Question Installing a second M.2 NVMe SSD, now PC won't boot and just loops Windows Automatic Repair ?

[kjolley]

So I am trying to install a new drive, a second m.2 ssd for more storage for games and it just won't get to windows.

I have tried pretty much all options and none work. I will say all the steps I took.

First time trying to setup the new drive:

1. Plug the m.2 into the mobo. (I have 5 total drive including the new one, none of the sata ports are disrupted by the m.2 drives)
2. Turn on the computer to see the bios being slow.
3. Bios eventually after ~30 seconds will say trying to diagnose a repair etc.
4. It then closes and goes to the Windows Automatic Repair page.
5. Nothing in there seems to fix my issue (going into safe mode etc)
6. At this point I said screw it ill try again later.
7. Took out the drive but then had some very odd ram issues that made no sense (ram lights on). So I just unseat and reseat the ram and it boots back to normal.

Second attempt now that I have a plan.

1. Insert the drive.
2. Go into bios and turn off fast boot and secure boot.
3. Restarted the PC.
4. Someone said spam f8 to bring up boot device, said that instead of Windows Boot Manager "drive name" you needed to go to that window and select just the drive.
5. Get to that menu and of course the only option is WBM "drive name".
6. I try to boot with that but it does not work, no bueno.
7. My next idea is well if this drive just needs a format (new volume) then let me go to the CMD in the Automatic Repair section.
8. Successfully create the new volume for the drive and reboot.
9. Same exact issue nothing is fixed.
10. Now I am thinking ok I disabled all the stupid boot stuff, made a new volume for the drive, etc and it still is not working, I give up.
11. repeated step 7 from the first attempt and still had the weird ram issue but got back in as i did the first time.
12. I also re-enabled secure and fast boot.

I have tried everything I think would fix this issue, even took out the CMOS battery to reset the bios and all. My bios is very up to date, maybe only a couple months old so that should not be the issue. I also removed all drives but the os drive and the new m.2 ssd, still nothing worked.

If anyone maybe knows of say some different bios settings that can potentially fix this please let me know but I am convinced that there is no hope given I have exhausted my options.

One though is maybe the specific m.2 slot is important to have the os on but that would make 0 sense.

Specs:
Motherboard: Asus Tuf x570 plus wifi
CPU: Ryzen 7 3700x
CPU cooler: Idk some liquid cooler
Ram: Gskill 3200 Mhz 4x8gb
SSD/HDD: samsung evo 970 500gb (os), sandisk sdssda24 350gb ssd, hitachi hdp72505 500gb hdd, seagate ST3250310AS 250gb hdd and the one im trying to install teamgroup mp33 1tb ssd
GPU: MSI Gaming-X-Trio RTX 3080
PSU: 850w platinum evga
Chassis: Lian-Li
OS: windows 10

Honestly I am about ready to send this ssd back to amazon and get a [redacted language] sata ssd cause honestly i dont understand how the mobo manufacturer and windows can't get a single thing right.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard: Asus tuf x570 plus wifi
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

Please include the BIOS version for your motherboard. You stated that the drive was new, was it new out of the box or did you mean to the system, being a recycled drive from an older build/platform?

 

[kjolley]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

When posting a thread of troubleshooting nature, it's customary to include your full system's specs. Please list the specs to your build like so:
CPU:
CPU cooler:
Motherboard: Asus tuf x570 plus wifi
Ram:
SSD/HDD:
GPU:
PSU:
Chassis:
OS:

Please include the BIOS version for your motherboard. You stated that the drive was new, was it new out of the box or did you mean to the system, being a recycled drive from an older build/platform?

Hey, yeah I will edit and add. I just didn't since it won't really help troubleshooting tbh, not in this case.

 

[Lutfij]

Per their support site;
https://www.asus.com/motherboards-c...k_bios/?model2Name=TUF-GAMING-X570-PLUS-WI-FI
which BIOS version are you on for your motherboard? You're advised to be on the latest version to ensure maximum compatibility. Once you've verified that the BIOS has been successfully updated, clear the CMOS and then try powering up with just the MP33 without any other storage hooked up to the platform.

If you haven't, might want to try and install the NVMe driver for the Samsung drive. Minor improvement on the drive/existing platform but not exactly related to the MP33 drive. Just for the sake of relevance, can you drop the MP33 drive into another known working system with an M.2 drive in it.

 

[kjolley]

Per their support site;
https://www.asus.com/motherboards-c...k_bios/?model2Name=TUF-GAMING-X570-PLUS-WI-FI
which BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

4403

 

[TerryLaze]

Honestly I am about ready to send this ssd back to amazon and get a [redacted language] sata ssd cause honestly i dont understand how the mobo manufacturer and windows can't get a single thing right.

My guess would be that whoever installed the first m.2 just put it into a random slot instead of the one with the lowest port number,
now you are installing into a slot with a lower port number messing up the whole boot process.

A modern bios has two boot lists, the main one where you just select what device TYPE to boot from first (m.2/sata/optical/usb) and the second one (BBS priority) where you select which drive of each type to boot from first.
So you have to find that second list and make sure that the drive with windows on it is the first in that list.

If you bios tells you what key to press for a boot menu then press that key and see if your windows drive shows up there.

 

[kjolley]

My guess would be that whoever installed the first m.2 just put it into a random slot instead of the one with the lowest port number,
now you are installing into a slot with a lower port number messing up the whole boot process.

A modern bios has two boot lists, the main one where you just select what device TYPE to boot from first (m.2/sata/optical/usb) and the second one (BBS priority) where you select which drive of each type to boot from first.
So you have to find that second list and make sure that the drive with windows on it is the first in that list.

If you bios tells you what key to press for a boot menu then press that key and see if your windows drive shows up there.

I mean the windows drive shows up just fine in the slot that it is in. I see it in the BIOS and I see it in the menu when I press F8 on boot, I doubt positioning is the cause.

Looking at the motherboard user manual i see that the top one (the one i put the new ssd in) is the first one. It is a very odd design by them, the port with the heat sync for the ssd is in position 2 and when I built it of course I would prefer placing it where there is ample cooling. If you do think that has a good shot at being the issue then I can try to swap it, the thing is even with the new drive everything appears in the bios, the boot priority stays the same as when I don't have the new drive in.

 

[TerryLaze]

I mean the windows drive shows up just fine in the slot that it is in. I see it in the BIOS and I see it in the menu when I press F8 on boot, I doubt positioning is the cause.

Does it boot from the windows drive from the F8 menu?
If it does it means the boot settings in the bios are messed up.

 

[kjolley]

Does it boot from the windows drive from the F8 menu?
If it does it means the boot settings in the bios are messed up.

The only boot option in the F8 menu is the Windows Boot Manager "drive name". The problem is I disable secure boot and all that and yet it is still the only option, no matter what.

 

[Sheikh Tashdeed Ahmed]

Hi, could you fix your issue? I also have 1 m.2 SSD as of right now and planning on buying another one to put into second slot.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi, could you fix your issue? I also have 1 m.2 SSD as of right now and planning on buying another one to put into second slot.

Please create a NEW thread for your particular situation.

Your parts are not his parts.