ability to delete all/most your programs? Scary!

And I was still booting to the Asus/Windows 10 login menu, where it would then hang, so I was assuming it was booting just fine to the SSD in boot priority as this was the only drive with Windows on it - the 2TB Seagate was just a bunch of files

Thanks

 
So whats my take on this.

You say that there is a switch on the motherboard to change over to xmp memory mode.
I would of thought it was more like auto detection of the best settings for the memory modules.

There fore before the system reaches the point of trying to boot from the main hard drive, or ssd drive that contains windows I would check in the bios.

That any option to enable Xmp memory mode is in fact enabled.
I would also check that the memory of the system and the settings in the section for memory detection in relation to speed, memory timings, and the voltage set are correct, including that the memory is running under a selected XMP profile.

Buy comparing that information with the information sticker of a actual memory module for starters.

For me it is almost like that when you are doing a system repair with the startup repair tool.
what windows is doing, is reverting to a backup and restore point to fix the problem.

So when you install windows 10, and all of the drivers from the provided motherboard dvd disk, and the video drivers for the GTX 970 card plus any control software ect.

Manually create a backup and restore point through windows 10.

We we now deal with the causes of why the system is likely hanging.

You say you connected the Old 2 Tb hard drive, and i`m willing to bet that halfway through windows 10 when loading the OS the loading circular logo displayed when doing so the animation simply stops.

Now if the 2Tb drive at any point was used in another system.
Was the drive, and the drive letter assigned to it C:

If is, or was, or used as a prior boot device that held a working os at any point.
It is why windows hangs or locks up when mid loading the windows 10 os from the ssd drive.

Because two storage devices with the same drive letter assignment cannot co exist in a windows os.
Including when the OS is trying to load.

This rule applies to all drives fitted to the system where a drive letter, or assignment letter for a storage device connected to the same system cannot be duplicated or be the same.

Example : SSD drive with windows 10 installed C:
: 2Tb hard drive then connected also assigned as C:
 


Ability? Yes, the "repair" tool has several modes of operation including full reinstall. Scary? Absolutely not, unless you're too lazy to actually read what you are clicking.

If you had the USB stuck in the computer, that will likely override the rest
 

kanter

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I definitely wasn't too lazy to read, this mode said only "Repair problems with startup" - there were other options that mentioned reinstalling the OS which I intentionally avoided

USB was not in computer at the time
 

kanter

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Thanks, a very thorough response to this!

The XMP switch. All this does is set the memory to it's stated speed on the box, so for example mine sets to 3200MHz

I can confirm from testing that this switch does work as stated and change the memory speed and timings in accordance with their spec.

The 2TB drive was never used as a C drive, although it was used as part of a dynamic Windows 7 RAID1 drive in the past and then removed from that, so may be best for me to connect with a dock and totally format I think!

It only dawned on me after the startup repair that I had connected this drive at the same time as flicking the XMP auto select switch.

Thanks for the advice, so you think the new hardware is likely fine?






 

kanter

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Yeah I really should have at least looked at the boot menu... I just assumed it was already booting into Windows 10 as the spinning balls came on, daft of me

 

kanter

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Shaun O would you say this is likely not a hardware fault at this early stage, my guess is its not but Windows corrupting so easily worries me

I am about to install my audio stuff, all the specific plugins etc takes about a week to do so it's really not fun if this happens too again!