Hello all,

On Windows 10 21H2. We moved the other day, and hooking up my computer initially seemed to show that everything was fine with it. This morning, however, I got one of those Windows boot errors, 0xc000000e, with the explanation "A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed".

I googled around a bit and most solutions say to use Windows' automatic repair to fix it. I have an old Windows Installation USB leying around, but I'll create a new one using another computer so that I have one that holds a more recent Windows version. Until that is done, I decided to look into the BIOS to see if I could find any clues there. In the boot order screen, I didn't seem to see the C:/ drive however... I have 2 1TB EVOs and a 2TB EVO, plus a 2TB spinning disk drive, besides the 500GB NVMe-connected drive that functions as C. So, I'm afraid that the drive itself has an issue. And being an NVMe with M.2 connector, it means it's basically attached straight to the board. Which ahs led me to wonder if the drive itself, or the port, was damaged during the move.

Now, a year ago I moved from New York to San Francisco. I took the computer apart and put it back together, and it seemed to be fine, except one a month or so I get a hardware error of the sorts you'd sometimes get with an unstable OC. However, the OC has always worked before the move, and gradually dialing down the OC has never helped. So I've always wondered if the motherboard wasn't damaged during the move.

So, I wonder what the best course of action is.
1) Try automatic repair once the new installation media USB is ready
2) What would be the next step in trouble shooting this, if the automatic repair doesn't work, or if this is actually a hardware issue?

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Best,
Benjamin

Little bit sad that I didn't get any responses to this, but tht's okay. I went ahead and opened up the computer, and popped the boot drive into the other M.2 NVMe slot on the motherboard. I had already purchased a new M.2 NVMe 970 Evo just in case the harddrive was the issue, and popped it into the original M.2 slot. Upon booting the computer, the old 960 was not registered in the UEFI, but the new 970 was. Thus it seems pretty clear that the 960 suddenly died. No idea how that happened, and of course manufacturer warranty expired two months ago.

I'm going to try and see what can still be recovered of the 960, though the important stuff mostly wasn't stored on that drive and I backed up the more essential data, so I'm probably okay without it. But it was a very expensive drive so I'm kind of annoyed that it died in what seems too short a time... It was about 3 years old I believe.

My question for you guys would be what the best course of action is. I'm wondering if I should just go ahead and install Windows on my new hard drive. On the other hand, given the insane amount of work ahead of me of rebuilding a system that had evolved over 3 years, I wonder if I should take the opportunity to upgrade some components. In light of MSFS, I'm considering upgrading the motherboard and CPU to 11th gen-compatible stuff, moving up to an i7. I would then pair that with a liquid CPU cooler rather than the huge fan I have now, mostly because this fan takes a crazy amount of space in the case and every time I need to access RAM and stuff I need to go through a whole journey to get the CPU fan out first. Unfortunately a new graphics card will not be possible given the prices, but I suspect that the i7 will give me a nice bump in performance. Still, a new motherboard, CPU and cooler will probably have a 1000$+ price tag...

Any thoughts? What would you guys do?

Sorry Ben, I don't remember seeing this post. You can also try "sfc /scannow" (without quotes), run this as an Admin. You may also want to check your BIOS battery, don't know how old that is on your MB. Have you tried clearing your BIOS (procedure depends on your manufacturer). What happens if you move the questionable drive to another port (if you have one)? Do you have any backups? 

I would try to install Windows just to see what happens. Shouldn't take too long. Also, if you decide on new equipment, you may be interested in this: 

 

P.

Edited July 5, 20214 yr by pgde

Hey there, thanks for your response!

So yes, I popped the offending drive into my other M.2 slot (M.2_2), and it was not recognized in that slot either. Meanwhile, I popped a new drive into M.2_1 (where the offending drive was previously connected) and this drive was recognized okay. Hence it seems to me the drive is the problem...

I never replaced the BIOS battery, what would happen if it's too old?

To run scannow, wouldn't I need to be able to boot into something first?

I will add that there is a USB part that also seems to be giving me issues.. I connect a HUB with some RGB lights to it, and I have my keyboard then connected to this hub. The lights in the hub are ON but the keyboard doesn't seem to work through the hub. If I plug it into another port, the keyboard also works. It seems to me there is an issue with that USB port as well, though I'm not sure why it would power the hub but not transmit any keystrokes of the keyboard? Hope this makes any sense...

Thanks for the link, I'll check that out as well.

Benjamin,

Do you have a recent system image of your original C drive? If you do you could boot from a windows install disk/USB drive/USB stick, go into the troubleshooting options and restore from system image to your new drive. Then set it as the boot device in BIOS and you will be back in business.

Hello Benjamin,

 

I think I had a very similar issue to you, I think mine arose from a windows update, but my D drive (M2) with prepar3d on disappeared and i also could not access the bios.

 

When trying to load I also got the BSOD with a boot drive cannot be accessed.

 

I reflashed the bios which got me back in and my drive was there so breathed a sigh of releief but still the BSOD and windows trying automatic repair, failing and giving me the BSOD Boot drive cannot be accessed.

 

I had to reinstall Windows 10 but it worked...lost a lot of stuff on the C drive but nothing that cannot be replaced..

 

I still have no idea what caused it. Purely a flight sim PC

 

Dave