Can't boot Windows from M.2 SATA SSD?

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ss88

Weaksauce
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Dec 1, 2019
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Picked up a used desktop with a M.2 SATA SSD and SATA HDD. BIOS was set to Legacy (not UEFI) and SATA mode was set to RAID.

I figured I'd install Windows 10 to the SSD, since it's plenty large at 256GB. So I switched to AHCI from RAID. And enabled UEFI. Deleted partitions, installed Windows 10 to SSD. PC does not boot: No boot device found. :(

Switched back to Legacy BIOS. Deleted partitions, installed Windows to SSD. PC does not boot. :mad:

Tried installing Windows to HDD instead. Installs, and PC boots into Windows and finishes setup. :confused:

So it seems the system defaults to looking at other SATA devices during boot, even though I ranked the SSD at the top of the boot sequence.

So I thought I'll show it who is boss and unplugged power and SATA cables from HDD. Enabled UEFI, created GPT partition table on SSD, installed Windows, and on restart . . . "No bootable devices found". :rage:

Trying another tack, I enabled Legacy BIOS, created MBR/ms-dos partition table on SSD, installed Windows, and this works . . . sort of. It only launches Windows if I select F12 at boot to force system to boot from SSD. Otherwise, it launches Dell diagnostics (that triggers when system isn't booting properly).

What is going on here? I guess the system has this M.2 slot wired as the last SATA device. In older systems, I just connect the SSD's SATA cable into the lowest numbered SATA connector on the motherboard.

Is it just not possible to get the M.2 SATA SSD to function as the boot/OS disk?
 
Did you remove all partitions from the SSD by using diskpart's clean command and then let Windows create whatever partitions it needs? or did you create the partitions some other way?

Also, which Dell model is it?
 
ryan_975 said:
Did you remove all partitions from the SSD by using diskpart's clean command and then let Windows create whatever partitions it needs? or did you create the partitions some other way?

Also, which Dell model is it?
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I used GParted (from Linux recovery environment) to delete all partitions, so the Windows installer was presented with a disk that was entirely unallocated free space.

XPS 8900 tower. This model was manufactured in 2015, so I guess back then it came with Windows on the HDD and the M2 SSD was used as a cache, hence the RAID setting for SATA controller.
 
ryan_975 said:
Is it running the latest BIOS?
Is secure boot disabled?
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Yes, in all attempts described above, secure boot is disabled.

No, not the latest BIOS. Having trouble updating BIOS. Once I got Windows installed on HDD (as described in OP), I tried launching the latest BIOS executable, and it doesn't execute. Tried a few older BIOS executables (though newer than PC's existing BIOS) and same result - they don't execute.

Edit: Was able to update BIOS by using BIOS flash update from F12 boot menu.
 
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OK, I've system booting Windows from the M.2 SSD. Might be helpful if another forum member runs into a similar issue. Here's what I did:
1. moved HDD SATA cable from SATA-0 to SATA-4; disconnected HDD SATA and power cables
2. BIOS: UEFI, Legacy Option ROMs enabled; secure boot disabled; AHCI
3. created new Windows bootable USB using RUFUS. The bootable USB I tried earlier was NTFS/MBR. The new one is FAT32/GPT (to boot as UEFI, flash drive must be FAT32).
4. booted to USB, Win 10 install - installs, reboots, finishes setup

Partitions on SSD after Windows install:
  • partition 1: Recovery: 450MB, NTFS; OEM partition
  • partition 2: 100MB, EFI System; doesn't specify, but this will be FAT32
  • partition 3: C: 238GB, NTFS; boot, page file, primary partition
I added a 4th partition for my data by using Disk Mgmt to shrink the OS partition.

So everything looked good, and then I reconnected HDD SATA and power cables and started PC. Here's where it gets a little strange. Windows sees the HDD and it already has partitions and drive letters. But why is there a System Reserved partition on the HDD? Can I safely delete this and repartition the HDD as one large partition?

cKEUMhJ.jpg
 
next time, skip rufus and use the media creation tool. yes you should be able to delete that partition, its probably leftover from the og install.
 
pendragon1 said:
next time, skip rufus and use the media creation tool. yes you should be able to delete that partition, its probably leftover from the og install.
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Oh, you're right. I had previously installed Win 10 on the HDD, and never deleted it. Sure enough the other partition on the HDD has a that earlier Windows installation on it. Dumb!

Thanks for the quick response.
 
ss88 said:
Oh, you're right. I had previously installed Win 10 on the HDD, and never deleted it. Sure enough the other partition on the HDD has a that earlier Windows installation on it. Dumb!

Thanks for the quick response.
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Chances are, the reason it was not booting before is because it was attempting to boot off the HDD instead. I would suggest, if you have not already started installing stuff, to set to UEFI, CSM disabled and Secure boot enabled. I would then delete all partitions well using the Media Creation tool usb created installer, make sure the HDD is disconnected and everything should then work. It will boot faster as well, which should work without issue.
 
ManofGod said:
Chances are, the reason it was not booting before is because it was attempting to boot off the HDD instead. I would suggest, if you have not already started installing stuff, to set to UEFI, CSM disabled and Secure boot enabled. I would then delete all partitions well using the Media Creation tool usb created installer, make sure the HDD is disconnected and everything should then work. It will boot faster as well, which should work without issue.
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I got it working as described in post #9.

I think there were multiple problems. Yes, the system wanted to boot off HDD, so I got around that by disconnecting the HDD when installing OS to SSD. Once Windows was up and running, I reconnected HDD, but to SATA-4 instead of SATA-0 (not sure that made a difference). The other problem was I didn't understand how to set up a system in UEFI/GPT (first time for me). Once I set BIOS to UEFI and correctly set up the Windows USB drive (FAT32, UEFI, GPT) (earlier USB drive was set as NTFS, Legacy BIOS, MBR), it went smoothly.
 
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