SATA HDD freezes BIOS POST - Works fine Hot Swap after

[olxiasi]

OK,
I have a Seagate Barracuda 4TB (ST4000DM000) that has a weird problem. If the drive is connected (to any of the 6 SATA ports, Either the 2x Sata 3, or any of the 4x Sata 2) ports, it will freeze the BIOS.

The BIOS screen comes up, the computer BEEPS once, and then freezes.

I cannot enter Bios via F9 / F12 or DEL key.

If I only have the HDD connected via power, boot into the OS, and then plug-in the SATA cable (hot swap since it is enabled and AHCI as well), the drive then shows up fine. It shows like a regular drive, not an external.

Ran SeaTools and no errors at all.

MB is a Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H TH

EDIT: Seems to be Bios Issue. Tried HDD on another PC, works fine. Any ideas?

 

[Barty1884]

How are you booting into the OS without an HDD attached?

I'd be inclined to look at whatever drive you're booting from. Do both drives contain a bootable OS? There could just be a conflict between the boot managers...
It's always possible it's a BIOS issue too.

 

[olxiasi]

How are you booting into the OS without an HDD attached?

I'd be inclined to look at whatever drive you're booting from. Do both drives contain a bootable OS? There could just be a conflict between the boot managers...
It's always possible it's a BIOS issue too.

Hi,
I have a Samsung 840 SSD on which is the OS, connected to Port 1 (SATA 3). I can boot into the OS fine, and then, I plug in the Seagate 4TB (the SATA cable - hot swap) and it appears afterwards in the OS (pops up) as a normal internal drive (not like an external).

It doesn't matter which SATA port I plug it into, the same thing occurs. Even if it is the only drive connected to the Main board, it freezes POST.

EDIT: No OS on the Seagate. Simple exFat partition with GUID Partition Table (GPT) not MBR.

 

[olxiasi]

How are you booting into the OS without an HDD attached?

I'd be inclined to look at whatever drive you're booting from. Do both drives contain a bootable OS? There could just be a conflict between the boot managers...
It's always possible it's a BIOS issue too.

Hi,
I have a Samsung 840 SSD on which is the OS, connected to Port 1 (SATA 3). I can boot into the OS fine, and then, I plug in the Seagate 4TB (the SATA cable - hot swap) and it appears afterwards in the OS (pops up) as a normal internal drive (not like an external).

It doesn't matter which SATA port I plug it into, the same thing occurs. Even if it is the only drive connected to the Main board, it freezes POST.

EDIT: No OS on the Seagate. Simple exFat partition with GUID Partition Table (GPT) not MBR.

Latest: I first restored BIOS from backup bios (Gigabyte bios recovery) to version F4. I then upgraded to latest F7E. Still no change. The HDD still freezes POST.

 

[olxiasi]

This is the case.

The BIOS will not boot with an exFat partition larger than 2TB if this partition was created in Windows (ver 7) or Mac OS (ver 10.8.5).

If the exFat partition was created in Linux, it's ok if it is larger than 2TB. It boots fine with a 4TB exFat partition created in Linunx.

I tried exFat partition in Windows both with 4Kb cluster size and 128Kb cluster size, no change. Won't boot.

I tried 1Tb + 3Tb (exFat) partitions in Mac OS. Won't boot.

I tried 2Tb + 2Tb (exFat) partitions in Mac OS. Boots Fine.

I tried 1Tb (HFS+ Journaled) + 3Tb (exFat). Won't boot. It seems any larger than 2Tb partition created in Windows or Mac will not boot past the Gigabyte BIOS.

SO, I will make the partition EXT4 and just use it this way and forgo exFat.