A friend of mine found an M.2 SSD on the ground and decided to install it in his PC. Now, his computer won't boot, and even changing the drive priority in BIOS hasn't worked. He also tried booting Windows from a USB drive, but that didn't help either. I'm baffled by how an SSD could cause this issue. Shouldn't just removing it fix the problem? Has anyone encountered a similar situation?
5 Answers
Honestly, this may sound harsh, but your friend really should know better. If that SSD was physically damaged, it could cause serious issues for the whole system. If it's not working after everything's been unplugged and reseated, he might want to check his other components or even do a BIOS flash. Plugging in random drives can lead to all sorts of problems.
First off, kudos for trying to help your friend out! Just to add, if the drive had a nasty virus or something, it could potentially mess with the BIOS, which is pretty rare but not impossible. If all else fails, it might be worth testing that SSD in another PC to see if it's actually working at all.
Yeah, it's also worth considering what was on that SSD. I don't mean to be paranoid, but storage devices found without context can pose risks, and connecting them might corrupt other devices too. Always better to be safe than sorry!
Sounds like a classic case of 'don't plug random stuff into your computer'. Make sure your friend learns this lesson the hard way! If it doesn’t boot even with alternative methods, he might have to start looking at other hardware issues.
It's kind of shocking that people still think it's a good idea to plug random stuff found on the ground into their computers. I mean, what's next? A toaster? Anyway, make sure your friend really checks everything. Power cycling by unplugging and holding the power button can reset a lot. Also, he should try just using one stick of RAM and the CPU, with only the necessary parts connected to see if that helps get into BIOS.
Exactly! I've seen drives that look fine on the outside but are totally wrecked inside. Always best to test suspect drives on a dedicated machine first.