So I just spent the entire morning trying to get my computer to boot back into windows and I honestly have no idea what happened. I turned my computer off last night with everything working fine. I turned it on this morning, walked away for a second, came back and noticed the computer was frozen at the Windows 10 login screen. Couldnt get anything to happen so I turned the pc off to restart. After restarting, I was no longer able to get back into Windows 10 desktop. It would get past the bios, start to load windows, BSOD, restart, repeat. It would constantly boot loop and never get to the desktop. Googling this issue came up with multiple answers suggesting to create and windows 10 USB boot tool and repair windows through that. I got all of that ready (had to go out and buy a flash drive to even do this) but was not able to get any of the various repair/reset options to work. So I finally resulted into just doing a clean install of Windows 10, but of course that didnt go as smoothly either. When I was selecting a partition to install, none of them worked (none were in a GTS format). So I had to go even further down the rabbit hole by formatting and deleting all partitions for the drive. That finally did it.

However...It appears windows is now installed to my 500gb 7200rpm hdd and not my SSD. The SSD is no where to be found in my partitions manager as well. So im starting to think that somehow between last night and this morning my SSD completely crapped out. Thoughts? The one thing that is really confusing me is that all my desktop backgrounds were saved and display/cycle normally. When I browse the folder where it says the its pulling backgrounds form it's completely empty. Also, there is no windows.old folder from my previous instillation. If anyone has any idea what just happened to my PC I'd appreciate the feedback because I am completely confused about this whole thing.

How old is your SSD? It's my understanding that SSDs have definitive write count lifespans. Once those are approached/surpassed, the whole thing could go at any minute.

@kcin: I have definitely had it for awhile. Cant say for sure but off the top of my head I would say at least 3-5 years.

You could try plugging the SSD into a different SATA port on the mobo just be sure the connection isn't the problem, since Windows doesn't even see the drive anymore. Does your BIOS detect it? You should be able to select it as a boot disk, for example.

However, the part where the files are "sort of there but not" suggests to me that your drive is corrupt. If you can recover anything at all, transfer what you can to some other storage device and get a new drive. :/ Maybe someone else has some different insight, though.

@kcin: Thanks I might have to try that.

UPDATE: So I believe I am seeing the drive in disk manager right now. It is labeled as Disk 0 but I can not initialize the drive. When I try to initialize as GPT I get an error: The specified disk is not convertible because the seize is less than the minimum size required for GPT disks. When I try to initialize as MBR I get an error: The system cannot find the file specified.

It sounds like your SSD is dead, or at least dying. If you had been able to just reformat it and do a clean install, I'd think something just got corrupted, but not being able to format the drive at all is a bad sign. You might be able to get it formatted again, but I'd just replace it at this point if you can afford it. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

As for the backgrounds showing up, I believe that's stored with your Microsoft Account information in the cloud. Whenever I set up a new PC using my Microsoft Account it always has my background pre-set to the same image I have on my main desktop.

I agree with @cameron's assessment of your situation. Only other things I'd consider before completely writing off the SSD is to double check if there are any weird SATA port configuration issues in the BIOS and also consider changing the SATA cable to see if that failed. I seriously doubt either of those is the issue given the age of the drive and your inability to reformat it.

Ya changing the sata connections did not help. Looks like Im gonna have to buy a new SSD. Thinking about getting a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB unless anyone else has other suggestions.

The only thing I can add is that you should "re-format" the SSD with "a sledge hammer".

(sorry, I don't get to recommend violent troubleshooting tips very often)

Yeah. Sounds like the ssd died on you. I bought an 850evo earlier this year. It's terrific.

That is really the major bummer about SSD's. When they go out on you, it happens with no prior warning signs. Sorry it happened, it's a bummer when things like that happen.

Just remember this "Everything will be alright in the end and if they are not alright than it's not the end."

@berniesbc: Have you been able to get RAPID mode to work on windows 10?

@xanadu: No, but I haven't tried.