Question Hard drive fried? Options

[jaydee]

I have an older desktop -- HP Elitedesk with Core i-6500. It stays offline and runs Windows 7 for some legacy stuff (Windows Media Center to record OTA TV via USB tuner).

After a recent power outage, this PC came back on and won't get past the BIOS. I ran the HP BIOS diagnostics suite and it didn't find any issues. I do see my boot drive in the BIOS options (Samsung PM951 M.2 NVMe).

Sound like the SSD (or at least the Windows install) is corrupted? If so, what are my options to try to salvage the Win7 OS (buying another SSD and copying)? I don't care so much about whatever data might be on the SSD, I have it backed up, but if I can salvage the install it would save me some time.

Thanks.

 

[Shmee]

You could try booting from a Windows installer and repairing the install, assuming the SSD isn't damaged and it is just a software issue.

 

[jaydee]

You could try booting from a Windows installer and repairing the install, assuming the SSD isn't damaged and it is just a software issue.

Thanks. I assume I would need a Windows 7 Pro specific installer (perhaps even the OEM one from HP)? If I just need a generic Win 7 Pro installer, any idea where to find one? Since it's discontinued, the MS links I found pointing to it, have the download links removed.

Edit: I can find Win7 media on eBay for ~$15, but if anyone happens to know where I can download an installer to create the Win7 Pro media myself, I'd be obliged.

 

[Shmee]

I think a generic Windows 7 ISO should be fine for repair. You should be able to find one on 3rd party download sites, hopefully.

 

[jaydee]

I have a NVMe SSD external enclosure. I have it plugged in to my work PC and I can access everything, so it seems the drive isn't physically damaged.

Is there a way to repair the OS drive from another Windows PC (plugged in as external USB drive)? I'm searching online and not finding anything, but I could be just not using the right search terms?

I'm assuming there's an issue with the OS drive corrupting, but I guess it could be something else, though I'm not really sure how else to narrow this down, given all the HP BIOS analysis checks all pass. If I have time later, I'll create a Linux boot drive to see if it will boot to a Linux OS from USB. Any other thoughts are appreciated.

 

[In2Photos]

I recently had a somewhat similar issue with a laptop at work, Windows 10 though. It would boot to a screen asking to choose the keyboard language. It was just stuck in a boot loop on this screen. I tried all the different repair methods but was unsuccessful. I finally decided to just buy a new drive and reinstall Windows. Like you the original drive was still good and I was able to copy the contents of the entire drive over in case there were any files that didn't get backed up.

 

[Shmee]

I have a NVMe SSD external enclosure. I have it plugged in to my work PC and I can access everything, so it seems the drive isn't physically damaged.

Is there a way to repair the OS drive from another Windows PC (plugged in as external USB drive)? I'm searching online and not finding anything, but I could be just not using the right search terms?

I'm assuming there's an issue with the OS drive corrupting, but I guess it could be something else, though I'm not really sure how else to narrow this down, given all the HP BIOS analysis checks all pass. If I have time later, I'll create a Linux boot drive to see if it will boot to a Linux OS from USB. Any other thoughts are appreciated.

You should be able to do some repairs, such as chkdsk and sfc.