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1343 Discussions

Alienware Aura R7 hard drive will not boot after removing Optane

fcope1
Beginner
789 Views

I got a EVO 970 SSD and went to install it without remembering to back up my personal files on my computer.

 

When I got the SSD, I went and removed the Optane stick from the motherboard and inserted the SSD then went to the BIOS and disabled raid. I installed windows from a USB onto the SSD and can successfully boot onto it. However, I realized there were important files I had forgotten to back up from the hard drive. I opened the computer up and removed the SSD and re-inserted Optane and re-enabled raid. However, I'm unable to boot onto the original hard drive. I'm given an error saying "Boot failure on device". I booted onto macrium from a USB to attempt to recover my files however the drive does not appear. I tried to see if I could re-install windows from a USB onto the hard drive and the hard drive does not show in the list of drives to install onto.

 

Is there any way to recover my files from the original hard drive?

 

EDIT: It looks like maybe my system isn't recognizing the Optane stick when I plug it in, the M.2 PCLIe SSD property in the BIOS only shows up when the SSD is plugged in, not the Optane. My BIOS has no option to reset the Optane like I see suggested in other support posts.

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BrusC_Intel
Moderator
678 Views

Hello, fcope1.

 

Good day,

 

Thank you for contacting the Intel Community Support.

 

I checked your ticket regarding the file recovery, I will be glad to assist you.

 

I want to confirm the following:

- 1 Unnamed drive with valuable files

- 1 Intel Optane Memory paired with the Unnamed drive

- 1 Brand new Samsung drive with a bootable Windows 10

 

Please keep in mind that there are no official methods or tools we can use to try to recover the information, that is one of the reasons why it's always recommended to make sure you disable the acceleration as you mentioned or making sure there is always a backup of the information.

 

Based on what you mentioned, the Unnamed drive is not recognized when you boot from the Samsung one, did you check in Disk Management or Diskpart?, if possible, boot from the Samsung and try to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology (you may get it from the downloads page of you computer manufacturer) and check if the Unnamed drive is recognized after installing it or check if you have the option to set it online or clear metadata from it.

 

One other option is to try to put the system exactly as how it was (BIOS settings and hardware) and check if the system boots or if the BIOS gives you the option to reset or "Deconcatenate", but in your case, since the Option is not present and the Optane module is not even recognized by the system, it may be worth checking with the board manufacturer just in case.

 

I hope to hear from you soon.

 

Regards,

 

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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fcope1
Beginner
678 Views

I want to confirm the following:

- 1 Unnamed drive with valuable files

- 1 Intel Optane Memory paired with the Unnamed drive

- 1 Brand new Samsung drive with a bootable Windows 10

 

Yes.

 

Based on what you mentioned, the Unnamed drive is not recognized when you boot from the Samsung one, did you check in Disk Management or Diskpart?, if possible, boot from the Samsung and try to install Intel Rapid Storage Technology (you may get it from the downloads page of you computer manufacturer) and check if the Unnamed drive is recognized after installing it or check if you have the option to set it online or clear metadata from it.

 

I've attached what I see in Disk Management and Diskpart. When I try to go to the disk in Windows Explorer, it says that is is unformatted and asks to format it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One other option is to try to put the system exactly as how it was (BIOS settings and hardware) and check if the system boots or if the BIOS gives you the option to reset or "Deconcatenate", but in your case, since the Option is not present and the Optane module is not even recognized by the system, it may be worth checking with the board manufacturer just in case.

 

Ok

 

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n_scott_pearson
Super User
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My understanding is that the contents of your "hard drive" are spread across the HDD and the Optane module. Without both in place, you have a mess. When you remove the Optane module, the contents of the HDD could appear to be nonexistent or corrupted. If you restored the Optane module and the contents don't appear as they were originally, you may have broken the pairing. In this case, some sort of recovery tool will be necessary to recover the files that are on the HDD. Any files that were cached in the Optane module may be lost, however.

 

...S

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BrusC_Intel
Moderator
678 Views

Hello, fcope1.

 

I wanted to follow up on your ticket to check if you tried with the motherboard manufacturer or if tried anything else.

 

As N. Scott Pearson mentioned, after the pairing between the Optane and the SSD is broken, if the drive is not recoverable and the information cannot be access via regular methods, a data recovery process may be required, but even this does not guarantee that the information will be recovered.

 

If I can be of assistance in any way, just let me know.

 

Regards,

 

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

A Contingent Worker at Intel

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fcope1
Beginner
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