# Warn: AMD Radeon Crimson Uninstaller can ruin your system partition table!



## RoutedScripter (Jun 21, 2016)

I'm posting this now after it happened twice, and I have a good plan how to avoid it in the future, I will never uinstall AMD drivers again without first creating a clonezilla image, at least on this PC with Win7 and this GPU.

This is more kind of a report with diagnostic info, so AMD if they even bother to see this, take this and analyze and maybe figure out what's causing it, it could be something with Windows but it needs that uninstaller as a spark.
*
Overview:*
I have uninstalled AMD GPU drivers 3 times in 2016 up to June of the time of this thread. The system drive was damaged 2 times. The problem never happened after installing, always after uninstalling when the PC displays in low VGA mode or whatever you want to call it.

*Second Uninstall Case: *(june 2016, after update run)
The version is known, it is AMD Minimal Setup - Crimson Edition 16.3.2 - 3/28/2016 - 12.3 MB.
Which installs only the display driver.

*Intermediate Uninstall Case:*
This one did not produce the problem, I do not remember which version exactly, but I do know it was the full package.
*
First Uninstall Case: *(around march, before major win7 update run)
- I don't remember which exactly it was but I believe it was the first release in 2016 of the new Crimson (successor of catalyst) driver package.

*What gets damaged:*

The drive at the hardware level is fine.
The whole partition table is not detected properly, the drive would appear unallocated.
First partiton - System Reserved 100MB - has further bootsector and other NTFS filesystem damage, requires complete reformat and bootrec /rebuildbcd

Second Partition - Win7 SysRoot - is fine and does not need boot sector repair, detected with quicksearch.










*The process it took (in my second case) to fix it:*


Spoiler



- updating wsus-offline around 100 cabs and msu
- rebooting, doing some other maintenance, reg cleaning, reinstalling old programs
- going to sleep, pc turned off
- morning start, doing no big work, sorting other data on HDDs, afternoon uninstalling AMD Drivers
- Finished - "Please Reboot Now" - > DISK BOOT FAILURE
- facepalm
- vacuuming the main pc
- disconnecting data drives and ssd, leaving old hdd inside, but crammed in there DVD bay w 4 screws
- using my old nearby service-pc win7 to connect sata data to it, while power from main pc
- borrowing a HDTV to run 2 screens simultaneously without need to switch
- searching for a longer HDMI cable around the house
- transfering files to LAN PC temp location, takes forever on 100Mbps - 12MB/s
- using 3 USBs to help tranfer, but takes longer cause USB 1.1 - 10/MBs (plus target PC reading 30/MBs)
- making space and removing old Win10 Preview
- downloading new win10 preview and preparing USB
- Installing new Win10 preview, doing some fast configs
- going to sleep, morning reading forums, figuring out wrong index installed
- reinstalling win10, and leaving defaults, ready for linux dual-boot anyway
- downloadng linux, preparing USBs
- setting up linux mint 17.3, getting latest testdisk, figuring out old version, removing, getting latest 7.0
- running ddrescue to get broken ssd image for failsafe
- running dd to extract some parts of the broken ssd image for analysis
- the linux stuff took 1 day cause I had to chat a lot to get help for basic things
- recreating windows systemreserved partition, a lot of usb and dvd win7 disc setup back and forth
- a lot of obsolete, inaccurate info on the web slowing things down
- could amount to 3 days of practical work total.



