BIOS doesn't detect new SSD, but Windows does.

[CaaptN]

Hi. I bought a new SSD (Samsung 850 evo, 250gb) a week ago and i've been trying to get it to work. My goal is to install Windows on it, and maybe the game i play the most, and use my 1tb HDD as the main storage drive.

At first I had problems where Windows wouldn't install on it, because it was set to MBR, so I converted it to GPT.
Then there was error nr2 that said something about partitions, after a while i managed to get it working only after both giving it a new "path letter", formatting and creating a new partition.
By this time I was able to install windows.

Now for my current problem wich I can't figure out at all!
The SSD shows up in the windows installer, disk management, cmd AND windows explorer. I can access the disk and see all of the windows files installed. I can see and manage the disk through Samsung magician (wich says it's healthy, genuine and what sata port it's connected to).

BUT I can't get the SSD to show up in BIOS!!

BIOS tells me that the sata port is empty, and the disk doesn't show up in the disk list or as a boot alternative.

So basically my problem is that I can't boot from the disk..

I've tried:
reseting BIOS.
updating BIOS.
changing sata cable.
changing sata port.
enabling all sata ports in BIOS.
reformatting the disk and reinstalling windows.
checking for drive updates.
removing my HDD.

I've googled this for a week, reading through so many forum threads and following every guide or tips I can find.. But nothing helps.

Usually I can fix these things on my own, I'm fairly handy with computers and so on. But now i'm getting desperate!

So, anyone have any other ideas that I haven't tried already? Any thoughts? Anything that might help!?

 

[madmatt30]

But what happens after you remove the USB flash drive (following the apparent successful installation of the OS) and restart the PC? Can you not access the PC's boot menu and select the SSD as a SATA-connected device (NOT via a Windows Boot Manager listing in the boot menu)? Same problem? Inability to boot to the Desktop?

That's when I get the "A disk read error occured. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Restart".

Btw, is there anyway to remove the "solved" status from the post?

aleady removed mate

 

[CaaptN]

1. I have partitioned my disk as MBR already. So that's not an issue.

2. Its a clean install, have moved all files I wanna save to an external drive.

3. When I have installed windows and let the pc restart, it sends me back to the beginning of the installation process if I leave the USB in.
If I remove the USB during restart, it sends me to the black screen saying: "A disk read error occured. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to Restart".

I am using default configurations in BIOS.

I think your issue here mate is that your setting the usb as the boot device in bios??
once windows starts installing & restarts it automatically tries to boot from the usb again.
removing it causes fail boot - disk read error.

Have you set the ssd in bios as the second boot device ??
if not thats where the problem lies.

in all honesty you should have an option to set the ssd as primary boot device & do a single boot once only from usb.
This should solve your problem.

Why should I set it as second boot device? What should be first??
I have tried to set it in all different slots in the boot order menu, and i've also tried to boot from it directly using boot override. Still gives me the disk read error.

 

[ArtPog]

I honestly don't know what else to suggest. While we've more-or-less run into a similar problem to the one you raised, we've always been able to resolve it through one or the other processes I've previously indicated.

Unless someone else coming upon this thread can offer some insight into resolving this problem I don't know what else I can suggest other than what I mentioned previously - getting in touch with MSI tech support and see if they can shed any light on this issue.

In any event keep us informed if you're able to resolve this problem.

 

[CaaptN]

So after messing around abit in BIOS (mainly with the boot order) I got a few different results, or should I say different error screens. One of the screens told me "The operating system couldn't be loaded because the kernel is missing or contains errors. File: \Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe"

I bootet through my old HDD, browsed through the windows files on my SSD and found the file. I clicked "Troubleshoot Compatibility", and it told me the file might not be compatible with my hardware, so it gave me the option to fix this. I did, restarted the computer, set BIOS to default and NOW IT WORKS! YAY!

I can now boot through my new SSD, finally!
I had a problem where windows explorer completely froze after a few minutes on every startup, where I couldn't even use Ctrl+Alt+Del. But I fixed that by disabling some option, that apparently made my disk work at 100% all the time for no reason. (This was a common problem, that windows had posted a sulotion to on their site)

The only issue I'm still having, wich I can live with, but it's quite annoying since it kinda ruins the purpose of having windows on an SSD. When I'm booting the pc, I get stuck on the screen where I see my motherboard logo, and there's this "loading wheel" that loads for about 2-3 minutes before it continues to the login screen (and from there everything is really quick, as an SSD should be).

No idea why this happens, the SSD shouldn't have to load for 3 minutes on bootup, right? I mean, even my HDD loaded abit faster than that. Like I said, I can live with this, but in the long run, it will be annoying. So if anyone have any thought, shoot!

 

[CaaptN]

After a few tweaks and optimizations in Samsung Magician, I reduced the boot time from 3 minutes to 3 seconds. Now I think everything is solved, halleluja!