In using myself as a point of reference, couple days ago I experienced something drastic, that was a sudden case of hard drive failure, in particular my SSD ( solid state drive) which is my main boot drive, the drive that contains my operating system. Upon system boot, Windows 10 would not even load up, giving me an alarming message that read like this " select proper Boot device etc etc", shit, that be can't good. Sweating profusely trying not to crap my pants, I knew at that moment there was problem with my hard drive.
Several unsuccessful troubleshoots later I still could not boot up to Windows, I even tried the obvious fix and that's perform Windows repair, even that yield no success. At this point it's safe to say my highly recommended, well regarded Samsung 850 EVO SSD reached its demise. But wait! Before I threw in the proverbial towel, there was one more thing I can try to remedy this problematic issues and that's reinstall Windows altogether, yet still no success,its like as though the hard drive disappeared from my system.
There are going to be moments during your computers life time your hard drive will just die out, or maybe it won't. For me I just so happen to be the unlucky one who must have purchased a defective hard drive. Either way, here's what you need to look for when you think your hard drive has met its demise.
Check Your Front Panel Drive Light
In front of your PC there is a steady blinking red light. This indicates that your SSD ( hard drive) is going through normal operation. Whats abnormal is a steady red which indicates that the hard drive is experiencing some problematic issues.
Is The Hard Drive Showing Up In Your Bios?
Depending on what brand motherboard you have operating your computer you want get into your BIOS settings by pressing certain keys on your keyboard, restart your system and press the DEL or F8 key, go into your BIOS settings and check and see if your system is recognizing your drive,if its present, then you're OK. But if your once working hard drive is not showing up in your BIOS settings,then this is a clear sign that your hard drive may need to be replaced.
Try Installing Reinstalling Windows
The drive light on the front panel of your computer is not flickering, the drive is not showing up in your BIOS, your next step you should take in seeing if your SSD has disappeared into oblivion is to try reinstalling Windows. Once the installation disc boots up, the installation process will take place up until you choose which drive to install Windows. If that hard drive is present,then you're in business, if your drive that your trying to load Windows on does not appear, then its safe to say you are royally fuck.
Before You Head Over To Amazon,Try One Last Thing
So you're definite that your hard drive is dead,now its almost imperative that you purchase a new SSD (hard drive) . Before you do that there is several troubleshoots you can try before tossing your dead hard drive into the garbage bin. Open desktop and disconnect the SATA cable and then power cable, wait 30 mins before reconnecting the hard drive. Once you've reconnected each cable, power up your computer and see if your hard drive boots up to Windows. In some cases SSD's power tends to drop disabling the hard drive ability to boot to Windows.