[SOLVED] Laptop is not booting from SSD installed in place of DVD drive using Caddy

[erev_84]

Hi all,


My Laptop is not booting from SSD installed in place of DVD drive using Caddy. In other words, Bios can not see the SSD from the BIOS boot order. Windows Boot Manager sees only the original HDD

Caddy and SSD working because SSD can be used and seen inside Windows ( As a storage only ). Also, I want to point out that, when the caddy is installed in place of Optical, the Computer takes too late to boot from HDD

Laptop: Acer Aspire 9300
Caddy Port: IDE/PATA
SSD: Kingston 240GB
Bios Version: Phoenix V1.19. (My Bios has no advanced Bios settings so ı don’t have any Secure Boot, UEFI, Legacy options in my bios)

Bios files==>
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ts7jtuwps...-V1.19.zip/file

any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Nemesia]

Did you install Windows on the SSD? The SSD is empty.

 

[erev_84]

Hi, yes Windows installed in it and ı can boot it from USB port with IDE to USB cable

 

[GoofyOne]

How did you install Windows onto the SSD?
Did you clone it?

If you just cloned it from your HDD, then the computer will see the drives as being the same, and will disable one of them. So you would have to disconnect your HDD, then try booting from the SSD to test it and see if it's working ok.

After you are happy that it's working, you could also just keep the HDD for a backup, or wipe it and use it for storage.

I upgraded an old laptop in a similar manner one time. I ended up putting the SSD inside the case where the HDD was originally, and I put the old HDD in the caddy.



{GoofyOne's 2c worth ... which may or may not be actually worth 2c}

 

[erev_84]

How did you install Windows onto the SSD?
Did you clone it?

If you just cloned it from your HDD, then the computer will see the drives as being the same, and will disable one of them. So you would have to disconnect your HDD, then try booting from the SSD to test it and see if it's working ok.

After you are happy that it's working, you could also just keep the HDD for a backup, or wipe it and use it for storage.

I upgraded an old laptop in a similar manner one time. I ended up putting the SSD inside the case where the HDD was originally, and I put the old HDD in the caddy.



{GoofyOne's 2c worth ... which may or may not be actually worth 2c}

No, ıt’s not clone (HDD has Windows XP and SSD has Windows 8.1)

 

[GoofyOne]

Oh bother, I just realised your laptop seems to say IDE, which is a little confusing. Your caddy is SATA, and the SSD would also be SATA. A SATA device won't work in a older IDE/PATA port.

It's a little unclear as to whether that laptop has SATA or IDE devices in it. When you said you could use the SSD as storage, was that on the same laptop?


{GoofyOne}

 

[GoofyOne]

You do have SATA devices. I searched for your HDD drive specs, Samsung HM160c, and that is a SATA HDD. Sorry where it keeps saying IDE on your screen was confusing my poor old brain.

So it should work as you have it, just you may need to disconnect the HDD before trying to boot off the SSD.


{GoofyOne ... grumbles about his brain power depleting exponentially as he gets older}

 

[erev_84]

Oh bother, I just realised your laptop seems to say IDE, which is a little confusing. Your caddy is SATA, and the SSD would also be SATA. A SATA device won't work in a older IDE/PATA port.

It's a little unclear as to whether that laptop has SATA or IDE devices in it. When you said you could use the SSD as storage, was that on the same laptop?


{GoofyOne}

No, SATA devices work with IDE/PATA port and I am using SSD in IDE port rn but as ı mentioned previously my laptop sees it just as storage not as boot device in other words Bios can not see the SSD from the BIOS boot order

 

[GoofyOne]

It looks like the BIOS is just hard coded to say that's the CDROM port. Try moving #2 on the BIOS boot order list to number 1, even though it says CDROM.


{GoofyOne}

 

[erev_84]

It looks like the BIOS is just hard coded to say that's the CDROM port. Try moving #2 on the BIOS boot order list to number 1, even though it says CDROM.


{GoofyOne}

I tried your suggestion but it didn't solve my problem

 

[GoofyOne]

Hmmm sorry for your pain.

