Question Win10 won't boot if I add second HDD

[Drklighter]

This is a first for me:

Just did a major upgrade on my roommate's computer (CPU - Intel 11th Gen/RAM - 16GB/Mobo - Gigabyte Z590 Gaming X/Storage - 2TB Firecuda NVME). I installed Windows 10 on the new NVME drive, no issues, even after several reboots. When I try to add one of his old SATA drives (2 SSDs and a WD mech) as a secondary, it stops booting after the BIOS option. If I disconnect the old drive, it still won't boot, and I have to reinstall Windows.

In the BIOS I have made sure the drives show up, that the NVME drive is set to boot first, even tried enabling CSM support and specifying the specific boot order of all the drives - nothing helps. It's like if I connect one of his old HDDs it kills the new Windows 10 install. As far as the SATA controller itself, I tried disabling it, still no luck - and besides, I still have a SATA DVD burner connected the whole time, and it works fine with new Windows 10 install.

I have encountered many issues in my 25+ years of computing, but this one is a head-scratcher. Any help appreciated!

 

[Deleted member 362816]

Drives still have data on them? sound like a boot file is on one of the old drives. If you haven't already reformat them before install.

 

[dwd999]

This is a first for me:

Just did a major upgrade on my roommate's computer (CPU - Intel 11th Gen/RAM - 16GB/Mobo - Gigabyte Z590 Gaming X/Storage - 2TB Firecuda NVME). I installed Windows 10 on the new NVME drive, no issues, even after several reboots. When I try to add one of his old SATA drives (2 SSDs and a WD mech) as a secondary, it stops booting after the BIOS option. If I disconnect the old drive, it still won't boot, and I have to reinstall Windows.

In the BIOS I have made sure the drives show up, that the NVME drive is set to boot first, even tried enabling CSM support and specifying the specific boot order of all the drives - nothing helps. It's like if I connect one of his old HDDs it kills the new Windows 10 install. As far as the SATA controller itself, I tried disabling it, still no luck - and besides, I still have a SATA DVD burner connected the whole time, and it works fine with new Windows 10 install.

I have encountered many issues in my 25+ years of computing, but this one is a head-scratcher. Any help appreciated!

Which m.2 socket are you using? Section 1-7 of the manual notes that some m.2 sockets interfere with some sata sockets. Alternately you could boot the computer using a usb stick with a linux live distro and use its file manager to copy any essential files off of the old drives before using its gparted app to wipe the old partitions off of the old drives. You would also want to make sure all of the drives have GPT partition identifiers necessary for secure boot.

 

[Drklighter]

Thanks for the replies! The NVME drive is in the top/CPU handled slot to take advantage of the PCIe4x4. The old drives I am trying to attach are a combo of primary and data drives from an old Windows 7 system... I have tried each in turn to eliminate the possibility of an older boot file/partition causing the issue, but now that you guys mention it, I believe this is the first time I have tried to add an older drive to a clean Win 10 install. I have done it before on my own Win 10 upgrade system, but this is the first clean/new Win 10 install I have done where I have added older used drives. That would be enough to stop the system right after the option to access the BIOS (before any Windows stuff starts on screen)? It seems a bit crazy to me. So the only way to add drives to an existing Win10 system is that they be GPT or raw?

 

[dwd999]

Thanks for the replies! The NVME drive is in the top/CPU handled slot to take advantage of the PCIe4x4. The old drives I am trying to attach are a combo of primary and data drives from an old Windows 7 system... I have tried each in turn to eliminate the possibility of an older boot file/partition causing the issue, but now that you guys mention it, I believe this is the first time I have tried to add an older drive to a clean Win 10 install. I have done it before on my own Win 10 upgrade system, but this is the first clean/new Win 10 install I have done where I have added older used drives. That would be enough to stop the system right after the option to access the BIOS (before any Windows stuff starts on screen)? It seems a bit crazy to me. So the only way to add drives to an existing Win10 system is that they be GPT or raw?

The move to Secure Boot on newer computers and Windows 10/11 can cause various problems with older hardware and MBR drives. The data drives should be accessible but a drive containing an old version of Windows 7 may not get along with your current Windows 10 installation preferring Secure Boot. If you have enough available storage, booting with Linux and moving the essential data files around so that eventually all of your disks are GPT would be the most forward thinking move.

