[SOLVED] Reboot and Select Proper Boot Device

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Dudeguy65

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I know this is a fairly common error but I have not found a thread with a similar circumstance...

Reboot and Select proper Boot device - can’t fix

My wife’s computer randomly got this dreaded message upon boot up. There are two SSD’s - one 256 GB with Windows 10, and another 500 GB for additional storage. I figured the 256 GB had failed, although both drives were detected in BIOS, and the boot priority was correct. I tried removing the 256 GB and installing windows via USB stick on the 500 GB drive, and it seemed to install windows correctly. However, once it got to the stage where it reboots after installing windows, it goes right back to the original ‘reboot and select proper boot device’ error upon startup. That pretty much exhausts my ideas on what to try, so I need some suggestions. I doubt both SSD’s failed simultaneously. Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
If 500GB drive is empty, then just clean it, repartition and reformat it.
diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
(select 447GB disk)​
clean
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign letter=D
exit

PC Tailor

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Were both drives installed at the same time when the ORIGINAL windows was installed? During installation the windows installer can often put boot/recovery partitions on a secondary drive if one is present, then prevent boot when one is present without the other. So theoretically if the SECONDARY HDD was the one failing and had boot data on it, then it could still cause the same issue.

Following that have you tried different SATA cables and SATA ports?
 

Dudeguy65

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Were both drives installed at the same time when the ORIGINAL windows was installed? During installation the windows installer can often put boot/recovery partitions on a secondary drive if one is present, then prevent boot when one is present without the other. So theoretically if the SECONDARY HDD was the one failing and had boot data on it, then it could still cause the same issue.

Following that have you tried different SATA cables and SATA ports?
The 500 GB hard drive came later, so it was not there when windows was originally installed. I only removed the original SSD, I did not yet try switching cables.
 

Dudeguy65

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Were both drives installed at the same time when the ORIGINAL windows was installed? During installation the windows installer can often put boot/recovery partitions on a secondary drive if one is present, then prevent boot when one is present without the other. So theoretically if the SECONDARY HDD was the one failing and had boot data on it, then it could still cause the same issue.

Following that have you tried different SATA cables and SATA ports?
Strange twist in this...I switched back to the original 256 SSD only and after a couple resets it booted up to windows, completing a major windows update. So I tried putting the other 500 GB SSD back, and got the error again. Once again I removed the 500 GB SSD, figuring maybe that one is faulty. Now the PC won’t start with the original SSD yet again. However, I discovered if I hit F12 at startup to directly select which drive to boot from, there are two options, the actual drive and a blank option. If I choose the blank option, the PC boots to windows. The blank option does not exist in the boot priority selection. This really has me very confused.
 

Dudeguy65

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Go into BIOS and set first boot device to Windows Boot Manager.

If you have trouble with this, then provide additional screenshots of your BIOS boot order settings.

see the BIOS in the link below, there is only one option when setting the boot priority (the named SSD). Windows Boot Manager does not appear there. However, when booting, I can hit F12 to select which drive to boot from, and when I do that a second blank option appears. That second blank option is what actually allows me to boot into Windows.

View: https://imgur.com/a/gZCBAqy
 

Dudeguy65

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In storage Boot option Control - set this to UEFI. Currently it's at Legacy.
This is, why you're not getting correct boot options.
Your windows is installed in UEFI mode.

After this is done, you should be able to set first boot option to Windows boot Manager.

Unfortunately that didn’t seem to make a difference. I set that option to UEFI only and I still only have the single option in the boot priority, even after saving the setting and restarting. Do you think a windows reinstall is needed?
 

Dudeguy65

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Ah yes - one more thing. Set CSM support to disabled.
This will remove all legacy boot source options, leaving only UEFI available.

Can you show options available under Hard Drive BBS Priorities?
You nailed it...at first I couldn’t find anything about CSM support, but I noticed on that peripherals screen in BIOS there was an option ”Windows 8/10 features” and this was set to “other OS”. When I switched this to ”Windows 8/10”, the available options changed and CSM support appeared. I disabled that and now it boots to Windows normally.

I wonder why this happened? I suspect the recent major Windows update somehow switched this?

Anyway, thank you for the back and forth and getting to the bottom of this.
 

Dudeguy65

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Windows update couldn't do that.
May be you did BIOS update recently? Or performed CMOS reset?
Or changed some BIOS options, without realizing, what this does.
Nah, hadn’t gone into the BIOS or updated anything other than windows itself in quite some time. I believe this happened after the computer installed the latest (major) windows update, shut down, and when restarting got the error. Which is why i suspect windows update, but as you’re suggesting that may not be possible. So I honestly have no idea, it’s very strange.
 

Dudeguy65

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Windows update couldn't do that.
May be you did BIOS update recently? Or performed CMOS reset?
Or changed some BIOS options, without realizing, what this does.
So actually I’m about 75% of the way there, because I reconnected the 500GB drive. The problem resurfaces because when this drive is connected, BIOS only gives one boot option in boot priority, which is Windows Boot Manager on the new drive. The original drive has disappeared. The new drive also is actually empty. I can boot windows by selecting the blank option when I hit F12, and both drives are detected from within Windows and functioning correctly.
 

Dudeguy65

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