pc wont boot problem

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1 Jan 2007
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1,178
hi all, ok today my pc will not boot up it keeps going to startup repair but that does not work, so i thought i would simply reinstall windows, so i created a windows 10 usb stick, tried to boot from usb but it still goes to the pc repair startup, does not ask to install windows, so i try another usb stick with an older version of windows that i know works as i have used many time and get and error saying an operating system was not found please try disconnecting any drives that do not cantain an operating system, now i have removed all drives with the exclusion of my 2 raid drives which i really do not wish to mess with as i don't want to lose the data on them, and i still get the same error with all the drives removed, my system is as below

gigabyte x99 ud4 m/b
intel 6 core cpu
gigabyte 960 gpu
antec 750 watt psu
samsung 250 gb ssd
2 x 2tb hdd
2 x 6tb hdd raid

so i have tried booting with the 2 2tb hdds individually and also the ssd indiviually, i have swapped the bios from ahci and ide with all 3 drives and still get the same, only thing i have not tried is boot from cd as this pc does not have a cd rom, so i might have to swap a dvd rom from main pc to this one to try, other than that im at a loss, any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Have you tried disconnecting all the drives as it suggests other than the 250GB SSD (assuming that is your boot drive)? In this sense disconnect just means unplugging the SATA cables from every other drive including the RAID drives then booting from the USB stick. If it goes to pc repair let it complete the repairs and see if that gets the system operating again. If you still want to reinstall at that point - go ahead.
 
no i have not tried that, the only worry i have regarding that is its a raid array and i had it many years ago where i unplugged the drives for something similar and then re plugged them in and tthe raid array was lost and all data on it, so i was worried this might happen again
 
Well, that's wacky RAID if it doesn't support detaching array and reattaching it back later.
In case of mirroring/RAID 1 (which isn't back up, just fault tolerance/redundancy) data should be accessible from separate drive, because it doesn't need any special data formatting on drive.
Again striping isn't even genuine RAID lacking not only that R(edundant) part, but doubling chance of data loss from drive failure. Meaning backupping of important data should be double priority.

Have you tried live Linux?
It that can be run succesfully it lowers propability of it being (at least serious) hardware fault.
https://xubuntu.org/download/
 
no not tried linux no, it was many years ago when it did that to me on raid, so it should be ok if i disconnect the drives and connect them up again then.
 
well i bit the bullet and unplugged the raid array and tried all drives individually and still have the same problem, looks like im going to have to swapa dvd rom in and try a disc instead of a usb.
 
Sorry if you mentioned it
I have problems reading blocks of text
Is it actually booting off USB?
Ie USB boots but you get no drives shown when you reach install part
Or it's not booting of the USB?
If not booting use boot menu to do it
If not booting how did you make the USB?
 
hi ok, well it looked like it was booting from the usb as it was doing something different from booting without it, but i have now swapped a dvd rom in and am currently reinstalling windows onto the ssd so the usb obviously was not working, i created off the microsoft website windows creation tool, anyway looks like the dvd rom is working atm
 
hi ok, well it looked like it was booting from the usb as it was doing something different from booting without it, but i have now swapped a dvd rom in and am currently reinstalling windows onto the ssd so the usb obviously was not working, i created off the microsoft website windows creation tool, anyway looks like the dvd rom is working atm
Lucky you had a dvd drive handy
I usually make my boot able usbs using free yumi software
Found that more reliable
And as already said
Can use whatever F key is for boot menu on your pc to select USB as a one off boot rather than having to go in/out of bios to do it
Some times USB gets picked up any way others doesn't especially the more drives you have
 
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