Stuck in a boot loop, need help

[Jezza819]

I've had this new Windows 11 computer since June. A couple of weeks ago it got locked into this boot screen and nothing I did would get it out unless I restarted it. Now today I came home from work to find it back on this screen. But this time restarting it doesn't help. It just goes back to this screen. I've seen some Youtube videos that say to try and get into the settings at startup but the Del key doesn't get into them. So now I'm stuck and needing some help. This is the screen I'm stuck on.

 

[TeamCZRRacing]

I've had this new Windows 11 computer since June. A couple of weeks ago it got locked into this boot screen and nothing I did would get it out unless I restarted it. Now today I came home from work to find it back on this screen. But this time restarting it doesn't help. It just goes back to this screen. I've seen some Youtube videos that say to try and get into the settings at startup but the Del key doesn't get into them. So now I'm stuck and needing some help. This is the screen I'm stuck on.

View attachment 1479555

This is your BIOS, which is where you would go anyway if pressing the DEL key worked. The computer has booted here because it's detected a fault in the hardware somewhere and decided to make it easy on you and get you to where you can hopefully fix it.

My first instinct would be to figure out why no drives are showing up. Windows 11 has had an issue for a while now where solid-state storage drives with controllers from a specific manufacturer would basically unmount while in operation, most often while facing large data transfers (over 50 GB), and this could include your boot drive. This situation would typically resolve itself, but you not having any storage drives detected in the BIOS definitely does not bode well.

 

[Tornado]

Your boot manager is screwed. Grab a Windows USB install key and see what it says is there.

 

[Jezza819]

This is your BIOS, which is where you would go anyway if pressing the DEL key worked. The computer has booted here because it's detected a fault in the hardware somewhere and decided to make it easy on you and get you to where you can hopefully fix it.

My first instinct would be to figure out why no drives are showing up. Windows 11 has had an issue for a while now where SATA drives with controllers from a specific manufacturer would basically unmount while in operation, most often while facing large data transfers (over 50 GB), and this could include your boot drive. This situation would typically resolve itself, but you not having any storage drives detected in the BIOS definitely does not bode well.

Your boot manager is screwed. Grab a Windows USB install key and see what it says is there.

I'm almost totally clueless when it comes to computer stuff especially with potential hardware issues. The thing is still under warranty and the shop that built it for me is less than 2 miles away from where I live. However they don't come to your home and it's a pain in the neck to disconnect everything and haul it down there for them to fix.

 

[Skinny McLean]

I'm almost totally clueless when it comes to computer stuff especially with potential hardware issues. The thing is still under warranty and the shop that built it for me is less than 2 miles away from where I live. However they don't come to your home and it's a pain in the neck to disconnect everything and haul it down there for them to fix.

On the other hand the brand new computer hasn't worked properly for the last two weeks. And if they build PCs for a living they ought to have the necessary peripherals in the shop so you'd only need to bring the main box down there. Have you tried contacting them?

 

[Jezza819]

On the other hand the brand new computer hasn't worked properly for the last two weeks. And if they build PCs for a living they ought to have the necessary peripherals in the shop so you'd only need to bring the main box down there. Have you tried contacting them?

Not yet. Since it happened last night after I got home from work I was going to try and contact them when I go home for lunch today.

 

[Flex0r]

As its still under warranty, as stated just contact the shop.

 

[Jezza819]

As its still under warranty, as stated just contact the shop.

I did contact the shop but the warranty was only 30 days on the parts and 14 days on the labor. So it's going to cost me for them to look at it but I don't think I have a choice unless I might can find someone independent that does house calls.

 

[Jezza819]

Got the call back from the repair shop today and I guess it was the bad news I was hoping to avoid. Total hard drive failure to the point that they cannot try to retrieve the data locally. It's going to have to be shipped off to a third party in Montana I believe to see what they can recover. It's going to cast at minimum $800 and can run as high as $2000. I didn't have that much stuff on there. I would like to have my pictures and PDF files back.

I just told them to put in another new one even though I have to pay for it. That way I get the computer back as soon as possible. It's going to cost me about $300 for the new one.

