Help! Boot Device Failure!

Question

(This is on my Aurora R7, barely 5 months old: 8th Gen i7, 1TB HDD, 16 GB RAM, Optane memory)

Here's what happened:

1) Updated the Intel Rapid Storage program per recommendations of Dell/Alienware Support Assist.
2) Upon restart, the screen flickered blue/black (ugh!), and Support Assist popped up to diagnose hardware.
3) Diagnostics came back with no issues, and I proceeded to boot up the computer.
4) Alienware logo came on, then the "Checking Media Presence.....".
5) Support Assist screen comes on with "Boot Failure on Device".
6) Restarted and went into BIOS to change the boot order: Boot 1=Windows Boot Manager, Boot 2=[network boot through IPV4], etc.
7) No joy! Repeats to 4.

Looked at the hardware settings in BIOS, and the HDD (1 TB, 7200 RPM) shows up. I've unplugged and reseated the power and SATA cables. Everything else works on the computer.

My computer's still under warranty, so I'm going to call them later today, but just wondering if anyone had any thoughts:

1) If it's a bad HDD, does it still show up in BIOS? I would think it doesn't.
2) Fortunately, I have a backup of my entire HDD done with Macrium but it's on an external USB 3.0 HDD. (Thank you Tesla1856!)
3) Maybe I can get support to send me a 1 TB SSD....

kamusicman · Answer

Thanks for feeling my pain...I hate these updates. Intel updates making life miserable!

I'm prepping a bootable USB stick through Dell/Alienware using my service tag. I know it'll wipe out all my data (assuming the HDD is still good), but I've gotta try something. My kids are grumpy because they can't play Fortnite Season 7! =)

I also ordered and will pick up later today a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD to serve as the primary until Dell sends me a replacement. Should be fun!

Having said that, I've read some threads about how to install and setup SSD's on the R7. It seems somewhat cumbersome, but given this is probably going to be a fresh install, it should be fairly painless, right? There's no Optane to turn off, and I just have to turn off the RAID on the BIOS. Once all updates are complete (except for Intel, of course!), I'm thinking I'll run it for a few days then add the replacement SDD (are you reading this, Dell?) when it arrives, then I'll move the data over.

Pretty straightforward, but it's never this smooth, is it?

PentatonicSteel · Answer

Sorry about your luck man. I haven't updated anything since the last bios. Updates brick the system... I hope your issue gets resolved.

Tesla1856 · Answer

@kamusicman wrote:

I also ordered and will pick up later today a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD to serve as the primary until Dell sends me a replacement. Should be fun!

Smart move getting some kind of SSD in there (for Windows, all Apps, and favorite games).

Tesla1856 · Answer

@kamusicman wrote:   1) If it's a bad HDD, does it still show up in BIOS? I would think it doesn't. Depends how broken it is. Maybe just the OS software is corrupt.

kamusicman · Answer

Picked up, installed, and set up my SSD without a hitch. I had to boot from a USB stick with Dell's Support Assistant on it, and it automatically chose the SSD to format and perform a fresh install of Windows 10.

Interestingly, the original HDD showed up as an option to format/install Windows. I'm wondering if I should have tried that first. As I suspected, the HDD does not show up in File Explorer in Windows launched from the SSD. It's there on the BIOS and even on the SA, but Windows won't recognize it.

BTW, I called tech support prior to the install, explaining the situation. I asked him to just send me the replacement HDD, but he insisted I try the USB method first. Well, I got my computer to work with the SSD, and now I'm thinking I'll remove the SSD (now that I know it's working right), and use the USB boot to format the HDD. (The SA hardware scan came back with no issues...of course...) I know this will wipe the data, but I don't know what else to do with this HDD. I'd like to use it if it's salvageable, but not sure what to do at this point.

Finally, the SA install process didn't include the Control Center. Opinions on installing/not installing?

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Help! Boot Device Failure!

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