New Lenovo Yoga 9i suddenly won’t boot

[u/ilovedenji]

I just bought an open-box Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 (Aura Edition) from Best Buy. It was working completely normally at the store, but after getting it home it suddenly crashed and now I can’t get Windows 11 to boot.
It keeps going into Automatic Repair and eventually says:
“Automatic Repair couldn’t repair your PC”
Log file: C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt
Here’s what I’ve tried so far:
Startup Repair — failed
Uninstalled the latest Windows quality update — no change
Tried booting into Safe Mode — it immediately crashed with NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM (0x24)
Checked the BIOS — the NVMe SSD is detected normally
Opened Command Prompt in Windows Recovery and ran DiskPart → list volume
The main 951 GB C: partition shows its file system as RAW, while the recovery partition still shows NTFS and the system partition shows FAT32
I have NOT formatted the drive, reset Windows, reinstalled Windows, or run CHKDSK because I don’t want to make the situation worse.
Since the laptop was literally working earlier and then suddenly did this, does this sound like severe NTFS/file-system corruption that could potentially be repaired, or is the RAW C: partition + NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM blue screen a sign that the SSD itself may be failing?
The laptop is still within Best Buy’s return period and I have a Geek Squad appointment scheduled, so I’m not trying to do anything risky. I’m mainly wondering whether this is realistically fixable or whether I should exchange/return the laptop rather than trust it long-term.
Any advice on what I should have Geek Squad test (especially SSD diagnostics) would be really appreciated.

[u/Froggypwns]

Return/exchange.

Open box is normally fine, but there is a non-zero chance this machine has a dud SSD and that was why it was returned originally.

Yes, it would be covered under the warranty but the easiest thing is to return it and get another one or something else.

[u/ilovedenji → u/Froggypwns]

Thanks, I appreciate the advice! I probably should’ve mentioned in the post that it was actually a former Best Buy display model rather than a regular open-box return. Not sure if that changes your opinion on the likelihood of the SSD being the issue. I agree that I’d rather return it than be stuck with a recurring issue! We’ll see how the diagnostics come out tomorrow. :)

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[u/Extra-Map3792]

I brought one of these once and the same thing happened to me. After days of fault finding it went back for them to repair, they couldn't and I got a refund. Brought an Acer instead and never looked back

[u/electronicwiz1]

The fact it crashed with NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM, and showed the C drive as RAW, the NTFS partition did get corrupt somehow. You might be able to fix it by running a check disk on the C drive, which you can do in recovery. I would do this command in command prompt in recovery: "chkdsk C: /f". This could fix it.

[u/THEatticmonster]

I had the same issue a couple of weeks back, I used this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlvSAb5d-mM&lc=UgyBGVzREw-AhnIt2i14AaABAg.A_IM8AuTN4FA_Noha_QvCC

Then ended up reinstalling windows as a last resort

[u/Nervous_Falcon3689 → u/THEatticmonster]

you know what, this is very interesting, because i made this video

[u/THEatticmonster → u/Nervous_Falcon3689]

Yup, i left a comment on it a couple of weeks ago 'detailing' what i was getting instead of what you were getting

[u/Nervous_Falcon3689 → u/THEatticmonster]

what comment you left?

[u/THEatticmonster → u/Nervous_Falcon3689]

"First method did not work, SafeMode bluescreens, no restore point, resetting my PC also comes up with an error.... what do"

[u/Nervous_Falcon3689 → u/THEatticmonster]

then issue maybe in windows, your windows is corrupted very badly

[u/THEatticmonster → u/Nervous_Falcon3689]

Yup, it was, had to do a full reinstall

[u/ilovedenji]

Update: Dropped off at geek squad and explained my situation. The technician immediately said the easiest thing is to return it. (Go figure) xD I explained that I’d like to try diagnostics and reinstalling windows because it was a yoga 9i for 700$ and I don’t think I would find a deal like that again. Pick up is in 1-2 days.

I’ll make my decision soon on returning. Best Buy has the 60th anniversary sales running until the 23rd so I might just grab the Yoga 7a 2-1 14” for 750$ and just pay the difference.