Troubleshooting a Sudden Boot Failure: A Personal Experience with SSD Issues

Recently, I faced a perplexing issue with my computer that I felt compelled to share. After adding a new solid-state drive (SSD) to my system, setting up a fresh operating system, and removing the previous OS files, everything appeared to be running smoothly for three full days. That is, until my PC unexpectedly refused to boot up.

Upon attempting to start the machine, I was greeted with an ominous error message declaring, “Required device not found.” Naturally, this was concerning, especially since I anticipated a straightforward experience after the setup. After several attempts to remedy the situation, I found that I couldn’t access recovery mode or resolve the issue through standard procedures.

I took to external media to launch the Command Prompt and tested the situation using the diskpart tool. There, I discovered a curious problem: while the disk was marked as online, the partitions themselves were offline. This left me scratching my head—how could a brand new installation lead to such a scenario?

Facing an urgent timeline and limited data concerns, I ultimately decided to wipe the SSD, convert it to GPT format, and reinstall Windows from scratch.

For context, my setup includes a Dell G3 3579 laptop paired with a WD NVMe M.2 SSD. After the event, I took a closer look at my SSD specifications and noticed that, while the disk was indeed online, its two partitions remained offline but were reported as healthy. This raised further questions about the underlying cause.

From feedback I received, a consensus emerged: it appears the SSD might have experienced a disconnection, leading to the volumes going offline without any clear reason behind it. For those who might encounter similar issues in the future, I’ll make it a point to keep this post updated should I discover more details about the cause.

If you’ve experienced something similar or have insights on preventing such boot failures, I would greatly appreciate your advice. Together, we can explore potential solutions and share knowledge to ensure smoother experiences with SSD installations. Thank you for your support!