Question No Bootable Device - Tried Fixes, New MoBo, and Three HDD

[Taribor]

Hi Everyone,

I upgraded most of my system but kept my two SSD drives with my Windows 10 and storage drive. I put in a new: CPU (i7 12th gen); MoBo ASUS TUF z690; memory ASUS DDR Vengence RGB Pro (32gb). Upon boot up my system goes to Bios and keeps telling me no bootable devices are found. Among the fixes I have tried so far:

-Every SATA slot combo
-Tried booting with one SSD and all other peripherals unplugged
-Tried using my old Windows 10 installation thumb drive
-Tried disconnecting my SSD, reset bios, and used a WD 7500rm gaming HDD
-Toggle CSM and other bios adjustments, usually leading to a black screen and requiring me to remove mobo battery
-The kicker - I originally bought an MSI motherboard and had the exact same issue so I exchanged it for the ASUS and exact same problem.

I have tried swapping cables, ports, and devices. BIOS sees my HDD and SDD (individually and when I hooked up all of of them) as storage devices but they do not show up as boot devices.

I am clearly not a computer expert but I have build 4-5 systems in the past going back 20 years and have never had this problem. The only thing I have not messed with is my new CPU (that shows up in BIOS) but my understanding is faulty CPUs are very rare.

Any ideas/assistance will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

I upgraded most of my system but kept my two SSD drives with my Windows 10 and storage drive
Tried using my old Windows 10 installation thumb drive
Recreate the bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools and then retry installing the OS but only with the SSD you intend to install the OS on, installed on the motherboard.

If you're able to get into BISO and remain there indefinitely, please see if you have any BIOS updates pending.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Any ideas/assistance will be greatly appreciated.

You changed motherboard. Correct?
Then reinstall windows.

If you try to avoid this step, several issues will happen:

boot mode compatibility (system doesn't boot). You have this now.​

driver incompatibilities (bsods, crashes bad performance),​

windows activation issues (can not activate windows).​

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Taribor]

Hi - I disconnected everything except of my new HDD and the rebooted with my original win10 installation thumb drive. The bios sees the thumb drive but again is showing it as storage and not a bootable device.

 

[Taribor]

Lutfij - thanks, there is a bios update from last month, I will try that.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi - I disconnected everything except of my new HDD and the rebooted with my original win10 installation thumb drive. The bios sees the thumb drive but again is showing it as storage and not a bootable device.

Create a NEW Windows install on that thumb drive.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Taribor]

boy I suck at this. I updated bios and my hdd actually showed up as bootable, when I exited bios to reboot, it went back to not showing any bootable devices.

I created a new windows installation thumb drive. This actually got me to the windows install screen but at step 8 the installer said no drives were located.

I unplugged my hdd and tried to reinstall windows on my sdd (where my previous windows and C drive are located) and it didn't recognize that either. I ran the installer diagnostics and nothing.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I created a new windows installation thumb drive. This actually got me to the windows install screen but at step 8 the installer said no drives were located.

What are model names of your storage devices?
Do you have any M.2 drives installed?

 

[Taribor]

Right now I have a new WD Black 4tb Gaming HD (WDBSLA0040HNC-NRSN).

Previously I dried my two SDD drives, both of which previously ran window 10 with no issues (Samsung 850 and 870 EVO). I read about all the issues with new builds recognizing SDD drives so I stopped trying to make that work and have just been focusing on the new WD HDD.

edit: No M.2 drives

 

[Taribor]

Finally got it to recognize the drive and complete the installation. Every drive I connected was listed as RAID storage by default. I finally clicked to disable Rapid Storage Technology, and my hdd showed up as bootable immediately and the installation went smooth thereafter.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, you all are awesome!