[SOLVED] Intel virtualization technology in bios

[stretch9x]

I don't know why this issue occurs but maybe someone out there can help with solving this issue.
I bought an old laptop, yeah an Asus Q400A running an i7 and it works fine, even the optical drive works perfectly. I have no practical use for the optical drive so I pulled out the drive to install a second SSD via a caddy. The new setup works fine except sometimes Windows 10 does not see the second drive.

I looked around and someone on this web site advised turning off "Intel Virtualization Technology" in bios. Well, that worked but VT was already turned off. Now, every week or so I have to go back into bios and toggle the VT feature off then on just to use my second SSD.

Both drives are brand new and have not been previously used outside of the Windows 10 environment. Is there a setting in Windows that will stop this behavior?
I'm listening....

Oh. Both drives are formatted in GPT and the bios is UEFI. I wonder if I should use the MiniTool to change the drives to MBR and then change to legacy Mode but I'm afraid of losing my data.
Still listening....

 

[Colif]

Windows can't change settings in the BIOS.

DO you know if you have latest BIOS for laptop?

strange that toggling this on/off makes any difference - https://www.intel.com.au/content/ww...chnology/intel-virtualization-technology.html

Hi, I want to direct all of you people's attention to the problem that optical drive communicates with bios to tell it whether the tray is open or not. If the tray is open , reading from disk is stopped. That is why when you put HDD or SSD into that slot using incompatible solution, BIOS thinks the tray is open and stops read/write. This problem is mentioned on caddy website(I can't find the page right now but I have read it). They say it is why they let you choose brand and models on their website to sell you compatible caddy. They implement some circuit to send the signal that tray is always closed. Probably that is the function of that button on some of the caddy replicas available on aliexpress and ebay.

https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/laptop-refuses-to-recognize-optical-bay-hard-drive-caddy.75485/

 

[alceryes]

Yeah, Intel VT shouldn't have anything to do with drives getting recognized.

It's also weird that that setting is 'resetting'. Is the BIOS time also resetting?

 

[stretch9x]

Yeah, Intel VT shouldn't have anything to do with drives getting recognized.

It's also weird that that setting is 'resetting'. Is the BIOS time also resetting?

The bios settings are not randomly changing.

Also, my 2nd SSD is not set up to boot, it's only for storage. That eliminates any issue in the Boot Manager.
I used this ASUS lap warmer to format a M.2 SATA drive for use in the Rysen2 build I've always been planning. (always waiting on E-bay) Lost my 2nd SSD again! The M.2 on a usb adapter is still seen by Windows.

Time to get down and dirty!

Here's now what I did: In Control Panel/Programs and Features, I disabled these two features; Virtualization and Hyper-V and once again lost my second SSD, Rebooted and in CP I saw that I've also lost Disk Management in Administrative Services. Went into bios again and disabled Intel Virtualization Technology and rebooted. My 2nd SSD came back online! Could it be that the 2nd SATA3 SSD is not really supported by the SATA controller unless it's set up to boot?

Here's the latest score:

1. Without VT in Windows I lost Disk Management in Control Panel/Administrative Tools....No big deal since I'd rather use MiniTool.
2. I still don't know if my 2nd SSD will unexpectedly disappear on boot up like it has done in the past.

And to top it off, Windows 10 Home Edition is not supposed to support virtualization, PERIOD!
Now it's wait and see.
-later folks ......

 

[stretch9x]

The bios settings are not randomly changing.

Also, my 2nd SSD is not set up to boot, it's only for storage. That eliminates any issue in the Boot Manager.
I used this ASUS lap warmer to format a M.2 SATA drive for use in the Rysen2 build I've always been planning. (always waiting on E-bay) Lost my 2nd SSD again! The M.2 on a usb adapter is still seen by Windows.

Time to get down and dirty!

Here's now what I did: In Control Panel/Programs and Features, I disabled these two features; Virtualization and Hyper-V and once again lost my second SSD, Rebooted and in CP I saw that I've also lost Disk Management in Administrative Services. Went into bios again and disabled Intel Virtualization Technology and rebooted. My 2nd SSD came back online! Could it be that the 2nd SATA3 SSD is not really supported by the SATA controller unless it's set up to boot?

Here's the latest score:

1. Without VT in Windows I lost Disk Management in Control Panel/Administrative Tools....No big deal since I'd rather use MiniTool.
2. I still don't know if my 2nd SSD will unexpectedly disappear on boot up like it has done in the past.

And to top it off, Windows 10 Home Edition is not supposed to support virtualization, PERIOD!
Now it's wait and see.
-later folks ......

I'm back again. I decided to try something I heard about years ago: Do 3 power button on/off cycles before the Windows icon appears and now the 2nd drive stays on! One caveat though. Now if I go into bios via the Settings/Troubleshoot/UEFI feature just to look around and not change anything and then exit without saving, the 2nd drive is gone after it reboots. And because Task Manager/Performance saying VT is on when it's actually off in bios, I'll assume the bios is the most likely problem.

I still have the original motherboard and I'll put it back in after my Ryzen build is complete. This current motherboard had the latest bios installed when I bought it and unfortunately can not be downgraded to an earlier bios version. I know for a fact the original board has not had a bios upgrade since it was a couple years old. And besides some minor problem with corrosion due to a dead bug rotting under the keyboard, the it seemed to work ok until I installed the new motherboard.

Haven't been so busy fixing a particular computer since my Shuttle motherboard started blowing the tops off bad capacitors in 2005. Yeah, 9 caps in just one year.

 

[Colif]

Your pc is odd. The 3 power cycle thing just makes startup repair run. 99% of the time it doesn't fix anything and yet on your PC, it does.

When it finds it again, I assume drive works normally and its partitions still have same letters? I don't know what part of windows controls the partition letters, but something can recognise that drive and know its files are yours each time. Its probably in the registry (the place i leave alone)

Curious, when the ssd disappears, is it still showing in the BIOS? It only disappears in windows?

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...sk-management/troubleshooting-disk-management

https://www.easeus.com/storage-media-recovery/ssd-not-showing-up-windows-10.html

have you updated chipset drivers on laptop?