 

[Exorcet]

Were you keeping your PC update to date? While it sounds like good advice, Microsoft is Microsoft:

Latest Windows 11 security patch might be breaking SSDs under heavy workloads — Phison investigating reports of disappearing drives following file transfers, including some that cannot be recovered after a reboot

Some say continuous transfers exceeding 50GB can cause drives to vanish from the OS

www.tomshardware.com

Your drive may have been wiped because of that update. You should try to confirm with the shop if you can, and also avoid updating windows until the issue is fixed if this is the cause.

I have disabled automatic updates on Window's PC for years now and only manually update after researching and verifying an update's integrity:

How to Pause Windows Update for 100 Years

3 steps to pause updates for 100 years on Windows 11

www.wisecleaner.com

Keep in mind that not updating may leave you vulnerable to new viruses or other issues, so you don't want to put off updating forever, but Microsoft's willingness to push untested updates to users' PC's is basically just as bad, as you may have experienced.

 

[Jezza819]

Were you keeping your PC update to date? While it sounds like good advice, Microsoft is Microsoft:

Latest Windows 11 security patch might be breaking SSDs under heavy workloads — Phison investigating reports of disappearing drives following file transfers, including some that cannot be recovered after a reboot

Some say continuous transfers exceeding 50GB can cause drives to vanish from the OS

www.tomshardware.com

Your drive may have been wiped because of that update. You should try to confirm with the shop if you can, and also avoid updating windows until the issue is fixed if this is the cause.

I have disabled automatic updates on Window's PC for years now and only manually update after researching and verifying an update's integrity:

How to Pause Windows Update for 100 Years

3 steps to pause updates for 100 years on Windows 11

www.wisecleaner.com

Keep in mind that not updating may leave you vulnerable to new viruses or other issues, so you don't want to put off updating forever, but Microsoft's willingness to push untested updates to users' PC's is basically just as bad, as you may have experienced.

I did ask them that when I originally took it in and when they called me back to tell me the bad news I asked again if that was a possibility and they said they didn't think it caused it. But of course that is pure speculation at this point.

The other hard lesson learned here is to have a backup which, I'm ashamed to admit, is something I have never done. It's not that I didn't think something like this could never happen to me it's just that I didn't really know how to do it or what to do it to. If I can get some of the files, pictures, etc. back from the damaged drive I will definitely have a backup from now on.

 

[Exorcet]

The other hard lesson learned here is to have a backup which, I'm ashamed to admit, is something I have never done.

Absolutely.

Adding to my points from the other thread:

Post in thread 'Getting a new PC tomorrow, I'm a little nervous'

Jun 15, 2025

I'm a bit late to this thread, but one thing that I highly recommend for all PC users is some kind of external drive for backup files. This is extremely useful for just keeping things safe and for transferring files.

Spoiler: Backup Drive info

There are two primary form factors, a full size drive or a USB drive:

Example full size - 4TB, go down to 1-2 TB if you only have small files:

https://www.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/wd-my-passport-usb-3-0-hdd?sku=WDBPKJ0040BBK-WESN

USB drive - This one is 512 GB, and they don't typically go into TB size, but 128-512 GB is pretty useful...

• Exorcet

you can also consider online backups like Dropbox (though I am more selective with what I send to online/cloud storage). Ideally you'd want multiple backups.

 

[Jezza819]

Well Monday I got the phone call that I have been dreading. The people they sent the damaged hard drive to were unable to get anything off of it. I had the option of paying $25 to have it shipped back to me or have them dispose of it and I chose to just let them dispose of it. But now I think I should have had it returned to let someone else take a shot at it.

So now I have to download all of the photos and videos I have on my phone to the PC as that is all I have left then do this backup. Since I've never done a backup, do I just get an external hard drive and back it up to that?

 

[DG_Silva]

That's a pain - I've had it happen a few times thanks to thunderstorms/the other half causing my PC to lose power without being shut down and making the discs unrecoverable.

Pretty much, you can copy and paste the files to the external drive. After you've done this, Windows has a Backup & Restore function which can schedule it as often as you like (as long as the drive is attached), or there's external software such as Paragon which can do incremental backups, only adding new files or replacing files as they are edited, rather than total backups.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Anything super important that you don't want to lose should also have a 2nd backup.

 

[Jezza819]

Anything super important that you don't want to lose should also have a 2nd backup.

