NZFF

Just as things were going well, I had a snag and its got me beat.

Background: I downloaded a big update for IL2 and installed it on an external drive, no problem just slow.
When I went to start the sim, Windows Defender gave the standard warning about the firewall ....and that's where it stopped....frozen, not even the mouse would work.
Ctrl Alt delete was the same. Pushed the re-boot button to be greeted by a black screen with "operating system not found" ....did it again and got "boot-manger missing, use ctrl alt delete to restart" which I did several times....nothing
I've fired up the old rig to do some Google searching....lots of stuff, much of which points to the Windows set disc...which I don't have.

Do you think there was something in that setup(IL2) that the computer is trying to boot up with?
The delete key will give me access to the Bios screen....but that makes me nervous.

I have 5 external drives hooked up to the machine...too many? I remember Adam mentioning something about doing a partition on the C drive at the outset....which I forgot in my excited state.
Should I try starting it again without that drive connected? or wait until Wednesday and take our little IT guy at work a gift along with the computer?

This pisses me off ...its something I've done...or haven't, and should have.
It's been a nasty and nice circle for me lately .....I just want to get this new machine 100% up and running(so close now).
...but work is just balls out busy, can't wait to get home and do stuff on it, but when I do, I'm so bloody tired. I thought 4 days off would solve the problem...but there you go.

Sorry for the waffle, any assistance will be greatly appreciated....not the end of the world, just annoying.

Cheers Team

long shot .. but i dont spose you forgot to unplug a USB stick or maybe an external drive that had installer stuff on it? sounds like the BIOS is trying to boot of something other than your main C drive, could be the boot priority in the BIOS selecting that drive first, start w making sure nothing plugged in and restart w the power button again?

Cheers deeknow, I'll be investigating more today....will keep you posted.

Agreed with Deeknow. Many times in the past when I worked in the support area a machine suddenly not booting like this was typically one of two things; main hard disk failure or corruption, or someone had a floppy / cd / dvd/ usb connected and the BIOS order meant the PC was trying to load that first. In a business setting could also be 'boot from network', but you don't tend to see that in a home setting often.

Remove all those other disks and any USB thumb drives and CD/DVD if you have one in there, perhaps even a network cable if connected (just in case) and reboot from cold and see what happens. If it is one of those external devices or DC/DVD the machine should boot. If not, could be that the main disk is failed, or has the boot information overwritten which is preventing boot.

Now, I've not had to troubleshoot anything newer that Win7, but if you have your old machine around you should be able to download the Win10 on Win11 setup media either as an ISO or you can prep a (new) USB key. This, frankly, would be a good idea in any case. Armed with said key, you can then go about repairing your boot of you disk (as long as the disk is still good). Honestly, not actually sure how to do that these days but Google is your friend!

With luck, the above will get you to repair the problem and get going again. With slightly worse luck the Win1o/111 setup key will allow a complete rebuild. Even worse luck you could need a new HDD. I have an older 1TB rust spinner I'm trying to get rid of on FB market place if you need an urgent replacement. Obviously not an SSD and not the fastest, but could get you sorted.

Thanks very much ...good information. Will keep you posted as well....thanks again. to you and deeknow.

First of all. thanks again for the suggestions about this problem.
No good news I'm afraid.....
I finally got the courage to fire up the machine again with everything unplugged. The start was fast..no beeps (if that still happens)
This time I got a black screen with a flashing white rectangle...and that's it. I had a Google and found that it is 99% certain that the hard drive has died (I hope its not)
Tried again, holding down the Delete key... but nothing, I have downloaded from Microsoft the Windows 11 setup media stuff, as per Jeff's input but haven't tried it.

I'm not going to proceed any further with this today, and have the machine already for the IT guy at work. I have a habit of getting ahead of instructions and just compounding the problem, so I'll leave it to the expert (who looks about 15 or so) but, for a few IPA's is happy to help.

So, I've moved all the external drives back to the old machine.....poor old thing must be wondering what the hell is going on.
I've been going over and over what I did before the problem, and I end up in the same place...Windows Defender asks to allow the IL2 setup to proceed, and then the crash. That drive was put back on the old machine, and the only different thing was it wanted to scan the drive for faults...I have flown and posted screens from there since.

But as I said I'll leave it to the kid, will keep you posted.... back to 9-12 fps on Warthunder

Thanks for your patience.

Good luck mate, Im sure the teenager will sort it out quicker than us old crusties

PS on a related note I swapped a 500GB SSD for a 1TB on the weekend to make more room for MSFS and used CloneZilla to do a low level duplication of the game drive, can defo reccommend it as a freebie tool, easy to use too, can also be used to duplicate the OS drive and even partition to partition from one drive to another

https://clonezilla.org/

Thanks deeknow....gave it to the guy this morning. Went to check on him later this afternoon, but he and the computer were gone ...dont want to bother him so Ill wait until the morning ...hope he comes back.

Splitpin wrote:gave it to the guy this morning. Went to check on him later this afternoon, but he and the computer were gone ...

they've been sucked into an alternate IT universe !!?!?!?!?

Hmmm .... bugger!

I'd agree that, for some reason, the BIOS is looking for a startup/OS on one of your external drives (but why?). Checking the startup order in BIOS is the only way to find out.

I think the problem may have been too many USB drives overloading the the USB rail - and maybe dropping the voltage for all of them. *Maybe* it even dropped the voltage to the SATA drive (C) that has Windows on it - and corrupted it <?>. Also - have you checked the [physical] connections to that SSD drive? They may have come loose.

I hope your IT chappie manages to sort it out!

Thanks Adam..... so do I. Will let know when I find out.

Sorry I haven't updated this ...but there isn't anything to update. He didn't come back, so....I'm hoping he turns up tomorrow...with the computer.
But as we speak, the kid has done a runner with my rig. Will keep you posted.

Splitpin wrote:But as we speak, the kid has done a runner with my rig. Will keep you posted.

I'm hoping you're joking! Is this your usual IT chappie?

Adam, yes it is....and he is great. At the moment he's formatting about 300 new devices for the students, which I'm sure will be taking up a bit of his time.

Splitpin wrote:Adam, yes it is....and he is great. At the moment he's formatting about 300 new devices for the students, which I'm sure will be taking up a bit of his time.

Phew!

Caught up with the IT guy today....and the computer thank goodness.
I'm told the computer is fine, but the C drive thinks it's a Fridge.....no real explanation as to why yet.
Will be buying a new one tomorrow.
Watch this space.

Dont watch anymore...all sorted with help from you all and Adam

I am wondering if M$ "updates" have anything to do with this stuff.
After years of faithful service, we had two separate WIN10 C:\ drive failures in a week.

Charl wrote:I am wondering if M$ "updates" have anything to do with this stuff.
After years of faithful service, we had two separate WIN10 C:\ drive failures in a week.

Charl, one of the reasons I am working towards switching to Linux and getting rid of MS and all its works and pomps, is to avoid that sort of collateral damage. A lot of things seem to have been changed/removed/added to Win 10 which now stop other non-MS softwares from working, although apparently if you can install Win 11 all will be well - you just need to buy a new computer to run it.

You'd remember Apple purposely crippled their older machines with "Updates" to spur sales of new machines.
I'd believe anything to be honest, including WIN 10 boxes falling over to feed the Wintel juggernaut.
Good luck with the Linux...