 

[Drklighter]

The move to Secure Boot on newer computers and Windows 10/11 can cause various problems with older hardware and MBR drives. The data drives should be accessible but a drive containing an old version of Windows 7 may not get along with your current Windows 10 installation preferring Secure Boot. If you have enough available storage, booting with Linux and moving the essential data files around so that eventually all of your disks are GPT would be the most forward thinking move.

Thanks... the files were backed up previously, and I understand how a drive containing an old Windows install would mess things up, but I don't get how a pure data drive would have the same result.

 

[dwd999]

Thanks... the files were backed up previously, and I understand how a drive containing an old Windows install would mess things up, but I don't get how a pure data drive would have the same result.

I don't understand the data drive situation either but its been so long since I've used Windows 7 I don't remember the drive formatting procedures it used. If you wanted to you could use a drive partitioning tool like Gparted just to have a quick look at the drive for leftover stray hidden partitions that may have been there before it became just a data drive. You could then just remove any old partitions, make sure it has a GPT device partition identifier and let Windows 10 create a new NTFS volume partition and format it.

 

[Bob.B]

This is a first for me:

Just did a major upgrade on my roommate's computer (CPU - Intel 11th Gen/RAM - 16GB/Mobo - Gigabyte Z590 Gaming X/Storage - 2TB Firecuda NVME). I installed Windows 10 on the new NVME drive, no issues, even after several reboots. When I try to add one of his old SATA drives (2 SSDs and a WD mech) as a secondary, it stops booting after the BIOS option. If I disconnect the old drive, it still won't boot, and I have to reinstall Windows.

In the BIOS I have made sure the drives show up, that the NVME drive is set to boot first, even tried enabling CSM support and specifying the specific boot order of all the drives - nothing helps. It's like if I connect one of his old HDDs it kills the new Windows 10 install. As far as the SATA controller itself, I tried disabling it, still no luck - and besides, I still have a SATA DVD burner connected the whole time, and it works fine with new Windows 10 install.

I have encountered many issues in my 25+ years of computing, but this one is a head-scratcher. Any help appreciated!

Wag.....is the sata mode set to ahci or raid?

 

[Drklighter]

Hello -
Thanks for the replies... turns out I had to make the drives raw again (or format them on a Win10 system) to get them to work. I now have a working system. I would conclude that Win10 will not recognize Win7 partitions when connected directly to the SATA ports on the mobo - although it doesn't explain the blocking access to the NVME Win10 install. (I did already check for lane conflicts between the NVME and SATA - set to AHCI, it was all good, and yes the BIOS is the latest).

Thanks again everyone!

 

[Dimey]

This is a first for me:

Just did a major upgrade on my roommate's computer (CPU - Intel 11th Gen/RAM - 16GB/Mobo - Gigabyte Z590 Gaming X/Storage - 2TB Firecuda NVME). I installed Windows 10 on the new NVME drive, no issues, even after several reboots. When I try to add one of his old SATA drives (2 SSDs and a WD mech) as a secondary, it stops booting after the BIOS option. If I disconnect the old drive, it still won't boot, and I have to reinstall Windows.

In the BIOS I have made sure the drives show up, that the NVME drive is set to boot first, even tried enabling CSM support and specifying the specific boot order of all the drives - nothing helps. It's like if I connect one of his old HDDs it kills the new Windows 10 install. As far as the SATA controller itself, I tried disabling it, still no luck - and besides, I still have a SATA DVD burner connected the whole time, and it works fine with new Windows 10 install.

I have encountered many issues in my 25+ years of computing, but this one is a head-scratcher. Any help appreciated!

25 years I assumed you checked all connections and swapped Satas out for known working if that's all good PSU ? **What do you have in your PCIe slots try removing everything but VGA and nvme no wifi/Bluetooth this is more seen in backwards compatibility ie gen 3/4

 

[Drklighter]

25 years I assumed you checked all connections and swapped Satas out for known working if that's all good PSU ? **What do you have in your PCIe slots try removing everything but VGA and nvme no wifi/Bluetooth this is more seen in backwards compatibility ie gen 3/4

Thanks for replying... I did try all that... there was only the one NVME drive (primary for new Windows), which was in the slot not shared with the SATA ports. PSU is a newer Antec 850w. I'm going to chalk it up to a partition/formatting issue, since once I made the old drives raw again, I was able to access and format them in the new Windows.