Solved Windows7 SSDIII on PCIe expansion card not showing up in bios for boot

[mfx]

Probably a simple one but im stumped.

Have a SSDIII drive with OS installed via a USB3 4 port PCIe expansion card with SATAIII ports.

Master OS drive is installed and working fine on the drive however is not showing up in BIOS for autoboot, so I have to manually press ESC to enter boot menu and select the SSD drive to boot which works fine.

Have checked all the BIOS advanced boot up devices can see all hard drives, USB drives, CDROMs and external USB drives but not the relevant SATAIII drive. I am presuming its due to the fact its on an expansion card and have not found a solution please help.

Card installed : PCI Express Card USB 3.0 4-port VIA ([FONT=&quot]Transcend Information TS-PDC3 Combo PCI-e Interface Card 2 x USB 3.0 2 x SATA III ) Transcend Information TS-PDC3 Combo PCI-e Interface Card 2 x USB 3.0 2 x SATA III: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

[/FONT]Drive : OCZ Vertex 3 SataIII drive.

 

[gregrocker]

Plug the SSD into the first SATA port if you have one. Win7 is not meant to be installed on a USB drive.

 

[mfx]

Hi Gregg thanks for the response. Need to clarify as my post isn't totally clear from your response.

The SSD drive is an internal hard drive and mounted internally; connected via the sata cable which runs internally to the expansion card on the pcie port, so not technically usb external. I am wondering if you have read it as an external usb drive, which it is not.

However, are you saying that due to the fact it's installed on the card and connected to the internal sata III connectors on the pcie card classes it to windows as external?

If I connect it to an internal SATA II, I believe the motherboard only have sataII connectors not III, will loose the additional transfer speeds for operation gained with a SATAIII drive? ie 6gb down to 3gb speeds?

Thanks again as usual, grateful for help.

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Management drive map and listings:

1. Type Disk Management in Start rb: Search box.
2. Open Disk Mgmt. window and maximize it.
3. Type Snipping Tool in Start Search box.
4. Open Snipping Tool, choose Rectangular Snip, click New, draw a box around full drive map and all listings.
5, Save Snip, attach using paper clip in Reply Box.

Tell us what is on each partition.

You said you were using a "USB3 4 port expansion card" to connect the SSD. Why is USB3 involved at all for a drive you should simply be plugging in to a SATA port?

Is it instead a SATA card and not a USB3 card?

I'll ask for a hardware expert to look in.

 

[Britton30]

Please do this: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...nt-post-screen-capture-image.html#post2261610

Also this:

To better help us to help you would you please add your systems specs? Here's how:SystemInfo See Your System Specs Under System Manufacturer/Model Number add whether it is a desktop or laptop and whether self built. Very important

Log in to Seven Forums and you will be able to transfer the info directly to the specs page in your profile from within the System Info app.

After doing this your specs will be available in each of your posts.
Click on My system Specs in the lower left of this post to see how it should look.
Full instructions are in the tutorial.


It may be you board won't support booting from a PCIe-X1 slot.

 

[essenbe]

The card you linked to says it has USB 3.0 ports and sata III ports. I don't believe I have ever seen one of those, but if it is hooked up to a sata III port and not USB 3, it will depend on what controller is on the card. Marvell sata controllers do not seem to get along well with SSDs and you can usually, in my experience, get better speeds form an Intel sata II port than a Marvell sata III port. If it is connected to a USB 3.0 port, you are losing speed either way.

If you look at the reviews on the card, the first reviewer said he got lower speeds from the card than the sata II ports on his board.

 

[mfx]

Hi currently on my laptop for this post, the issue is with the desktop so will post back what you requested greg.

@Britton 30 again I will post details if it helps.
The expansion card is a non manufacturer specific (will I ever learn lol). Understand its a VIA chiset but no more detail than that unfortunately.
The system is a self build:
EVGA X58SLI board
i7 2.66 intel chip not overclocked
PSU is 700 Watt cant recall manufacturer atm.
OCZ Ram which is 12gb 1600 clocked at factory 1066 standard.

Think I am going to simply connect it to a sataII port if you think it will help.

The current boot which is manual boot (esc at startup) shows up under hard drive but selecting the 'bootable expandable' option.

Think the SATAIII card is problamatic so will simply try the SATAII port on the motherboard and hoping I wont have to perform a resintall, but as a lot of these situtions tend to face the inevitable resinstall from scratch?

Will post back when logged into desktop system again.

 

[Britton30]

You may have to fiddle with the boot priority options, I don't think you'd need a reinstall, but back up anything you want to save anyway, always a good idea.
Attach the SSD to the first SATA II port, SATA_1 or SATA_0 whichever your board has. Set SATA to AHCI, you may have to reboot after the initial boot to install drivers.

 

[mfx]

Hi

All drives are already set to ACHI. Back on desktop and working still with manual boot selection which isn't a major issue more inconvenient.

Will set up on Port O as available.
Note the drive is appearing as on Port 0!? This is actuallythe SATAIII port on the expansion card.

c: OCZ SataIII OS Drive which is the boot up issue
f: Propellerheads software usb dongle (i think)
T: External hard drive USB2 (not installed on usb3 card)
H: Is another usb license dongle
e: internal data drive sataII
d: internal data drive sataII
R: internal data drive sataII
S :External hard drive USB2 (not installed on usb3 card)
g: Waves license dongle

Disk 2 is a blank hard drive waiting format.
disk 9 is cddrom.

The card is a 4 port usb3 pcie expansion card with 2 internal SATA III expansion sockets which I was goin to use with the system drive and a second to be installed for a data drive (second yet to be installed).

Image posted below of dick management.

Hope this helps.

Whats the best free app to measure and show disk transfer rates/speeds please?

 

[mfx]

 

[essenbe]

Crystal disk mark, ATTO or HD Tune are 3 good ones. I prefer ATTO.

 

[mfx]

Checked with ATTO :

Any ecipher guessing Im getting 350mb/s how to this equate to the suggested transfer rate 5-6gb?
Is it below par and would I notice much difference should I install on a SATAII connection with the drive?
Thanks

 

[essenbe]

Your system specs say you have a Vertex 2, is that correct?

 

[mfx]

Incorrect installed is a Vertex 3 (the vertex 2 has been removed and jiffy bagged for RMA).
Incidentally Ocz have confirmed will be replaced with a Vertex 3. So eventually I will 2 x Vertex3 120gb SSDs installed.

 

[essenbe]

The vertex 3 claims to get 550MB/s read and 500 MB/s write. So, you look to be getting 170Mb/s or so below that.However, what they never tell you is what the 4kb read speed is. That is about 95% of what an OS does. For an OS drive, 4kb reads and response time are the only 2 things that really matter. I have nothing to compare that to. You can tell by looking at the sizes, you only get to the higher speeds with very large reads, which an OS almost never does, and most people never get exactly what is claimed. You can try it on another port if you like, but I ran one slower than that for a long time and loved it.

 

[gregrocker]

Mark any non-bootable partitions which are currently Active beside System Reserved inactive: Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums

In addition on Disk2 you have a RAW active partition which I would wipe to repartition the HD: Diskpart Clean Command.

Either the Active flag or old boot code on another hD can slow or interfere with an OS booting.

How is performance using the internal SATA port. You may need to run a Startup Repair but Win7 should have the SATA driver.