I searched in vain for anyone who had encountered symptom of BSOD boot loop, with stop code: SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED and message "What failed: Ntfs.sys".
Found many instance where responders were suggesting safe mode, or automatic repair, neither of which were an option. No way to get there. BSOD every time, over and over.
Found only one person with similar symptom but I was reluctant to employ his nuclear solution: completely wiping and reformatting the boot drive, as it would have meant around 8 hours reinstalling everything (full Adobe Master Suite, for one).
I thought maybe the repeated looping reboot might fix the problem, but one some point, the system wouldn't even power up. The LED's on the Z590 lit up fine, but nothing else. So I thought maybe the repeated rebooting had trashed the power supply, but it checked out when tested.
So I presumed, at that point that the reboot loop had burned out something on the motherboard, and so I ordered and installed a new motherboard.
System then powered up but still issued the original BSOD message. I was beginning to think it was my Samsung NVME boot drive (500GB).
I initiated a chat session with techsupport at Microsoft which was ultimately completely unhelpful. After NOT reading my symptoms, which clearly indicated no boot of any sort was possible, he suggested "safe mode" and "system repair", and then, he concluded by saying I had a hardware problem. I contend Windows has a poor error handling problem. I asked to escalate my issue up the chain of command, and he said he'd issue a request for a callback with someone higher up. After 5 days, I decided to wait no longer.
So I booted into Linux and cloned the NVME drive to a 2.5" SSD. I then removed the boot drive and the other 4 internal drives (two 5.5" and two SSDs) and booted using the clone drive.
System informed me that it had not started/quit properly the last time (yeah, big surprise), and insisted on system repair. It then said it couldn't repair, nor could it restore, so I opted to reinstall by booting from USB Windows Media (which wouldn't allow me to "repair", either). Got all the way through the installation and booted just fine, but, of course, all my apps were gone (wouldn't allow me the option of keeping them; insisted on a clean install).
Then, on a whim, I removed the clone SSD and reinstalled the original NVME boot drive, but left all the other drives disconnected. Lo and behold! It booted up just fine!
I then proceeded to connect one drive at a time, first a 5.5, then a 1TB Crucial SSD, and after each connection, powered up and booted into Windows (11 22H3) just fine. Connected up the 2TB Samsung SSD, and BOOM -- BSOD time, again, with same error (file: Ntfs.sys). That SSD was what I was using for my local OneDrive repository, though there were other files on it, not in OneDrive.
Removed the Samsung drive and connected it via USB adapter to another system, and on attempting to open a folder on that drive, immediate BSOD, with same error message.
Used a Linux disk health scan on the 2TB Samsung drive which turned up a LOT of errors.
Fortunately, I had another 2TB SSD (Crucial, not Samsung). Using Linux, again, I tried copying the files on the failing drive that were NOT in OneDrive, but quite a few of them failed to copy. I have yet to ascertain if I have a backup of those, but upon installation in the system, was able to comment syncing files from OneDrive.
System now appears to be back to normal, though OneDrive is still playing catchup.
Lesson learned: Don't allow the BSOD to keep rebooting as it causes irreparable damage, AND, boot problems are not always the boot drive.
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Byron Canfield
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