I cannot load Win 11 since auto update yesterday - goes straight to BIOS

Celery said:

Here is a summary of what the previous screenshots show:

NVME:
M.2_1: Sabrent SB-RKT4P-1TB (1000.2GB)
M.2_2: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB (1000.2GB)
M.2_1 onto M.2 Card: CT4000P3PSSD8 (4000.7GB)
M.2_2 onto M.2 Card: CT4000P3PSSD8 (4000.7GB)

USB:
Samsung Flash Drive 1100 (64.1GB)

Intel Rapid Storage Technology is currently set to Off, so the NVMe drives are being exposed directly rather than through Intel RST/VMD.

View attachment 183291

"Windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Error code: 0x80042444 - 0x4002F"

The error occurs while Windows Setup is scanning the disks. 0x80042444 means that a disk pack containing a volume is inaccessible. One of the attached drives is a dynamic disk with a Foreign status, so this may be a separate problem from whatever originally prevented the existing Windows installation from booting.

When Intel RST is enabled, this Setup error does not appear, but the NVMe drives do not appear on the "Select location to install Windows 11" screen without the appropriate RST/VMD driver.

View attachment 183292

Code:

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 1    Foreign        3726 GB      0 B    *    *
  Disk 2    Online         3726 GB  1024 KB    *    *
  Disk 3    Online          931 GB  1024 KB
  Disk 4    Online           59 GB    27 GB

DISKPART> list volume

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label         Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  ------------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     J   Backup 3 RA   NTFS   Simple      3726 GB  Healthy
  Volume 1     C                 RAW    Partition    930 GB  Healthy
  Volume 2                       RAW    Partition    100 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 3                       RAW    Partition    860 MB  Healthy    Hidden
  Volume 4     D   System Rese   NTFS   Partition     50 MB  Healthy
  Volume 5     F   Main Storag   NTFS   Partition    931 GB  Healthy
  Volume 6     E   ESD-USB       FAT32  Removable     32 GB  Healthy

Disk 1 is a dynamic disk with a Foreign status and is a strong candidate for the Windows Setup error.

The C: volume is showing as RAW, and the hidden 100 MB and 860 MB volumes are also showing as RAW. Their sizes are consistent with partitions that could form part of a Windows installation, including an EFI System Partition and a Recovery partition, although their physical-disk association still needs to be established.

There is also an important discrepancy: the BIOS detects two 1 TB NVMe drives — the Sabrent and the Samsung — but list disk shows only one 931 GB physical disk.

View attachment 183293

@Seanhunt

What happens if you temporarily disconnect all the other NVMe drives, leaving only the Sabrent Windows drive connected? Does Windows boot, and if not, does the Sabrent then appear in Windows Setup?

Click to expand...