SSD or HD won't boot but it does if....

pintree3 · 31 May 2014

Installed a PCIe card in my 5-year old computer (Asus P7P55D-E LX MB) to take advantage of the Samsung EVO 840 SSD.
There was panic at first since windows would not boot with either the original HD nor with the SSD. Now I can let my SSD boot if I remove one of my hard drives and my CD-r player.
The thing is, once the PC is on if I then go and plug the other HD on, nothing happens as far as Windows is concerned BUT then I go to Device Manager, click on "Scan for hardware changes" and it is seen again and can be used.
There were 2 optical drives and 3 physical disks (HDs) on it. Now one optical disk one HD and one SSD.
My power supply is 800 W so it can definitely handle it. Asus is closed for the week-end so I'm hoping I can get an answer here.
So what can be done in order to have my windows boot normally with all drives?

badger906 · 31 May 2014

are you plugging all of your drives into the pci card or just the ssd?
the reason i ask is not all mobos suppport booting from a pci card,and yours may just be an odd issue causing it to "semi work".
it could also be a conflict between the new card and the sata controller on the mobo if the rest are plugged into that.

pintree3 · 31 May 2014

thanks badger. No, the PCIe card has only 1 slot (where the cable plugs in) so the SSD is the only thing plugged to it--the SSD as you know has a thing, a space, for the red cable which goes to the PCIe card and another longer space for the power. the power cable of the PC is plugged into it--this same power cable shares it with another (There's a big power cable that comes out of the power bar and this cable has 2 plugs).
The card is this one: mSATA SATA III 3.0 HDD SSD to PCI-e HyperDuo Raid Controller Card Adapter 6Gbps
and looks like this

(See attachment)..

badger906 · 31 May 2014

do you have another spare sata power rail (the thing with 2 plugs) on your power supply? just to rule out an under volting or rail instability issue.

rvcjew · 31 May 2014

pintree3 said:

thanks badger. No, the PCIe card has only 1 slot (where the cable plugs in) so the SSD is the only thing plugged to it--the SSD as you know has a thing, a space, for the red cable which goes to the PCIe card and another longer space for the power. the power cable of the PC is plugged into it--this same power cable shares it with another (There's a big power cable that comes out of the power bar and this cable has 2 plugs).
The card is this one: mSATA SATA III 3.0 HDD SSD to PCI-e HyperDuo Raid Controller Card Adapter 6Gbps

We need the exact model of the card if possible please. and your hdd will not show up unless clicking scan for devices because your sata port your using is not set up to be hot swapable. in bios it will say something like make this an external device then in windows you can make that port set up for quick removal.

pintree3 · 31 May 2014

If you see the photo attached here I wrote A and B. On my PC there are 3 'A' which are unused knowing they are not made for the SATA and one 'B'. and I think this is what you meant. As to the exact model of the card (assuming it's the PCIe card since the MB was given is as I wrote it above. There is absolutely nothing written on the card itself--it is not a name brand. If it helps I've added a Belarc Advisor report showing my specs. (Oh except the photo shows the sata as male and what I have is female--the one originally attached to my HD where the OS was)

Victek · 01 Jun 2014

badger906 said:

are you plugging all of your drives into the pci card or just the ssd?
the reason i ask is not all mobos suppport booting from a pci card,and yours may just be an odd issue causing it to "semi work".

How can you tell if a motherboard supports booting from a PCIe SATA controller? Would there be an option in the BIOS?

pintree3 · 01 Jun 2014

Hi victek in re to: "How can you tell if a motherboard supports booting from a PCIe SATA controller? Would there be an option in the BIOS?"
You obviously may know more than I do. Such a question never occured to me--I thought it was an automatic thing. Seeing that it has been booting from the PCIe card I'm assuming it may be BUT when the boot screen pops up it does mention the PCIe card and the option for me to skip it. Maybe this does say something since I have done absolutely nothing to change settings on my BIOS. All I know is I imaged the SSD externally before installation. Then originally used the optical drive port to boot in and all worked well and then nothing did the first time I used the PCIe card--and now it is as described above.

pintree3 · 01 Jun 2014

update to above: With the exception of me possibly having to do something to the BIOS, which I haven't done so in any way so far, I was thinking originally of changing the port where the PCIe card now sits to another one. But since it seems to be doing fine, based on the fact that it is being recognized, I would assume that this won't change anything. Next choice would be to use another power cable, perhaps the one that is attached to the original OS-holding hard drive (now with the sata unattached). But, coming to think of it I don't see how this would change anything making me think it may be a BIOS issue.

rvcjew · 02 Jun 2014

go into the bios with both devices in the motherboard and make sure your pci-e is the first boot device when both are plugged in. it may not show up under sata but in the boot order location under HDD priority it should say something like pci device, make it that then under normal the normal order menu make it before the optical and other HDD's.

rvcjew