*SSD Diagnostic Preview:*
Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series (DXM04B0Q)
128 GB (128035676160 bytes)

*System Information Preview:*
OS: Windows 7 x64 Ultimate March 2013 - updated ocassionally,
       - updated like 100 updates 1 day before AMD Uninstaller was run.
CPU: Intel Core i7 3820 - Sandy Bridge-E
Mobo: Asus P9X79
GPU: Sapphire AMD Radeon R7 370 2GB

*Full Diagnostic Report: DL Link: http://preview.tinyurl.com/julozb8*

Broken SSDImage: First and Last 100 Megabytes (sorry, 128GB is a lot to UL, and also personal data)
Testdisk Fixed SysRes Partition image (someone could apply that and try chkdsk there**)
TestDisk SSD Fixing logfile
Gparted Fixed SSD screenshot (ntfs warning)
TestDisk screenshots
Linux text files from terminal output
CPUZ Report after recovery
GPUZ Screenshot
DXDIAG after recovery
_CHKDSK log_: unfortunately I forgot to run chkdsk on the partially fixed sys-res partiton._**_
(will do this when i recreate the problem purposelly next time)
*How To Fix Sys Reserved Partition* (future proof, google search takes too long)


Spoiler




(after fixing partition table with testdisk)
Running Windows Setup (usb or dvd, make sure run non-uefi for non-uefi installation)
Opening CMD with Shift+F10 (after setting keyboard language)
Diskpart
list disk
sel disc 0  (preferrably no other disks connected)
list part
sel part 1
format fs=ntfs label="System Reserved" 

active (may already be set properly if you used testdisk and choosed "Bootable Primary" correctly

exit
Reboot (close windows install window X button)
-
Run startup repair (probably won't fix anything but anyway)
Wait for detection then click top radio button and Next
Then you get to Startup Repair on top from the list
Reboot

-
CMD again
optionally check diskpart and type "list vol" to get what letters partitions use
using C: as the partiton 1 the System Reserved one (this is not real C)
then type:
x:\sources> C: 

C:> mkdir boot
cd boot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
should return success.
Reboot - actually shutdown, now you must reconnect other drives, disconnect DVD and USB
(this is important for me since I use NTFS HARDLINKS to other HDDs for some appdata stuff)




*How it looks like after TestDisk Fix:*






*Win7 Update Run - List of packages installed *(WSUSOffline)
pending (upd: it was moved to now unavailable network location, maybe if i get a few mins tomorrow)

*Furthermore:*
After holidays I may try to purposelly recreate it again just to gather more data and to reconfirm that it is the AMD uninstaller causing this, passively or directly, it may as well be the Microsoft's installer in the background doing some stuff. Unless, AMD actually recognizes and fixes this or whoever is responsible.

I also plan on, if necessary, making a video of turning the PC on, going to uninstaller, seeing the boot fail.

*SPECIAL THANKS:*
##linux @ freenode.net
ayecee
peetaur2
sulfyr
triceratux

*EDIT: *Yes I am aware that it may be obcure settings, config, hw, os, but this time it couldn't have happened at the worst possible timeframe, so yes I would contact AMD myself but I'm just out of time, I wanted to make this thread at least and upload diagnostics before I go to 2 week vacation, infact I'm finished today, I have to pack and prep all day tomorrow, so after I update the rest of the pendings I won't be here anymore, in an emergency I could log in with my phone from vacation and answer some bits if needed, but I'm trying to have a peaceful vacation without tech craze.

*EDIT2:* There was an error while trying to install 16.6.1 hotfix driver package in intermediate case, that's when I took the 16.3.2 minimal, then I continued and updated 100 packages for win7, so seem like 16.6.1 installer it worked after the 100 win update run, but this was an unrelated little hicckup, just explaining the flow, so the reports will show most current driver, not the one I had the problem with, but since this was going on from beginning.


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## Ferrum Master (Jun 21, 2016)

ah will suggest it to my AMD friends... I want a good laugh


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## qubit (Jun 21, 2016)

If this is confirmed elsewhere, then this is a new level of fuckup from AMD. So glad I've got NVIDIA.

EDIT: a video driver corrupting the partition table really makes no sense. See my post 19 for details.


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## dorsetknob (Jun 21, 2016)

qubit said:


> If this is confirmed elsewhere,



No result from Google found indicating this ???? pass the salt i may need a pinch


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## erocker (Jun 21, 2016)

I just did this without  issue on my HTPC.

Win7 x64
hd 7970
amd 5800k

Havent heard bout this until this thread. Issue most likely happened due to some obscure setting in your config. Best to contact AMD about it.

