Incomplete Optane Volume

[elkayem]

My Notebook shows me the message “Boot device not found. Hard disk (3F0)” and won’t boot up.

I have tested the hard drive via F2 Hard Drive Quick Test and the C: drive passes.

I have also looked at the Optane memory via F2 (BIOS Setup) > System Configuration > UEFI Device Configuration > Intel (R) Rapid Storage Technology, and see the message “Incomplete Optane Volume”. When I go into the Incomplete Optane Volume menu, I then see the message “Incomplete Volume Member Disks, SATA 0.0 Toshiba MQ04ABF100 88U8P3PWT, 931.5 GB”

I have opened up the case, unplugged and plugged in the 16 GB Optane chip, and rebooted.  This did not resolve the issue. 

I am provided with the option to “Reset to Non-Optane” which seems reasonable to me. Personally, I don’t need the Optane. I just want to use my PC. However, I am reluctant to select this option without first getting some guidance.

Any suggestions on how I might resolve this issue?

[elkayem]

Also, I just ran the full hard drive (Long DST) and memory test, and they both passed.  

[elkayem]

Still looking for some help with this one. Would selecting the “Reset to Non-Optane” option allow me to boot my computer, or end up making things worse?

[elkayem]

STILL looking for help on this one. The option to reset to non-Optane states that it “will clear all data including the operating system on the Hard Drive,” which sounds pretty scary. 

At this point, all I want to do is boot up the computer long enough to uninstall my Office license so I can reinstall on a new computer, and get a few files I need off of the computer. I don’t need the Optane, or even a permanent solution. I’m replacing this machine with a new one. 

Any experienced Windows users that can offer advice?

[tk_srq]

.@Elkayem

I was digging HP Support Knowledge Base the other day for boot issues on my HP ProBook laptop, when I came across this article. It's about how to solve the "Boot Device Not Found (3F0)" error which is caused by the misconfigured Optane. You may take a look at it.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06201699 

Take care.

[elkayem]

Thank you for the reply. I did go through the steps and ended up at “Contact HP Customer Support.” Not sure if others have had similar negative experiences with their customer support, but I’ve generally found it to be unhelpful, and my computer is out of warranty. 

Since it seemed I was out of options, I selected the “Reset to Non-Optane” option. Good news, it fixed the Incomplete Optane Volume. Bad news, I had to do a complete Windows install. But there is some more good news... I have a complete Acronis backup made just a week before the computer failed. The PC runs now, but there is nothing on it. Acronis won’t restore the backup (the restore crashes) though I can get to individual files. So all is not lost. 

I haven’t reenabled the Optane yet. I suspect that may have something to do with why I can’t restore my backup. I haven’t given up yet, and am open to any and all ideas from members on this forum. I will report back when I learn more. 

[elkayem · Accepted solution]

Just closing out this thread for future visitors that may stumble across it and have the same problem. I feel like I’ve been having a conversation with myself, so perhaps my issue isn’t that common. The only way I could successfully reboot the computer was to reset to non-Optane and reinstall Windows, thus losing all of my files. Fortunately I had a full Acronis backup made a week before the failure, so was able to get my computer back to working order. Now that it is working again, it appears that the Optane is dead, or possibly there is a hardware issue on the motherboard. In any event, my computer claims there is no Optane present even though it is on the board (and I’ve tried reseating it in case there is a connection issue). I am fine with that. After this whole fiasco, I am no longer interested in Optane given that it can cause a catastrophic failure like this. On the other hand, I’m a big fan of Acronis now. Without it, I would not have been able to restore my computer. Final lesson, back up often!