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December 27th, 2023 23:11
Trouble booting from m.2 SSD
Currently I have an inspiron 3671 with windows 11 installed on both a new m.2 SSD and the original Sata HDD. I don’t remember exactly how this started but for some reason I’m not able to get past the initial boot with only the m.2 drive. I need the HDD installed in order to boot to a menu where I can choose which drive (the m.2 SSD or Sata HDD) to load windows. So I’m able to use the SSD to run windows, but again, can’t boot with the SSD without the HDD help.
I’m not sure if I need to reinstall windows? Or if there’s a problem with bios settings? I find it odd that there isn’t a setting in my bios to boot from the m.2 slot. I only see windows boot manager and UEFI: *branded* Flash drive.
Secure boot is enabled and legacy option ROMs are disabled.
redxps630
9 Legend
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14.6K Posts
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December 28th, 2023 00:22
Re; I find it odd that there isn’t a setting in my bios to boot from the m.2 slot. I only see windows boot manager and UEFI
this is normal in UEFI. you do not actually see the UEFI boot drive listed in bios (unless you are installing OS when you could see the boot usb flash drive or DVD listed as UEFI bootable media on F12).
it is probably easier if you uninstall the hdd now and use a usb installation media drive to do a clean OS install on the ssd which will wipe the current messed up UEFI path. after a clean UEFI install you can reinstall the hdd and wipe it then use as data drive
(edited)
redxps630
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14.6K Posts
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December 28th, 2023 02:09
yes unplug either power or data cable from the sata hdd so it is out of the system.
note: some Dell bios sata operation default is RAID. you need to change that to AHCI and save bios changes then exit bios before install OS on ssd.
if your ssd is the only drive present and you do a successful clean install, after install is done, it would boot smoothly from ssd without error.
Anbry
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December 28th, 2023 02:03
@redxps630
I think that's what I tried to initially do. From my memory, I either unplugged the original HDD from the Sata or just made the USB first boot priority in the bios and set up windows on the m.2 SDD that way. My may try that again though this evening.
By uninstalling the HDD, do you mean unplugging it?
Anbry
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December 29th, 2023 00:59
@redxps630
Sata was set to RAID so I changed it to AHCI and so far the SSD is booting up well with the Sata drive disconnected since the new installation. For people who don't know, if you change to AHCI instead of RAID, that will probably make your drive not able to boot into windows without reinstalling. I had to also make sure I deleted both old partitions in windows set up--the old OS partition and the much smaller MSR partition (for anyone with this confusion). Thank you.
RoHe
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45.2K Posts
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December 29th, 2023 20:45
If you reconnect the old HDD, PC will try to boot from that drive, even though the SSD is installed and bootable.
In this situation, use the F12 boot menu to select the SSD as the boot drive. Then use Windows Disk Management to initialize the HDD (ALL FILES DELETED!) so you can use it for storage. Then shutdown normally (not a Restart) and when you power on, PC should boot from the SSD.
If there are files on the HDD you need, back them up elsewhere before you initialize the HDD.
RCOTTAM
2 Posts
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April 2nd, 2024 15:01
How did you manage to enable the M.2 SSD? I have a WD Black 2280 500GB drive but the BIOS won't see it?
(edited)
redxps630
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14.6K Posts
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April 2nd, 2024 16:19
UEFI bios boot priority (F2 bios or F12 boot menu) only detect ssd that has .efi partition, so if your ssd is blank, it would not show. But if you use a Win 10 installation media usb to do clean OS install, it would be detected during install.