*Actually I do remember issues when this software was first released (I believe with Windows 8). That was before Crimson existed though.


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## INSTG8R (Jun 21, 2016)

I have been through EVERY Crismson available and I uninstall them everytime, zero issues. That is with Win10 on a SSD RAID 0 array, if anything was gonna be borked from drivers it would be my array.


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## cdawall (Jun 21, 2016)

Just uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers on my gamer without issue. Have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers on my ridiculous serverish kind of thing a multitude of times as well.

16.5 crimson beta on the serverish thing

2x opteron ES's
supermicro H8DGi-F
2x 7950's flashed to 280's
1TB vraptor

16.6 beta on the gamer

5820K
GB X99m
R9 290
256GB PM951


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## tabascosauz (Jun 21, 2016)

@RuskiSnajper Why are you even using the uninstaller bundled with AMD drivers? Why do you not know about DDU? DDU is a must-use tool for every driver change/uninstall/reinstall, Green / Red / Blue team.

DDU will solve all your problems and do its job in 5 minutes flat. DDU has handled every single one of my GPUs without problem. Heck, I used the uninstaller with Crimson drivers for changing out my R7 265 and I didn't have any problems.

Sounds like a specific drive setup issue. Also, all three times have happened with the same 840 Pro and the same R7 370...this doesn't prove anything about AMD's software. This suggests that there's something yet-to-be-proven messing with your system, it doesn't prove that Crimson's uninstaller has issues for different Radeon systems.


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## cdawall (Jun 21, 2016)

tabascosauz said:


> Sounds like a specific drive setup issue. Also, all three times have happened with the same 840 Pro and the same R7 370...this doesn't prove anything about AMD's software. This suggests that there's something messing with your system, it doesn't prove that Crimson's uninstaller has issues for different Radeon systems.



Something like an instability issue? or a failing board/HDD

I also feel like this 3 day BS could have been done in 20 minutes using the the windows 7 repair or using restore points.


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## AsRock (Jun 21, 2016)

qubit said:


> If this is confirmed elsewhere, then this is a new level of fuckup from AMD. So glad I've got NVIDIA.



I been installing over uninstalling for  a good year now and not a single issue.


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## laszlo (Jun 21, 2016)

i'm using same ssd type and no issues(ahci enabled;ssd on rapid mode  btw)


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## Frick (Jun 21, 2016)

erocker said:


> I just did this without  issue on my HTPC.
> 
> Win7 x64
> hd 7970
> ...



So much this. There are millions of things that can go wrong in a modern OS, and many of those things can be connected. It's like tough guys seeking a doctor for their chest pains and it turns out to be anxiety or PTSD.


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## MercJ (Jun 21, 2016)

Put me down in the "never had an issue with this on any system" list.  Interesting, but sounds like there are a myriad of other factors to consider yet.


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## qubit (Jun 21, 2016)

dorsetknob said:


> No result from Google found indicating this ???? pass the salt i may need a pinch





AsRock said:


> I been installing over uninstalling for  a good year now and not a single issue.


Good points and good to know. This is why I qualified my statement like that. 

It really would be a royal screwup, especially as drivers don't go near the filing system or partition tables for their operation.


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## R-T-B (Jun 21, 2016)

tabascosauz said:


> @RuskiSnajper Why are you even using the uninstaller bundled with AMD drivers? Why do you not know about DDU? DDU is a must-use tool for every driver change/uninstall/reinstall, Green / Red / Blue team.
> 
> DDU will solve all your problems and do its job in 5 minutes flat. DDU has handled every single one of my GPUs without problem. Heck, I used the uninstaller with Crimson drivers for changing out my R7 265 and I didn't have any problems.
> 
> Sounds like a specific drive setup issue. Also, all three times have happened with the same 840 Pro and the same R7 370...this doesn't prove anything about AMD's software. This suggests that there's something yet-to-be-proven messing with your system, it doesn't prove that Crimson's uninstaller has issues for different Radeon systems.



