If you have a spare HDD in your system as a secondary storage then if its gone bad it can cause these symptoms. In that case you can just unplug it and the pc will be fine. Else it could be malware, or corrupted system files. Just do a clean reinstall of windows after backing up everything out of c drive. Make a usb bootable, nuke c then reinstall. Hit me up if you need help in the process/
You know, for such a niche problem, just reinstall windows instead of scratching your head trying to find the exact problem. It could be file corruption or malware, both which a total nuke will fix. Just back up everything out of c drive, then use a usb bootable to nuke c drive then reinstall windows. Hit me up if you need help in the process/ It really seems improbable that its a hardware issue.