[SOLVED] No Drives Listed in Boot Priority

[EricLane]

My MSI Mag z490 Tomahawk motherboard recognizes my Sata drives but none of them appear as an option for boot priority. I have 3 SSD and 2 HDD as well as a CD/DVD drive. The only options that appear in boot priority are UEFI options which do nothing . It is a brand new Mobo.

I found a screenshot if my Click Bios 5 which shows a 'Boot Mode Select' option in Settings>BIOS but mine does not have that option. Any advice?

 

[RealBeast]

My MSI Mag z490 Tomahawk motherboard recognizes my Sata drives but none of them appear as an option for boot priority. I have 3 SSD and 2 HDD as well as a CD/DVD drive. The only options that appear in boot priority are UEFI options which do nothing . It is a brand new Mobo.

I found a screenshot if my Click Bios 5 which shows a 'Boot Mode Select' option in Settings>BIOS but mine does not have that option. Any advice?

Most likely all your drives are MBR, convert one to GPT and it will show up as available to install.

One quick way is to use the command prompt from the Windows install disk and type:
diskpart
list disk
select disk n (where n is the drive you want to convert)
clean
convert gpt
exit

Note that all data on the disk will be lost.

 

[Mtop]

Which drive has te OS installed?

 

[EricLane]

Most likely all your drives are MBR, convert one to GPT and it will show up as available to install.

One quick way is to use the command prompt from the Windows install disk and type:
diskpart
list disk
select disk n (where n is the drive you want to convert)
clean
convert gpt
exit

Note that all data on the disk will be lost.

Thank you so much for replying. I am at a complete standstill until I get this figured out. The issue is that none of the drives work, including the disc drive. The disc spins but when I put the Microsoft Windows disk in or the BIOS driver and utilities desk, nothing starts to run. I can't get far enough to use a Windows command prompt.

 

[RealBeast]

Thank you so much for replying. I am at a complete standstill until I get this figured out. The issue is that none of the drives work, including the disc drive. The disc spins but when I put the Microsoft Windows disk in or the BIOS driver and utilities desk, nothing starts to run. I can't get far enough to use a Windows command prompt.

Do you have a second computer, even a real old one would do. Otherwise, you'll need to call a friend/relative, boot from a Live GParted CD or USB stick -- use the x64 version, or learn how to use Live Linux (it runs off a USB stick, I use Mint), mount the drive and change it to GPT.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I am at a complete standstill until I get this figured out.

Explain your situation a bit more.
So you built a new pc. All the drives are empty and you want to install windows?

Or you're transplanting the drives from a different pc? Windows was installed in previous pc and now you want to boot existing windows on new pc?

Or what? Can't quite understand.

 

[RealBeast]

HERE is a guide to using GParted Live on a CD to convert to GPT.

 

[EricLane]

Which drive has te OS installed?

Windows is installed on one of the 250GB SSD drives.

I also have another 250GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. I just bought a 1TB SSD and 2TB HDD.

 

[EricLane]

Explain your situation a bit more.
So you built a new pc. All the drives are empty and you want to install windows?

Or you're transplanting the drives from a different pc? Windows was installed in previous pc and now you want to boot existing windows on new pc?

Or what? Can't quite understand.

I had a PC build for several years but I just changed the motherboard and processor. I got everything back together and turned it on and the PC booted to bios. In the Bios boot priority, all I see are a bunch of UEFI options but none of my drives as boot options. I checked the BIOS and it says my drives are plugged in to the SATA ports. I tried running the windows disk and setting the UEFI CD drive as the initial boot option but it never does anything. I also tried running the BIOS utilities and Driver disk that came with the new motherboard and still, nothing. I am trying to get my drive to be listed in the boot priority area so I can choose one of them. Side note, my friend found a screenshot of the same click bios 5 MSI version I have and they show a boot mode selection option in the boot menu in settings of the BIOS but mine shows no option to change the boot mode.

 

[EricLane]

Do you have a second computer, even a real old one would do. Otherwise, you'll need to call a friend/relative, boot from a Live GParted CD or USB stick -- use the x64 version, or learn how to use Live Linux (it runs off a USB stick, I use Mint), mount the drive and change it to GPT.

I have a work laptop but I don't believe it burns CDs (not to mention that CDs don't seem to run when I try using Bios factory update CD and Windows CD). Can I use this option with a flash drive?

Also, should a flash drive appear in the boot priority list as an option when I start?

 

[SkyNetRising]

You have a new cpu/motherboard. You'll have to reinstall windows.

If you try to skip this, you'll have following issues:

boot mode compatibility (system doesn't boot - this is what you have now),​

drivers compatibility (BSODs, crashes, bad system performance),​

windows activation issues (can not activate windows).​

So - 1st get windows 10 installation media. You'll need 8GB USB flash drive.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

I hope, you do not intend to run windows 7 on this new system. With windows 7 you'll get completely another level of problems, to make it work.

Connect only single drive, where you're going to install windows (new empty 1TB SSD would be my choice).
Boot from windows installation media and install windows.
Connect all the other drives after you have done this.

 

[RealBeast]

I have a work laptop but I don't believe it burns CDs (not to mention that CDs don't seem to run when I try using Bios factory update CD and Windows CD). Can I use this option with a flash drive?

Also, should a flash drive appear in the boot priority list as an option when I start?

A GParted Live USB stick will just boot from the stick if you have no other drives.

 

[EricLane]

You have a new cpu/motherboard. You'll have to reinstall windows.

If you try to skip this, you'll have following issues:

boot mode compatibility (system doesn't boot - this is what you have now),​

drivers compatibility (BSODs, crashes, bad system performance),​

windows activation issues (can not activate windows).​

So - 1st get windows 10 installation media. I hope, you do not intend to run windows 7 on this new system. With windows 7 you'll get completely another level of problems, to make it work.
Connect only single drive, where you're going to install windows (new empty 1TB SSD would be my choice).
Boot from windows installation media and install windows.
Connect all the other drives after you have done this.

This is what I thought I may need to do. I linked my Window 10 (free upgrade from Windows 7) with my microsoft account. I also got my product key written down before doing this upgrade. How do I get the Windows installation software onto a Flash Drive?
Also, will installing windows solve the problem of not seeing all the Sata drives? Or does it only give options to boot from drives that have an OS on them?

 

[SkyNetRising]

This is, how you get installation media and install windows.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/how-to-do-clean-installation-windows-10,36160.html

And yes - in UEFI boot mode, you can boot only from already bootable devices. If none of your devices are UEFI bootable, you can't boot.
To boot from legacy boot devices, you'd have to enable legacy boot option in BIOS.

 

[EricLane]

SkyNetRising's advice worked. The understanding that UEFI Boot Mode would only recognize boot drive was what left me in a lurch (I am still puzzled as to why I couldn't find a legacy boot mode option). I had people telling me to reinstall windows with the media repair tool but I didn't expect the drive to be discovered so I didn't want to move forward with it because it hadn't made sense to me. I want to thank all of you that gave me advice. I am sure you all know the stress and anxiety of being stuck in your tracks when building a new PC. Thanks again!