Call me crazy, but the point here is companies should ship a working uninstaller for their drivers.

That said, I've never had any issue with NVIDIA or AMD's uninstaller for the past year, and yes I've used both without DDU everytime.


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## jaggerwild (Jun 21, 2016)

http://www.guru3d.com/files-tags/download-ddu.html

 So you don't have to tell us your life story next time you shart yer pants


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## RoutedScripter (Jun 21, 2016)

Okay, the OP is mostly fully updated now. The DL Link to the report has also been added. I don't expect anything of a big deal to happen, it's just out there, if it's a wider issue, it may get looked into, who knows, i just wanted to put it on the record somewhere. And I'm going straight to bed in 10 mins.

This is one crazy uninstaller, if true, like a slap in the face on the way out. But it's worse, It really affected my nerves and whole quality of life for these 3 days, even tho I'm used to computer stuff, but nothing like this, had a big headache in morning, then the heat turned up, then I blew up for 30 minutes just growling trying to figure where to start,  this is unacceptable.



Ferrum Master said:


> ah will suggest it to my AMD friends... I want a good laugh



Well if they did take a look, they should check back since it's only now that I was able to finish the full report and upload it.


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## dorsetknob (Jun 22, 2016)

Sorry but your posts in this thread smack of self pity and needyness
your the only one suffering from the symptoms you describe
No one Else shows up in google with anything like the problem you describe



RuskiSnajper said:


> But it's worse, It really affected my nerves and whole quality of life for these 3 days,


Take Your Meds and make a appointment with a Doctor


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## qubit (Jun 22, 2016)

@RuskiSnajper This problem just makes no sense, because graphics drivers don't go anywhere near the filing system or partition tables. Could you have some malware on your system perhaps that's causing this weirdness when you uninstall the driver?

Also, I see that you've done a repair on the partitions. It's quite possible that there are critical files that are damaged there now, compounding the problem.

To eliminate these possibilities and help troubleshoot this issue, I strongly recommend installing W7 clean off the disc, patching it and then creating a backup image straight away WITHOUT installing the driver. Then install and uninstall the driver and see what happens. I'll bet money your partitions don't get corrupted this time. 

I know you reckon the SSD is fine, but perhaps the problem really is there. If it corrupts again, try using a HDD and repeating the test. There could be other stupid things such as a faulty SATA cable or a dodgy SATA port causing file system corruption and making it look like AMD is at fault. This actually happened to me a few months ago and had me running around for a while until I figured it out. I made a thread about it on TPU at the time.

Finally, I appreciate your OP in trying to help others avoid the same frustrations with something that's been driving you mad.


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## RejZoR (Jun 22, 2016)

I find it weird as well. Graphics driver and partition tables have nothing in common. At all.


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## NeoGalaxy (Jun 22, 2016)

The AMD uninstaller had nothing to do with the error he got to be honest. He should have checked the SSD from time to time, maybe check for a firmware update, maybe let the updates take its time to finish and not update 100 at a time since something might not go as planned. Not taking care of the your own system is most of the time the real problem in IT sadly but we'll it happens


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## medi01 (Jun 22, 2016)

A video driver corrupting the partition table makes no sense whatsoever, dafuq does it have to do with it in the first place?

New low in anti-AMD FUD campaign?


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## Pill Monster (Jun 22, 2016)

The MBR was corrupted, not the partition table. 

I had a look at your mediafire folder, just for future reference if you had let Test Disk scan the entire drive it would have rebuilt the MBR using the boot partition and extended partitions it found (the green ones).





Anyway fwiw your SSD is on it's last legs hence the corruption.    That's what "Pre-Fail" means.......; )
)


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## qubit (Jun 22, 2016)

Pill Monster said:


> Anyway fwiw your SSD is on it's last legs hence the corruption. That's what "Pre-Fail" means.......; )


That'll be the source of the whole problem then - well spotted. Nothing to do with drivers or AMD, as I thought.


