USB keyboard or mouse not detected when a new SSD is plugged in

(As a preface, some of this has to do with me installing Linux on a different drive, but I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with the problem, which is with Windows 7 behavior, so please bear with me)

I recently bought another SSD in order to install Linux on it, so that my current SSD with Windows 7 will remain the same (so I can avoid partitions and stuff, and SSD space is scarce). I also have a separate bigger HDD with just data.

I can successfully install Linux Mint on the new SSD, but whenever the new SSD it's plugged in, Windows 7 won't detect my keyboard or mouse. I tried every available USB port to no avail. I can't even log in.

The thing is, if I then shutdown, remove my new SSD, then boot back into Win7, then both keyboard and mouse work (I'm in Win7 right now). It therefore does not seem to be a driver issue, since it worked previously and it still works with this hardware change. It's like windows detects that something is not as usual (the new SSD) and decides to ignore every hardware it can, to my despair.

I've been here four afternoons trying different permutations of installing linux, plugging drives in different places, and nothing. I don't know what to do anymore.

In case this is relevant: Right now I installed Linux on my SSD with the other two drives unplugged, then plugged them back in, and for now, I choose the OS to boot via BIOS (hold F8 and choose), no GRUB or anything yet. That will come later when Win7 works by itself with the new SSD plugged in. Just pointing it out in case it might help.

Another detail: Both the new and the old SSD are exactly the same model and capacity. In fact, in my BIOS boot order, both show up with the same string, which is confusing. Not sure this is relevant though.

Also, I'm a computer scientist, just so you know what level of know-how to expect from me :)

Thanks in advance for any kind of help or hints :)

Some additions:

1. I can boot into Linux and it works perfectly, both with the other drives plugged in and not, so it doesn't seem like a BIOS thing.
2. I reset the BIOS settings to default yesterday and it did not help unfortunately. It seems to be a Windows thing.
3. The system is not frozen at log in, I can see the textbox caret blinking and when I press the power button on the computer (just press, not hold) it detects it and shuts down properly. So it is not recognizing keyboard or mouse, it's not like it's frozen.

Nobody is going to read this, but I hate when I see a problem online that looks like the same one I have but there's no solution, so here goes: I think I fixed it.

I'm pretty sure it didn't have anything to do with the other SSD being the same model, because it failed in the same way when the new SSD wasn't plugged in.

It stopped doing all of this when I changed something in the BIOS related to USB:

In my BIOS under "Advanced Mode" > "Boot", there's a setting called "USB Support", which was set to "Partial Initialization (For faster POST time only the USB ports with keyboard and mouse will be detected)", I changed it to "Full Initialization (All USB devices will be available during POST)".

As I said, no idea whether this is what actually solved the problem, but now it all works alright. Also, I don't see why it would be a problem, since it says it detects all ports with kb + mouse... So no idea why this became a problem once I started installing a different operating system. Messing with boot order, MBR, or other stuff that I don't totally understand I guess.

Anyway, I hope this helps somebody in the future, and I ESPECIALLY hope that this doesn't come back up for me!

Somebody will read this and it may help someone in the future.

Thank you for posting what worked for you and welcome to the forum! :)