I've been using my NVMe SSD as a boot drive without any issues for several years. Recently, I shut down my PC and removed a secondary SSD, then restarted. However, my computer went straight to the BIOS and the NVMe wasn't listed as a bootable option, even though it's still recognized as an installed drive. I tinkered with some BIOS settings, but nothing worked. I even tried swapping the NVMe with one from my laptop, but it still failed to recognize a boot drive. Additionally, I attempted to install Windows on the secondary SSD I had removed, but I encountered an error stating the file type was incorrect, thus making it impossible to access files on the NVMe. I'm particularly concerned about lost Minecraft worlds that were saved on it and haven't been backed up. Is there any way I can retrieve those?
3 Answers
If the SSD is recognized but not bootable, try checking the BIOS settings for boot order and make sure it's set to boot from that drive. If everything looks good there but it still won't boot, your best bet for recovering data is to clone it, like mentioned earlier.
Have you tried putting the original SSD back in to check if it boots up again like it used to? That could help isolate the issue. If it still doesn't work and only shows the drives as installed, it might indicate a deeper problem with the drive itself.
It sounds like your SSD might have entered a read-only mode, which can happen if it's struggling with available writable space. I recommend getting another drive of equal or larger size, then connecting both drives in the same machine. Boot from a live Linux USB and try to clone the NVMe drive to the new one. I’ve done this before; you can use the 'dd' command to create a disk image if needed, but a standard cloning tool should also work. This way, you might be able to recover your files, including those Minecraft worlds!
Noted. Thank you for the advice!