Unable to boot into BIOS when external HDD connected

Hi all

I am having a weird issue, as the title says, I am unable to boot into BIOS when I have the external HDD connected via USB 3.0.

when i want to start it up and boot into windows it starts to load the windows installer which you would find like on a win 7 install disk but then stops.

- the external HDD is not loaded with any win 7 and is not setup as a bootable image, its just data
- the HDD is a Buffalo Drive Station 3 TB with USB 3.0

my current setup looks like this below, i suspect that something went wrong during the OS install despite not using this HDD for any installation but another USB dongle which was slip-streamed with the USB and Samsung nvme drivers necessary for install.

On my asus laptop i did not have this issue before just with this new built i just did.

i have to unplug the HDD so i can boot into bios and windows normally.

i cant see the boot order in BIOS as the drive is not live and visible even if i connect it in bios once unplugged previously.

any help appreciated or if more info is needed, thanks much
cheers
stephan

thanks all

here it is attached

the boot order is windows boot manager partition, then samsung 950 pro.
when the hdd is plugged in i cant boot into bios thus not see the boot order

so should i change it to logical instead of primary?

AddRAM said:

Is the 3 TB a Primary Partition, maybe it could be made into a Logical ?

Can you give us a shot of Disk Management with the 3 TB plugged in please.

Paragon doesn`t show the vital info we need.

And why is it MBR ? It should be GPT.

I dont know, i have formatted this drive ages ago. what should I do?

my new rig is GPT partition table, hope thats ok...

ok now i can boot into BIOS with the HDD plugged in.

boot order still the same
- (windows boot manager) samsung 950 pro
- samsung 950 Pro

now next issue, if now exit bios and boot into windows as normal it shows me the windows is loading installer (the one you see when you install win 7 on install DVD).
then it fails and goes back into bios...

thanks

AddRAM said:

Disk 2 should be moved to the #1 sata port on the motherboard and should be 2nd in the boot list after your dvd drive.

Did you try disabling usb boot yet ?

It should boot straight to windows.

Disk 2 is the Samsung 950 Pro on an M.2 slot, not on a sata mobo port
how do i disable usb boot in bios?
i dont have a DVD drive connected

thanks much