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## RejZoR (Jun 22, 2016)

I mean yes, drivers can make system unbootable due to driver loading failure and OS loading just stalls because of it. But that isn't corrupted partition. SSD going bad is more likely scenario indeed.


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## Liquid Cool (Jun 22, 2016)

I absolutely love the AMD Clean Uninstall Utility. 

AMD Clean Uninstall Utility

I've used it on both Crimson and Catalyst drivers without a single issue. 

Best,

Liquid Cool


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## ocre (Jun 23, 2016)

Pill Monster said:


> The MBR was corrupted, not the partition table.
> 
> I had a look at your mediafire folder, just for future reference if you had let Test Disk scan the entire drive it would have rebuilt the MBR using the boot partition and extended partitions it found (the green ones).
> 
> ...



My drink burst out of my mouth when I read this.
That is not how it works!!!! 

You even got several thanks and no one corrected you yet???  For real, on a tech forum?  

So anyways, clearly there is confusion. That is the only reason I am posting. 

Telling people that Pre-fail in their smart test means their drive is going out, now that is a new one.  I think it's incredibly hilarious but you know there are people out there that really don't know and could be shaken up reading stuff like this on a tech forum.  

The smart test says clearly "Overall Assessment: OK".   This is the assessment of the entire drive, all test together: OK. Just for the record, OK is the best assessment you can get. There is no great, brand new, or perfect.  A brand new drive assessment: ok.  The assessment is pretty cut and dry, no special skills or knowledge needed.  OK is as good as it gets.
Then, a further break down of individual results.  Every single one in the picture you posted ends with OK in the assessment column.  Even the ones that have Pre-fail under their "type" column.  I don't see how that isn't enough to tell you that perhaps there is something not adding up in your understanding.  So, the smart test shows a pass on all test, every one checks ok but then you say it's failing....

So, Pre-fail is not the result of a test. It's not the result of any test. It's the type of test.  See, there are many test and different test numbers. If a drive fails any Pre-fail type test, then the drive is soon to fail. Then the drive is failing.  But, you see that every test in the picture was given an OK. There were no failed test, there were no flags.

So that is the simplest way to look at it, there are also numbers there which can give even more information, if you know how to read them.  On test that are to determine Pre-fail, old age, etc there are values as that have meaning.  Since different SSD manufacturers have a different way of recording info that smart reads (no standard), to make it simple there is the normalized vs threshold columns. When the normalized value drops under the threshold, then the drive is failing now.   Typically, it starts at 100 and over time with usage it will go down and down.  So, it's like a percentage. 100% then over the life time it goes down and down. The threshold is not always zero though, it's set by the manufacturer and can be wherever they chose.  Also, when a drive reaches the threshold, it doesn't mean it will die or go out at that moment. These are just safe zones that the manufacturer sets.  They test and decided based on their expectations.  Typically though, many drives can go on after they reach individual thresholds.  Some for a very long time.  I am not advocating to use a drive that has reached thresholds, just saying that these are not the end of the life and there should still be leeway.  If your SSD is flagging  and reached thresholds, replace if you care about your data.

But anyhow, this particular picture shows perfectly fine statistics.  Nothing is near threshold. The wear level is 82 from 100.  Since its threshold is 0, it's got a long long way to go.  82% is not failing.


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## R-T-B (Jun 23, 2016)

ocre said:


> My drink burst out of my mouth when I read this.
> That is not how it works!!!!
> 
> You even got several thanks and no one corrected you yet???  For real, on a tech forum?
> ...



As much as you are right in this point, there is no reason to throw a wall of text up over a simple correction.  Seems like intense overkill and honestly, kinda rude.



medi01 said:


> A video driver corrupting the partition table makes no sense whatsoever, dafuq does it have to do with it in the first place?
> 
> New low in anti-AMD FUD campaign?



Not a new low by any means:

I remember years ago, not on this forum, but another (I think guru3d or something).  A thread titled exactly this:

"TrueVision killed my hard drive!"