I found one little positive thing this weekend. I went to the Petite Le Mans at Road Atlanta back in 2018 or 2019 I can't remember which and I took a lot of photos with my digital camera. I wondered if after I downloaded them to the old PC back then, did I erase the memory card? I haven't had the camera out since then so I got it down, recharged the battery, powered it on and all of those pictures are still there. However somehow I have lost the usb cable for it so I had to order a new one. I tried downloading the camera's manufacturer software but I keep getting an error message saying I need an internet connection to do that but I'm on the internet. Unless it's saying my VPN is interfering with it.

 

[Omnis]

I've had this new Windows 11 computer since June. A couple of weeks ago it got locked into this boot screen and nothing I did would get it out unless I restarted it. Now today I came home from work to find it back on this screen. But this time restarting it doesn't help. It just goes back to this screen. I've seen some Youtube videos that say to try and get into the settings at startup but the Del key doesn't get into them. So now I'm stuck and needing some help. This is the screen I'm stuck on.

View attachment 1479555

This is what's called a UEFI bios screen. Look at your storage on the lower right. It says Not Present on any of your SATA inputs. Was it actually a hard disk drive, or a solid state drive?

This is an HDD:

These are SSDs:

The SSD on the left plugs into what's called an M2 slot on your motherboard, and the others connect via SATA. If you go into your bios by hitting Del as you power up, you should get to that UEFI screen again, and you should see the drive in that list on the right. Make sure your drives are in UEFI mode, which is something selectable from the storage menu in your bios. The row of icons at the bottom is how MSI displays your computer's boot priority. Make sure the drive that has windows is at the front of the list. If windows won't boot and you get stuck like this ever again, you need to have a rescue USB handy. The USB drive should be recognized by the bios and you'll have to make it top of the boot priority list in your UEFI menu so that it breaks the boot loop and boots windows from the USB drive on the next startup. From there, you'll be able to run disk manager in Windows or some other utility to check if your drive indeed failed.

Most SSD memory chips can be read if the controller dies or something else doesn't work with them. HDD platters should also be readable if the motor/bearing fails. You'll know if it starts making horrible screeching noises or just doesn't sound like it's spinning/humming along anymore.

Sorry to hear about your trouble with the recovery company. Never send your drives out unless you have exhausted all other options. If you have any sensitive data on any disk drives, always make sure you have it back in hand so that you can witness its destruction. If you ever give your drive to anyone, take a hardened punch or scribe and scratch your initials or some kind of identifying marking into the top plate corner and write on the label in permanent marker so you know you got the right one back.

 

[Jezza819]

This is what's called a UEFI bios screen. Look at your storage on the lower right. It says Not Present on any of your SATA inputs. Was it actually a hard disk drive, or a solid state drive?

This is an HDD:
View attachment 1485433

These are SSDs:

View attachment 1485434 View attachment 1485435


The SSD on the left plugs into what's called an M2 slot on your motherboard, and the others connect via SATA. If you go into your bios by hitting Del as you power up, you should get to that UEFI screen again, and you should see the drive in that list on the right. Make sure your drives are in UEFI mode, which is something selectable from the storage menu in your bios. The row of icons at the bottom is how MSI displays your computer's boot priority. Make sure the drive that has windows is at the front of the list. If windows won't boot and you get stuck like this ever again, you need to have a rescue USB handy. The USB drive should be recognized by the bios and you'll have to make it top of the boot priority list in your UEFI menu so that it breaks the boot loop and boots windows from the USB drive on the next startup. From there, you'll be able to run disk manager in Windows or some other utility to check if your drive indeed failed.

Most SSD memory chips can be read if the controller dies or something else doesn't work with them. HDD platters should also be readable if the motor/bearing fails. You'll know if it starts making horrible screeching noises or just doesn't sound like it's spinning/humming along anymore.

Sorry to hear about your trouble with the recovery company. Never send your drives out unless you have exhausted all other options. If you have any sensitive data on any disk drives, always make sure you have it back in hand so that you can witness its destruction. If you ever give your drive to anyone, take a hardened punch or scribe and scratch your initials or some kind of identifying marking into the top plate corner and write on the label in permanent marker so you know you got the right one back.

I'm pretty sure it was a SSD.