Default Boot Device Missing or Boot Failed...

I occasionally receive this message - not at boot, just randomly after my laptop has been in use for a while...using the power button to close down, then restarting gets everything working again.

Just wondering if anyone could suggest what to check, please.

(I have Macrium Reflect Boot enabled, if that's of any consequence)

It could. What is the default boot order?

Also I would recommend doing at the command line (cmd.exe)
chkdsk c: /scan
If errors then do:
chkdsk c: /r
This will prompt you for a reboot so it can do the repairs.
DO NOT interrupt the process as it may take a while and may look stuck.

Given us, correct error message would help a lot to troubleshoot the boot problem.

OAT - chkdsk reported no errors...file attached.

Freebooter - the error message was the same as the thread title..

Good, that's out of the way.
Is the Macrium Boot folder (it is hidden) on the same partition as the OS -on C: root (obviously)?
Is the startup item selected as default in msconfig (WinKey+R + msconfig + enter > boot) Windows 11 as in the screenshot below?

Hi again -seems so,yeah.

I hope your drive is not warning you of something.
I am a bit at a loss why you would get this intermittent error.
Faulty drive connector/Motherboard problem?

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but the only time
I saw that was followed by an actual drive failure.

Okay Oat - thanks for your help anyway, much appreciated - que sera, sera I guess. I'll persevere and see what happens over the next couple of weeks.
I backup all of my files daily to an external drive and have them in the cloud too, so they're safe at least.

Most probably your hard disk is failing and not always detected by the BIOS and hence the error message. If it is an old fashioned mechanical hard disk it is a good opportunity to upgrade to a ten times faster SSD. See your hard disk properties to see how much space your data occupy and buy a little larger SSD. You can connect the SSD externally with a SATA to USB adapter and clone your old disk to the SSD with Macrium Reflect. Then swap them. If you feel uncomfortable doing it yourself you can ask a professional.

CrystalDiskInfo can provide some info about the health of your drive(s).
Reliable & free.

Spapakons it is an SSD Drive, less than 2 years old.

OAT - The report from CrystalDisk is attached.

Your drive is perfectly good.

You must try to find some kind of a pattern, when it happens, after doing what?
Try to look in the Event Viewer.

99% is not perfect but it is not bad either. It is usually because some values of the drive SMART test are outside normal range. Some tools such as Hard Disk Sentinel allows you to modify the normal range to make the disk pass all the SMART test and report 100% health. I would worry only if health drops below 95% or you get frequent BSOD or freezes and other issues. Also a reduction in performance also indicates a problem. If you want you can replace it with a larger and possibly faster SSD and put the old one in a SATA to USB case to make it external. You can use it to transfer files between computers but avoid using it for backup as it is not 100% reliable.

Please let's get things right here.
An SSD percentile, unlike a hard drive, will drop as its use progresses.
After 4 years & 26K hours, one of my SSD drives is at 74% because of heavy use.
It is perfectly normal.
It is inaccurate to post that an SSD dropping below 95% is worrisome.
The proof:



Please refer to:
SSD case: SSD health decrease by wearout

Even if sounds weird, the health decrease is not bad, exactly the opposite. The health decrease can help us to

• be prepared for a planned replacement when the health goes too low (for example below 50% or even earlier especially in a mission-critical environment).
• be notified about possible high amount of writes caused by some applications, Windows updates or similar which can cause degradation.
• try to minimise the amount of writes to extend the lifetime of the SSD.

Thanks again OAT - I'll keep my eyes on Event Viewer if it happens again...