Can you do a photo of the back of your old CDROM drive, and a picture of the back of the caddy you are using? ( ie: where the connectors are)


{GoofyOne}

 

[Paperdoc]

Here's an idea to try. It is based on how the BIOS knows what is where for booting. When you go to specify in BIOS Setup the order of devices to boot from, it shows you their names so you can choose. But internally when you make a choice, it does NOT go by the names, it uses the hardware port address. Now, Windows associates with those ports the device DRIVERS used to access them. So MAYBE your laptop's two versions of Windows (on different storage devices) still have the driver for the optical drive associated with the port where it used to be and tries to use that to access the SSD that is mounted there now, BUT doing it that way may generate an error so it can't boot from there.

So, try this sequence.

1. With your system running under Win XP from the HDD and both the HDD and the SSD installed, go into Device Manager. Look for the drivers for your old optical drive unit. Uninstall and Delete that device. Similarly, look for the drivers for that SSD unit and remove them, too. Shut down.
2. Disconnect the SSD. Boot up and it all should work normally, except of course that you can't use the disconnected SSD. This will force Windows to recognize there is nothing on that port.
3. Shut down. Re-connect the SSD. Boot up into XP again, and it should find the "new" device connected where it is, and load the proper device driver for that device on that port. Now you'll have access to the SSD from XP. If you check in Device Manager you should see it there but no CDROM optical drive anywhere.
4. Reboot directly into BIOS Setup. Adjust your Boot Priority sequence to boot from HDD first, and SSD second, and possibly from a USB device. Save these settings and back out to reboot into XP. Shut down.

At this point you have XP re-adjusted to the new normal, and the mobo BIOS knows a bit about what's where, and knows there are at least two valid boot devices to try. However, the driver changes made to the Windows Registry are in the Registry on the HDD for XP. They are NOT in the Registry files on the SSD for Win 8. We need to fix those. You say you can boot from the SSD if you attach it via an adapter cable to a USB port. So we'll do it that way to get access to the Win 8 Registry files and adjust them.

1. Connect the SSD to your laptop via that USB connection. Boot into Win8 from there. Again, do like step 1 above: go into Device Manager. Look for the drivers for your old optical drive unit. Uninstall and Delete that device. Do NOT remove the drivers for the SSD! Shut down.
2. You cannot disconnect the SSD and then boot from Win 8 without it, so skip Step 2 above. Reboot into Win 8 and check in Disk Manager that there is no CDROM unit, but the SSD still appears with a proper driver. Back out and shut down.
3. Move the SSD back to the optical drive tray and connect it. Boot up, intervening to ensure it boots from that SSD unit. Hopefully since the BIOS knows how to get to that unit on that port, AND Win 8 knows that there is no CDROM device to use, it will detect that the item on that port is the SSD and use that device driver. So it all does actually boot from there. If that works, you have a solution.
4. Last step: IF you want to, reboot into BIOS Setup and alter your Boot Sequence to whatever you want, then save and reboot.

 

[erev_84]

Here's an idea to try. It is based on how the BIOS knows what is where for booting. When you go to specify in BIOS Setup the order of devices to boot from, it shows you their names so you can choose. But internally when you make a choice, it does NOT go by the names, it uses the hardware port address. Now, Windows associates with those ports the device DRIVERS used to access them. So MAYBE your laptop's two versions of Windows (on different storage devices) still have the driver for the optical drive associated with the port where it used to be and tries to use that to access the SSD that is mounted there now, BUT doing it that way may generate an error so it can't boot from there.

So, try this sequence.

1. With your system running under Win XP from the HDD and both the HDD and the SSD installed, go into Device Manager. Look for the drivers for your old optical drive unit. Uninstall and Delete that device. Similarly, look for the drivers for that SSD unit and remove them, too. Shut down.
2. Disconnect the SSD. Boot up and it all should work normally, except of course that you can't use the disconnected SSD. This will force Windows to recognize there is nothing on that port.
3. Shut down. Re-connect the SSD. Boot up into XP again, and it should find the "new" device connected where it is, and load the proper device driver for that device on that port. Now you'll have access to the SSD from XP. If you check in Device Manager you should see it there but no CDROM optical drive anywhere.
4. Reboot directly into BIOS Setup. Adjust your Boot Priority sequence to boot from HDD first, and SSD second, and possibly from a USB device. Save these settings and back out to reboot into XP. Shut down.

