PC Tech My SSD with my OS on it died (I think?)

[Paperclyp]

With the little troubleshooting knowledge I have, I think my SSD with Windows 10 is corrupted. When I load into the bios, it doesn’t recognize it. 
 

I have a standard hard drive as well but didn’t have any success attempting to install windows on there, and it doesn’t like me trying it from an external drive either. I purchased the same standard drive on Amazon and it should arrive tomorrow, so I am hoping I can have some success with that. 
 

I guess if my suspicions are correct and it’s a fried SSD, am I better off installing windows 11 now? Or should I stick with 10? I’m not sure how it all works with product codes since 10 is still not free. 
 

I wish I understood this better. 
 

Edit: oh another sign to me that the SSD is corrupted is when I go to pick a HD to install windows on, it actually does recognize it but it gives me an error code that could be several different things including corrupted drive. It also shows that it has 239 gigs of unused space (it’s a 250 gig), and the thing was basically full last time it was functioning. 

[Keyser_Soze]

It should be free if you deactivate your previous computer and activate it on your new computer. That being said if you're just replacing the hard drive it should be free anyway.

[cusideabelincoln]

Should be simple to transfer your key if you signed into Windows with a Microsoft account (outlook, hotmail, etc.)

 

The Windows installer is also really bad about formatting partitions and drives, particularly if they have been used with another system before. The last few times I tried to install Windows 10/11 onto a mechanical hard drive, I had to format the drive in a separate computer before Windows would let me install to it.

 

You may also want to try using different SATA cables with your drives, in case a bad cable is responsible for the corruption.

[Paperclyp]

8 hours ago, cusideabelincoln said:

Should be simple to transfer your key if you signed into Windows with a Microsoft account (outlook, hotmail, etc.)

 

The Windows installer is also really bad about formatting partitions and drives, particularly if they have been used with another system before. The last few times I tried to install Windows 10/11 onto a mechanical hard drive, I had to format the drive in a separate computer before Windows would let me install to it.

 

You may also want to try using different SATA cables with your drives, in case a bad cable is responsible for the corruption.

Yeah I should check and see if I have an extra SATA cable to try. I know that’s a priority first check type of thing but was too lazy to dig through cable boxes lol. 
 

My new drive comes today, I am hoping with a blank drive it’ll play nice with windows. Thank you for sharing that though, it’s good to know. 
 

I have a few things I’d like to pick up on the prime sale, but I’d like to know if I have a functioning machine before I pull the trigger. 

[Paperclyp]

I'm back up running. As expected there are things that I just don't understand. For example, I know I have some steam games installed on my still working hard drive, but now that I've installed windows on my new hard drive it doesn't recognize them. 

 

I'll have to figure some of that stuff out on the fly I suppose. I'm just glad I had my photos and stuff backed up. 

[dualhunter]

You have to point Steam to the other drive for it to see the games as installed. So in addition to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\... you should have the same thing on D or whatever the other drive is, so in the Steam settings you can add that path to get it to look there. You can also copy and paste the game folders somewhere else and point Steam to the new location (or skip that if you put them in the main folder on the C drive). If it doesn't automatically show up as installed even though it's point to the right folder, trying to install should fix it and the install will take seconds since the files are already there. If it still tries to download the whole thing the wrong path to the folder was added.