sudden restarts in Windows but not in BIOS mode

Hi all.

BLUF: the computer immediately restarts (not BSOD or anything) as Windows is starting or within a minute of Windows starting.

If I go to BIOS instead of letting Windows load, it can sit there all day.

If I use a recovery disc (in this case Macrium WIN RE), it can sit there all day.

I'm hoping that helps narrow down the cause.

Now the detailed version:

My operating system SSD was getting full, so I bought a bigger one.

First I tried to image (Macrium Reflect) my old one and transfer the image to the new one, but the computer wouldn't recognize it as bootable media.

So I cloned the old drive directly onto the new drive (again Macrium).

I got both partitions on the drive and everything looked clean.
This time, I got a blue screen saying there was a problem with loading windows and I needed to run recovery.

Unable get around this, I put in the  Macrium recovery media (Win 10 RE).

As suggested by Macrium, I ran the "repair the drive" tool.  It ran a series of "repairs" and then I rebooted back to the SSD.

It did boot this time, but as soon as Windows started, the PC rebooted without warning.

That happened several times, and then Windows ran a check on the drive before loading.  I stopped the scan when it seemed to have died, and rebooted.

This time the computer stayed on for a couple of minutes, but then rebooted again.

I decided to call it a day and put my old drive back in.
Surprise, computer restarts as soon as Windows loads.

I still have the clean ( I suppose) image of the old drive completed just two days ago, and I have numerous previous images as well if needed.

I understand there are countless reasons the reboots could be happening, so I'm trying to take a most-to-least likely cause approach.

I see on the Macrium forums that Macrium essentially maintains the problem "should not be happening" if the clone was done correctly.

I'm pretty good with computers in that I build them and I'm a coder, but when the technology malfunctions, that's the end of my expertise.

Advice and ideas welcome.

Thanks.

Hi, Welcome to BC.

You mention lots of things but nothing of importance such as Make/Model of your Branded System or Motherboard and case contents.

Start listing them please using proper names. Info such as ram speed and Bios version would be useful as well.

This also applies to the drives, list them and sizes and if any still contain system partitions and files and if are bootable.

nnnaaa, format them all so they do not contain any of the above which would also be a problem.

As to why would think you screwed up the initial formatting and image from smaller to larger drive.

You do know that it would have been easier and it is still to move stuff to another drive and format and install windows clean in about a 1hr.

While what you are asking for can take days and multiple posts and then you turn around and format and install anyways after all the work that has been done.

Please decide that the getting stuff off of the drive after or now makes more sense as does using your old drive since Windows only uses less than 70gig and if install things properly using Custom install you will never run out of room on the boot drive

Provided is 250 or 500gig.

Edited by Pkshadow, 15 November 2023 - 08:35 PM.

Since the original (known to be good) drive also causes restarts then you have probably disturbed something whilst changing drives - especially if it was a motherboard mounted M.2 drive(?).

• Pop your RAM out and reseat it firmly.
• Pop all PCIe cards out and reseat them firmly.
• Pop all M.2 drives out and reseat them firmly
• Check all motherboard cables and ensure they are fully home - at both ends.
• Check all SATA drives to make sure the power and SATA cables are fully home - at both ends.

Thanks both for replying.  

BSOD KDE, you nailed it.

After I posted this, I decided to pull everything off the board and reconnect one by one.

I must have loosened the SATA connection at the MOBO.  When I reseated the SSD, Windows went through a "repair" and got hung on stage 2, so I rebooted and got a clean restart.  The computer stayed on overnight, so I assume I'm good.

 BC Advisor, I appreciate what you're saying.  This computer is one that I built myself about 10 years ago.  I switched from HDD to SSD for the operating system about 5 years ago, and even though I only have installs on that drive, some of the apps I install (IDEs for coding among them) actually did fill up the drive, which was only 250GB.

I know I could format and reinstall Windows quickly, but it would take days to reinstall every other software on the C drive, and then I'd be changing settings on things for weeks or longer before I had it back exactly as it was.  Add to that, I had no assurance that there was an issue with the partitions on the drive or any kind of drive or image corruption, so format and reinstall, wasn't a guaranteed solution.

Again, thanks, both.

I'm glad to have it back to normal.

Sorry guys, I'm new to this forum.
I see now that these are your Groups and not your usernames. 

Hi, well it is fixed, that is what we are here to help with even when we are wrong it can lead to fixes.  With people joining daily for help like you we can tend to guide the way for/with you.

yes Name/Handle is Pkshadow.   The staff here have thought that my posting and comments and solutions were good and asked if I would be a BC Advisor

while ubuysa is a BSOD Kernel Dump Expert which he took courses here to learn to read and figure out crashes. 

Follow up:

Since November, I struggled with getting the PC to boot, boot to the OS drive, and recognize all the drives.  I tried it all in terms of the hardware.

Recently, I figured out the solution (for better or worse).

Instead of going into the boot settings, boot config, boot order, etc, I went into the hardware section of the bios and looked at all the SATA drives it found.  I saw that my OS drive was not SATA 1, and I swapped cables so that it was.

This required one more reboot, into the BIOS and set to OS drive as the 1st boot device, and problem has been solved ever since.

Hope this information helps somebody else (or me once I'm senile).

Fyi : NOTE : 15% or more free space is required at all times on all drives.

Thanks for letting us know.