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Daily BSODs, now can't format a new HD because of BSODs

1K views 14 replies 3 participants last post by  Couriant 
#1 ·
My Windows 7 PC has been BSODing 1-2 times daily, completely at random, for probably 2 months at this point. It sometimes does it when I'm AFK even.

For a long time, all of the errors were the exact same.

STOP ox0000001E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000005, 0XFFFFF8003067734, 0X0000000000000000.0 X000007FFFFFF0000)

However I have also gotten SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

STOP: 0x0000003B (0x00000000C0000005, 0xFFFFF80003028734, 0xFFFFF88011667470.0 X0000000000000000)

Currently, my C: drive is low on space (13GB gb left) . In effort to give my PC a chance to redeem itself before resigning myself to getting a new one, I decided to attempt to see if it would fix things to try to install Windows anew on an unused, larger SSD that I bought some time ago but never got round to installing things on.

However, after some trouble getting it to show up in the first place, attempts to format the new disk or assign it a name cause an immediate BSOD:

IRQL_GT_ZERO_AT_SYSTEM_SERVICE

0X0000004A (0X0000000077CB138A, 0X0000000000002, 0X000000XFFFFF880107AFB60)

It has done this three times, every time I try to format it. Obviously, I can't even begin to install windows on the new drive (which was also giving me trouble because I couldn't get the mouse to work during the install from DVD) and I shudder to think how much all these BSODs during attempted formats might be playing havoc with the thing.

Unfortunately, I cannot supply any dump files, I'm not sure why, but when I change it to do a small memory dump it says:

'Windows might not be able to record details that could help identify system errors because your current paging file is disabled or less than 1 megabytes. Click OK to return to the Virtual memory settings window, enable the paging file, and set the size to a value over 1 megabytes'.

This, however, is nonsense, as I have 'system managed' virtual memory on two different hard drives.

There is also nothing in the event log except a record that my PC shut down unexpectedly

I have tested my PC's memory with Memtest and it did not find any issues.

I feel that since I can't even format this new drive, my PC is probably a goner, but has anyone any insight into what is causing these weird problems?

The new HD I was trying to install is a Crucial MX500 550gb SSD

OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 60 Stepping 3
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 8148 Mb
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660, -2048 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 237 GB (13 GB Free); M: 3725 GB (141 GB Free);
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., Z87-D3HP-CF
Antivirus: AVG Antivirus, Enabled and Updated
 
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#2 ·
Try disconnecting the 2 hard drives' power cables and just have the SSD and the DVD drives connected then boot to the Windows install DVD and see how that goes, you should be able to install to the SSD without formatting it, the install will do it automatically.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for this. I tried this before and failed, decided to try it again there, still unfortunately doesn't work.

My mouse doesn't work in the Windows 7 install set up menus, but with my keyboard I was able to get through to where you are to choose where windows is installed. Unfortunately, the HD I want showed with a little warning saying 'Windows cannot be installed on Disk 1 Partition 0' or something like that.

The disk also showed up as 'System' rather than MSR or Primary like my other hard drives, and shows as 'RAW' rather than NTFS in disk management.

It was because of this that I was hoping formatting it in Windows first might fix it, but alas, I can't.
 
#5 ·
Thank you very much!

For some reason, with diskpart, I got as far as creating the partition but then got 'there is no volume selected, please select a volume and try again'.

However, that Aomei partition master program linked to by that article did actually allow me to format the volume WITHOUT BSODing, and the file system now shows as NTFS. I can put a file in it and windows doesn't tell me I need to format it any more. Finally, the new HD is behaving like it should!

However the Windows 7 disk still says 'Windows cannot be installed on this disk'.

If my mouse worked when I was in the Windows 7 installation, I could click on 'show details' and maybe it'd tell me something useful. As it is, it does not. I can only use my keyboard.

I gather this might have something to do with something about 'MBR' vs 'GPT'. Should attempt to convert my SSD to GPT? I note my current system disk is NOT GPT though.
 
#6 ·
Update: I decided to try and boot my BIOS in legacy mode to see if the problem was related to the new drive not being set as GPT. I discovered that booting from the CD in legacy mode allowed me to use the mouse.

Unfortunately, there is a problem unrelated to its being GPT or not GPT. Booted to legacy mode, with the use of the mouse, it informed me that 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computer's hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computer's bios menu.'
 