The guy concluded that because his HDD had went out when Truevision was turned on, that the drivers had somehow wrecked his HDD.

I wish I could find it.  It was hillarious.


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## broken pixel (Jun 23, 2016)

The other AMD Uninstaller tool from years ago messed up Windows by deleting some system tools if I recall correctly?


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## Frick (Jun 23, 2016)

ocre said:


> My drink burst out of my mouth when I read this.
> That is not how it works!!!!
> 
> You even got several thanks and no one corrected you yet???  For real, on a tech forum?
> ...



Aye, the only thing in the SMART data indicating failure has to do with sectors, generally. I think my SSDs, which are qyite new, also have pre-fail types.


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## RoutedScripter (Jun 23, 2016)

dorsetknob said:


> Take Your Meds and make a appointment with a Doctor



That's a long story. No need to mix things now.





qubit said:


> @RuskiSnajper This problem just makes no sense, because graphics drivers don't go anywhere near the filing system or partition tables. Could you have some malware on your system perhaps that's causing this weirdness when you uninstall the driver?
> 
> Also, I see that you've done a repair on the partitions. It's quite possible that there are critical files that are damaged there now, compounding the problem.
> 
> ...




I will do all those test cases when I get back. Thanks for suggesting I didn't thought of it before. I have more than a week now to brainstorm a bit.




RejZoR said:


> I find it weird as well. Graphics driver and partition tables have nothing in common. At all.



In theory. One thing can lead to another chain of events, so it's way too early for conclusions.





NeoGalaxy said:


> The AMD uninstaller had nothing to do with the error he got to be honest. He should have checked the SSD from time to time, maybe check for a firmware update, maybe let the updates take its time to finish and not update 100 at a time since something might not go as planned. Not taking care of the your own system is most of the time the real problem in IT sadly but we'll it happens



Yes an update is available but was not recommended, since it only fixes some DevSleep issues with it being used on mobile devices, comments on the net did not provide and other undocumented performance benefits so I did not risk updating. If you have found better and more trusted information regarding this SSD 06 update then I'll take it into consideration.





medi01 said:


> A video driver corrupting the partition table makes no sense whatsoever, dafuq does it have to do with it in the first place?
> 
> New low in anti-AMD FUD campaign?



Come on, check my history, never used a Nvidia card before.





Pill Monster said:


> The MBR was corrupted, not the partition table.
> 
> I had a look at your mediafire folder, just for future reference if you had let Test Disk scan the entire drive it would have rebuilt the MBR using the boot partition and extended partitions it found (the green ones).
> 
> ...



The third white one was a leftover detected from the time when I was experimenting with sysreserved manual creation at the first time I bought SSD, that one was also present in the MARCH CASE but at the time I was not using latest TestDisk 7.0 so the trace of it was not removed because the 6.14 latest version from Linux Mint 17.3 synaptic package browser. I'm not sure if that trace was removed now, the one that has letter *D* in front of it -- i did not had time to check back in with TestDisk since I had to pack things up fixing the Windows before leaving to holidays. I will also do that when I get back.

Ofcourse only the MBR seems broken, because I fixed it with testdisk the image you're checking. The whole SSD is recognized as empty.* If you check the broken image you'd see is fully broken*, *you guys can't do that because I didn't upload the full 128GB .img*. But, the second partition, the biggest one where windows is and other data, it's not damaged at the filesystem level thus I am able to "get away with it" practically without a scratch but it's not something average users would bother to go through to fix. Boot Time CHKDSK is auto-activated to run on ALL disks that are connected upon returning to windows after rebuilding boot/bcd, it does not find any errors on the second partition.

I have rebooted the machine so many times, why doesn't it happen anytime other than AMD Uninstall ?  I have applied around 90 windows updates in ONE GO and nothing went wrong, with windows, let alone the MBR and Partitions.




qubit said:


> That'll be the source of the whole problem then - well spotted. Nothing to do with drivers or AMD, as I thought.



