I tried to completely wipe my C: drive and reinstall Windows 11 from a USB installer. The formatting process froze, so I restarted the computer. Windows appeared to reinstall successfully, and my D: drive still had its files, but the new installation quickly became extremely slow, froze while I was installing Firefox, and then crashed.
I tried Windows Recovery tools, SFC, DISM, BIOS settings, and another installation attempt. The installer eventually stopped showing my C: drive and only listed the D: drive and the USB. BIOS did not show the SSD in the SATA section, although it did appear under the NVMe section.
I then powered the computer down, removed my RTX 4070 Super, moved the NVMe SSD from the lower M.2 slot on my Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE motherboard to the upper slot, and checked the SATA connections. After that, the installer produced a purple screen, while disconnecting the other drive resulted in a black screen. Recovery mode and Command Prompt have also become unreliable. DiskPart now lists the drive with an unknown file system.
The drive is an ADATA SX6000PNP M.2 NVMe SSD. Could the SSD have failed, or might this be a power, temperature, motherboard, or graphics-related problem? Should I stop troubleshooting and have a professional test it, or is there a safe way to confirm the problem and reinstall Windows?
3 Answers
The NVMe SSD is the main suspect. It is an older, relatively inexpensive model, and the symptoms—freezing, extremely slow performance, disappearing from Windows Setup, and showing an unknown file system in DiskPart—are consistent with a drive that is failing or no longer communicating reliably. A drive can appear to work briefly and then fail under heavier activity, so the fact that Windows initially booted does not rule this out.
Stop formatting or running repair commands for now, especially if any files on the drive matter. Test the SSD in another compatible computer or install a known-good NVMe drive in this system. If the replacement works normally, replace the ADATA drive.
Avoid changing more BIOS settings or repeatedly moving hardware until the problem is isolated. First power down, reseat the NVMe drive carefully, and check whether the motherboard detects it consistently in its NVMe information screen. Do not use commands such as clean, format, or initialize if you are trying to recover data.
The most useful test is substitution: try a known-good NVMe SSD in the computer, or test this SSD in another system with a proper M.2 slot. If the installer still gives black or purple screens with a good drive, then investigate the GPU, power supply, memory, and motherboard next.
There could also be a broader hardware instability problem, such as an aging power supply, overheating, faulty memory, or a graphics issue. Since the original problem existed before the reinstall, reinstalling Windows may not have been the actual fix. Check CPU temperatures and whether the system is stable in the BIOS, and identify the power-supply model if possible.
However, the SSD disappearing and being reported with an unknown file system makes it the first component I would test or replace. A repair shop is reasonable if you are not comfortable testing parts, particularly because repeated troubleshooting could make data recovery harder.
It seemed confusing because the drive worked immediately after the reinstall, but it began freezing while installing Firefox. I did not realize a failing SSD could behave normally for a short time before collapsing.