Hey folks, I'm facing a bizarre issue with my PC that's left me stumped. A few days ago, my computer started booting up really slowly—it now takes about five minutes to reach the login screen when it used to take around thirty seconds. After I finally got to the desktop, I discovered that some program shortcuts on my D: drive had vanished, along with an entire ProgramFiles folder.
During another boot, the sluggishness continued, and even more programs were missing. I received an error from Chrome indicating that its files were also gone, despite having opened a tab just moments earlier. Frustratingly, I tried to access the BIOS but couldn't find any prompt, and the PC kept restarting until reaching a Diagnostics page, which was useless since everything I tried ended in error.
Today, I managed to boot into safe mode, only to find that my D: drive isn't even recognized anymore—it's not showing up as an unknown device or hidden, it's just… gone. I've got three disks: C: for booting (250GB SSD), D: for storage (1TB HDD), and E: for additional storage (2TB SSD). C: and D: have worked fine for nine years, so this sudden change is baffling. I even opened up the PC, reset the CMOS, and unplugged/plugged the disk cables, but it still boots to the Diagnostics page after seven minutes. I'm at a loss here!
1 Answer
It sounds like your D: drive might be failing. I’ve had similar experiences where my PC started taking forever to boot, and eventually, files would go missing as the drive died. If you can somehow get Windows to recognize the drive again, try downloading the CrystalDiskInfo application to check the S.M.A.R.T. status, assuming it’s still somewhat functional. But if the drive is completely gone, you may be looking at a replacement.
I get that, but sometimes malfunctioning drives can interfere with system resources in unexpected ways. Maybe your C: drive is also acting up, affecting everything else.
I plan to try that app as soon as I can access my desktop again. It's weird to me that a drive on a different connection would impact the boot process like this.