Jumping to conclusions a bit. I never said it is. I said I have good hunch since it seems repeatable. I still have more open ways of proving or disproving that even more, I just can't provide them at this time.


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## broken pixel (Jun 23, 2016)

In the past AMDs uninstall utility did fark up some peoples OS. 
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1fpzn1/amds_official_uninstall_utility_ruined_my_win8/


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## RoutedScripter (Jun 23, 2016)

Technically I could have compressed those 128GB down to 35GB since 60 GB is free space and that 55 would be compressed down to 35 or something, but that would take like 5 hours to compress with a max config and then another ... ~2 days of uploading, on 4 Mbps , so this would all take additional time I didn't had since Clonezilla won't work with a broken disk like that. (which would directly make and compress the image in one go and I have experience with it) These are all uncompressed ddresuce images, containing a lot of zeroes, inside a quick RAR, and you get 30 MB


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## ocre (Jun 23, 2016)

R-T-B said:


> As much as you are right in this point, there is no reason to throw a wall of text up over a simple correction.  Seems like intense overkill and honestly, kinda rude.


Rude?  Overkill-wall of text?  Sure, if you had already known how to interpret a smart report then there is not much to gain from said wall of text.  It then makes me question why you (or no one else for that matter) took the time to correct his/her error.  As I stated in my post, my surprise was not so much that a person didn't know but the alarming fact that there were multiple thanks and other posters who took such misinformation and ran with it.  You know, there are thousands more people who read forums than actually post.  Such a gross misinterpretation should be corrected, especially on a tech forum.

You know, I could have just posted "you are wrong" and perhaps that would have pleased you.  But I truly believe that would have just been smothered out, there were already plenty of people swayed and I did not post here to argue.

See, my post wasnt about that.  I don't care to prove anyone wrong.  So, once again I will.point to why I posted.  The fact that there were several people being influenced and totally misinformed with no one speaking up who knew.  My assumption was that people didn't know, so my long drawn out post was to inform not only the poster but anyone one else who didn't know.

I am sure the poster thought they knew what they were talking about.  Go and read the SMART explanation on the website from google. Its long and drawn out, but worse so it is not clear to many who read it.  Or try a search on SMART Pre-fail meaning, you might find a bunch of people confused and looking for answers.  Forum results on pages like these. But many of them don't have a lot of info.  I think it is important enough that I took the time to post so that most people could get it, there are plenty who just don't know.  It wasn't trying to offend you, it wasn't to be rude.




R-T-B said:


> Not a new low by any means:
> 
> I remember years ago, not on this forum, but another (I think guru3d or something).  A thread titled exactly this:
> 
> ...



I certainly don't know how what the OP claims could happen and its only natural for me to be very skeptical of this claim but I certainly wouldn't laugh or put this in rank with other new lows.  If I didn't know any better, I would think this was kinda rude....lol


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## jaggerwild (Jun 23, 2016)

broken pixel said:


> In the past AMDs uninstall utility did fark up some peoples OS.
> https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1fpzn1/amds_official_uninstall_utility_ruined_my_win8/


 
 That was back when and you had to have an AMD board too(think i had that issue long ago). Drivers sweeper would remove chip set drivers too if they were AMD, hence the borked system.


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## Nokiron (Jun 23, 2016)

Pill Monster said:


> Anyway fwiw your SSD is on it's last legs hence the corruption.    That's what "Pre-Fail" means.......; )
> )


What? There is no SMART-value here that suggests that it is failing. Pre-fail is the type of attribute, not the value.

The "Worst" value should fall below the threshold for it to matter.

The drive looks totally fine.

No reallocated sectors, no uncorrectable errors and decent wear leveling levels.


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## R-T-B (Jun 23, 2016)

> It then makes me question why you (or no one else for that matter) took the time to correct his/her error.



I would've but I don't live here.  I just vacation.

As for my reply being rude, no, it's pretty much an identical claim.