At this point you have XP re-adjusted to the new normal, and the mobo BIOS knows a bit about what's where, and knows there are at least two valid boot devices to try. However, the driver changes made to the Windows Registry are in the Registry on the HDD for XP. They are NOT in the Registry files on the SSD for Win 8. We need to fix those. You say you can boot from the SSD if you attach it via an adapter cable to a USB port. So we'll do it that way to get access to the Win 8 Registry files and adjust them.

1. Connect the SSD to your laptop via that USB connection. Boot into Win8 from there. Again, do like step 1 above: go into Device Manager. Look for the drivers for your old optical drive unit. Uninstall and Delete that device. Do NOT remove the drivers for the SSD! Shut down.
2. You cannot disconnect the SSD and then boot from Win 8 without it, so skip Step 2 above. Reboot into Win 8 and check in Disk Manager that there is no CDROM unit, but the SSD still appears with a proper driver. Back out and shut down.
3. Move the SSD back to the optical drive tray and connect it. Boot up, intervening to ensure it boots from that SSD unit. Hopefully since the BIOS knows how to get to that unit on that port, AND Win 8 knows that there is no CDROM device to use, it will detect that the item on that port is the SSD and use that device driver. So it all does actually boot from there. If that works, you have a solution.
4. Last step: IF you want to, reboot into BIOS Setup and alter your Boot Sequence to whatever you want, then save and reboot.

Hi,

First of all thank you very much for your interest

I followed your guide but unfortunately it was not successful.

But while I was trying something, I realized that when I moved the cd-rom to the bottom from the bios boot menu and pressed F5 twice, Kingston appeared but (IDE CD-ROM changed to IDE HDD) Then when I moved Kingston to the top of the boot priority menu and saved the changes and started the computer, I got 0xc00000e error ( I uploaded the photo of the error)

Do you have any suggestion?

 

[GoofyOne]

I didn't want to send any more messages yesterday after my dismal failure to help. But it sounds like you are making substantial progress, at least it is showing up on the menu.

Yesterday I was thinking that your new Windows 8.1 may be set up to boot in UEFI mode, but your old laptop needs it to be set up as MBR boot. It kind of depends how you installed Windows 8.1 onto it.

From what I understand (which may be not much 😵) if you installed Windows 8.1 from a computer that was booted up in UEFI mode, then the Windows 8.1 installation will assume that is how you want to boot from the new HDD, and it will install itself with that in mind.

That was the only other thing I could think of whilst I was mulling it over in my head yesterday.

Of course that doesn't really explain why you can boot from it when it's plugged in via USB, although the USB boot procedure may be slightly different. I'm no expert in all the different boot procedures.

I don't know how you can check it, maybe when you boot up from your original HDD, and then look at the new hard drive in disk manager, does it tell you if it is a GPT disk/partition on the new SSD? Does it have a UEFI folder/partition on it?

There are utilities to go MBR2GPT, but not the other way around I think. Hopefully someone else may be able to give some insight into this.



{GoofyOnes 2c worth .... which doesn't seem to be worth very much lately 🙁 }

 

[GoofyOne]

From within Windows XP:
It looks like you can find out via command line, using the DISKPART tool. Open a cmd shell, then type DISKPART. It might not run unless you open the cmd shell as administrator, not too sure.

Then type in 'list disk'
That should tell you whether the device is GPT or MBR etc

Apparently you can change it back to MBR mode but you will essentially have to delete all the partitions first. I got all that from reading this site: Change GUID Partition Table


{GoofyOne}

 

[pouyamahmoudi]

It looks like the BIOS is just hard coded to say that's the CDROM port. Try moving #2 on the BIOS boot order list to number 1, even though it says CDROM.


{GoofyOne}

Hi. I had this problem with my HP Pavilion DV6 and Windows 10. Your method solved my problem. Thanks a million.