#7 ·
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#8 ·
Thank you for taking the time to even find the right page in the motherboard manual, unfortunately I have now created for myself a much bigger problem than I previously had.

I switched to IDE, used the cd, for the first time, I saw the partition I named, I could select it and begin to install Windows, great!

It took ages , but I was beginning to get hopeful.

Then- Installation cancelled, Windows has failed to load the offline locale. Any changes to your computer will not be saved.

Okay.. so, I then try to boot as normal.

Windows will not boot. I had made the mistake of trying to install Windows on the new drive with the old one still in it, and now this has somehow broken my main drive. Because of how often I’d been having to try, I’d gotten blasé about leaving the other drives connected. I know though, that I chose the right drive to install, it had a name and everything.

If I go into bios, the boot order is set to boot to my old drive first, bios still doesn’t even recognise the existence of my newer drive even when it’s plugged in.

I set the bios back to UEFI, and switched IDE back to AHCI and my old main C drive is now not booting, even when I disconnect the new drive.

When I try I get the message:

“Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

Insert your windows disc, click repair your computer, etc.

File /boot/BCD

Status 0xc00000f

An error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data

I’m scared to use the Windows CD to attempt to repair it when it was a failure of this disc that started the problem. Although this disc was completely unused as of yesterday I notice it's not in perfect condition.

Why would the failed install mess with the boot situation with my old drive? Is it the bios or something about the actual drive that’s been changed? The boot order appears correct.

AT this point, I frankly don’t care about my other drive, I just want things back the way they were, BSODs and all, at least it would boot.
 
#9 ·
Further to this, I am now noticing a weird thing about my previous configuration which likely figures into this. I WISH I remembered how it was before or screenshot this or something because I think something wrong with this could be feeding into the issue and I don’t remember how it should be.

I have previously noticed that my main drive shows up as having two partitions on it in disk management, though this is generally not obvious. One is 499mb and entitled system, however, for whatever reason, I don’t feel that I ever really perceived it as a separate partition in windows with its own letter. The C drive was always the C drive with my documents and programs etc on it. However, now if I use the windows disk to get to the command line and use diskpart, I see C as this smaller system 499mb partition, and Osdisk is now E.

But I don’t even think that these had separate letters before! And I never screenshotted it or recorded how it was or anything so .. I really don’t know how to put it back how it was. It wasn’t me who installed Windows on this computer, it was the people who made my PC.
 
#10 ·
Don't worry about the drive letters, they can change when you have booted with the DVD.

I would disconnect the SSD then boot from the DVD, click Next on the first screen then click on
Repair your computer - at bottom left of next screen
It should find your windows 7 but even if it doesn't click Next
Click on Startup Repair then Next

See Option Two here for screenshots :- https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html
 
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#11 ·
Oh wow, my PC is back (for now anyhow)! It fixed it! Thank you very much! So relieved to see it boot. Seems my Windows disk is good for something, even if it failed to install Windows.

So, I spent some time today trying to install Windows on my new SSD with no other hard drives attached, I'm starting to think that the SSD is, in fact, faulty. I tried about 5 times, I was able to format the drive from within the Windows CD without it BSODing, but every time I'd try to install, at some point or other it'd just reboot to a black screen or show 'disk read error'. I definitely am disinclined to try to do anything else with it.
 
#13 ·
Yes, the new SSD never did actually get Windows properly installed on it and I have now disconnected it. It's still within warranty and I intend to send it back if I can. So, back to square one, but at least with a PC that can boot. I appreciate your help, I wouldn't have gotten it back without that and probably would've mucked around in dos commands with 'fixboot' etc and potentially made it worse.

Incidentally, I actually found some other people having the problem of BSODs when trying to format and install windows on another similar crucial drive (M500) in particular. They also gave up on them. Maybe it was unrelated to my original BSODs.

Now I just have my original daily BSODs to deal with.
 
#14 ·
You should be able to return the SSD for replacement or refund if you bought it from a reputable seller.

As a test though you could try installing Windows 10 onto the SSD.
To do that you will need a DVD burner and a blank DVD disk or a Usb stick that's 4GB or larger.
Then you download and run the Media Creation Tool from here :- https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10
Click on the 2nd + sign at the link for more details

Let me know if you want to try that or not.
 
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