Cannot boot from current SSD once HDD is installed, regardless of boot priority

[Strephen]

Hello, I recently bought a WD Red 1TB HDD to supplement my 120GB Patriot Blaze SSD, which I've been using for a while now.
On installing the drive, I changed my BBS priorities so that the SSD would get priority over the HDD. However, on booting up, I receive the error message "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media then press any key"
I've tried a multitude of different approaches to solving, but none have given hopeful results.
Unplugging the HDD completely is the only thing that allows me to boot properly.
For reference here are my specs:

• 
  MSI Z97 Gaming 3 mobo
  Patriot Blaze 120GB SSD
  WD Red 1TB HDD
  750 Watts from PSU
  16GB RAM DDR3

And here are Bios settings that I figured might be relevant:

• 
  Boot Mode - Legacy + UEFI
  Fixed Boot Order:
  1 - UEFI Hard Disk Patriot Blaze SSD
  2 - UEFI CD/DVD
  3 - UEFI USB Hard Disk
  4 - UEFI USB CD/DVD
  5 - UEFI USB Key
  6 - UEFI Network
  7 - USB Hard Disk
  8 - USB CD/DVD
  9 - UEFI Hard Disk: Windows Boot Manager
  10 - CD/DVD
  11 - USB Key
  12 - USB Floppy
  13 - Network
  HDD BBS Priorities
  1 - SATA 3: Patriot Blaze SSD
  2 - SATA 1: WDC HDD
  UEFI HDD BBS Priorities - Windows Boot Manager
  SATA Mode - AHCI

Any help would be appreciated!

 

[Petrossa]

Have you tried physically plugging the sata cable from the SSD into sata port 1 (or 0) and the sata cable from the hard drive into any other sata port?
It seems that despite your boot order assignments, the system still thinks that it has to boot from sata port 1 (or 0).

 

[Strephen]

Have you tried physically plugging the sata cable from the SSD into sata port 1 (or 0) and the sata cable from the hard drive into any other sata port?
It seems that despite your boot order assignments, the system still thinks that it has to boot from sata port 1 (or 0).

 

[Strephen]

Just tried it and with the SATA in first position on the priority list it still gives "Reboot and Select proper Boot device..."

 

[Petrossa]

Oh ah heck.
That has always worked for me, but in truth, I don't have an SSD in my system.
Sorry, but I'm out of ideas on this one.

 

[ArtPog]

If you boot to your SSD and THEN connect the WD HDD as a secondary HDD, does the system, i.e., Device Manager & Disk Management detect the HDD? (I'm assuming you have "hot-plugging" or "hot-swapping" enabled in your BIOS. If you don't, then do enable that setting).

It's conceivable you may be dealing with a defective WD HDD. Should that be so and the secondary drive is connected at the time of the boot, it's not unusual that a system will balk at the boot. Use WD's Drive Fitness Test to determine if there's a problem with the disk.

 

[Strephen]

Hotplugging the disk was a good call, and through doing that, I was able determine the disk is busted.
disk management won't fully load, and diskpart in cmd fails to initialize. So, i'm going to have to replace it. Thank you for your suggestions!

 

[Petrossa]

Nicely done.
Did not even consider hot plugging it.