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## broken pixel (Jun 24, 2016)

jaggerwild said:


> That was back when and you had to have an AMD board too(think i had that issue long ago). Drivers sweeper would remove chip set drivers too if they were AMD, hence the borked system.



It happend to me with an intel based chipset MB back then.


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## jaggerwild (Jun 24, 2016)

broken pixel said:


> It happend to me with an intel based chipset MB back then.



Dats what I meant on Intel boards but it had been so long sense it happened, I thought it was an AMD i had long ago....................................



Nokiron said:


> What? There is no SMART-value here that suggests that it is failing. Pre-fail is the type of attribute, not the value.
> 
> The "Worst" value should fall below the threshold for it to matter.
> 
> ...



Go back to school kid, you got an awesome graph though does it show BS factor?


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## Nokiron (Jun 24, 2016)

jaggerwild said:


> Go back to school kid, you got an awesome graph though does it show BS factor?


Did you misquote?

Otherwise I have no idea what you are talking about.


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## Aquinus (Jun 24, 2016)

Nokiron said:


> Did you misquote?
> 
> Otherwise I have no idea what you are talking about.


That's what I think. It sounded like a comment directed towards Pill, not you. I thought your explanation hit the nail right on the head.


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## Plus Alpha (Jun 24, 2016)

saw this on reddit .. 
this is 
impossible plain and simple
show us video of everything you did step by step
the smart table is telling me that drive is not long for this world
whats likely happening is you have bunch of bad sectors and when you write to that particular part of the disk it crashes


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## RoutedScripter (Jun 24, 2016)

That bad sector would be reported in smart, also after updating the updates, i've also came across information that the SSD is also to be defragmented for the purpose of defragmenting the NTFS filesystem itself and not having too much of those pointers metadata that tells where everything is, that's another story not gonna explain now. So I did a full quick defrag, while not consolidating free space, so it didn't move stuff into on clump, wouldn't I hit that "bad" sector you're talking about at least some time in these 2 years, plus, that's just the clean state, I had the SSD up to 100 GB full for some time, it varied.


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## Plus Alpha (Jun 25, 2016)

do you have any idea how many people uninstall crimson on a daily basis
you are the only one that has reported such a issue
this is flat impossible something else is causing your issue
in order to manipulate the partition table 3 things need to happen 
1. you need SYSTEM level access Not Administrator SYSTEM,
2. you need to have a utility that explicitly is writen to change the partition table   OR a hexeditor with direct disk access
what you are claiming is simply not possible under windows


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## RoutedScripter (Jun 26, 2016)

Plus Alpha said:


> do you have any idea how many people uninstall crimson on a daily basis
> you are the only one that has reported such a issue
> this is flat impossible something else is causing your issue
> in order to manipulate the partition table 3 things need to happen
> ...




Many installers have special rights with TRUSTEDINSTALLER.EXE which runs under SYSTEM.But there's probably more to the story which I can't brainstorm right now.


I don't have much time to explain further, but, I don't want to anyway since I'm not sure myself and I don't want to make inaccurate charges at AMD. Infact the guys who I borrowed this laptop are gone today so my response will be less frequent from now, but I won't bother since I think I answered much, just wait until I get back home I'll do more things to prove or disprove my case.


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## R-T-B (Jun 26, 2016)

Plus Alpha said:


> the smart table is telling me that drive is not long for this world



No, it's not.

That said, I agree this is impossible.


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## Frick (Jun 26, 2016)

Have you contacted AMD or Microsoft? They should be interested.


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## RoutedScripter (May 11, 2017)

I have since moved to a new GPU - Radeon RX480. In January 2017.

While I did remember to backup image before uninstalling the drivers before the upgrade, and nothing happened, I did forget to do this when upgrading the drivers recently a few days ago with the new GPU.

But it didn't happen in any of these 2 cases, on the new GPU it's only the first time I upgraded them, so let's not jump to conclusions, the curse of AMD's uninstaller could strike from the shadows again, heh.

If there was a lottery on super rare weird computer bugs, I probably got it, no?


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