XPS 8930, boot order

Question

Hi, I have added and m.2 SSD on the MB, and it works fine as my boot disk. However, the PC takes a while to boot since it does not try to boot from the m.2 first (in windows disk manager it is listed a drive 3). In the old days I could have changed the boot order in the BIOS, but these days withe UEFI and secure boot I am a bit at a loss of how to make those changes permanently (not just one time like an F12 boot). Do I turn off Secure Boot to do this?

thanks in advance

Joe

Vic384 · Answer

Does your computer take a while to boot if you use F12 and select the M.2 SSD? IOn you other drives, do you have an EFI System Partition? If you do, you may wish to delete those partitions.

If, when you added the M.2 SSD, you cloned it from the hard disk drive, you should have re-initialized the HDD,not just formatted it.

JoeMK · Answer

Not sure how to answer all, but:

when booting it takes a long time (1+ minute) before the windows circulating dots start (you know what I mean, the windows timer)
when the timer starts it is pretty fast
when I start from f12 it starts the window start timer immediately

Therefore I concluded that the 1 minute plus wait is spent searching for a bootalble drive and if I changed the drive order that would be eliminated or at least reduced

no other drive has an efi partition

not sure what you mean initialize vs format. I formatted, cloned, and then to recognize the drive I did "something" might have been initialize, but in fact it works fine

Vic384 · Answer

I think your conclusion about your computer searching for a bootable drive is correct. If you disconnect all other drives but your boot drive and boot normally (not using F12), it should be able verify this conclusion.

I assume you cloned your HDD to your SSD. After cloning you should have disconnected the HDD prior to booting the computer. If your SSD was working fine booting from it, you could then shutdown, connect the HDD, boot the SSD using F12, then re-initialize the HDD using DiskPart. Re-initializing the HDD means wiping all partitions and returning the HDD to a state like it is from the factory. Formatting means to prepare the chosen partition on the HDD to be used by the OS by deleting all data. A HDD that has been re-initialize would have no partitions. If you initialized the HDD, you would then have to partition it, create a partition(s), and then format those partitions.

I am guessing that the HDD still have partitions on it that may slow the boot process. Have you looked at the HDD in Disk Management?

JoeMK · Answer

The HDD that had the original windows install is not connected, does that make a difference?

JoeMK · Answer

no, there are two HDD on Sata, and Two HDD on a USB dock, but none of them are the original boot HDD (i.e. windows not installed) and  non other than the M.2 SSD had a UEFI partition.   I have not tried yet your suggestion to disconnect all of the other HDDs and see if it boots faster yet.  but yes the f12 selection of the M.2 boots fast

Vic384 · Answer

Yes, so you are saying the HDD is not connect and that there are no other drives connected. No CD/DVD media in the CD/DVD drive, no flash drives, and no SD card in the SD card reader yet you have a slow boot unless you select the M.2 SSD in the F12 boot menu. Are there any other boot devices in the F12 boot menu?

JoeMK · Answer

..to be more clear, when I do f12, I select 'windows boot manager' and it immediately goes to the windows timer and boots normally, but skipping the said 1+ minute time

JoeMK · Answer

Ha, pretty smart!  W/o dock, boot time is 38 sec, with dock 55 sec.  I may be splitting hairs now, as I like having the external USB drives availbe, but at least now I know one of the major contributors to slow boot

Vic384 · Answer

You should try disconnecting the USB dock.

Vic384 · Answer

At least now you know what is causing the slow boot. Unfortunately, short of disconnecting the USB dock, I don't know of a workaround for the problem.

Saltgrass · Answer

The primary boot device is set in the Bios the same way it always has been, but the Windows Boot Manager is the primary device, not a drive.   If it is taking a long time, it may be having to search for a bootable device..

RoHe · Answer

BTW: have you looked in BIOS at the Boot list options and Boot Option Priorities to see if USB is listed?

RoHe · Answer

Connect all the drives you want/need. Then clear BIOS by removing the motherboard battery and pressing/holding the power button on the PC for ~30 sec. Now reinstall the battery and connect mouse monitor and keyboard.

Reboot from the SSD using the F12 menu. Now manually set a System Restore point, to be safe. Then click Start>Run, and type in: msconfig.exe -press Enter.

In msconfig, click the Boot tab and see if there's more than one Boot Manager entry on the list. If there is, highlight the entry that's not marked "default" and click Set as default. Now reboot normally, not using F12.

Assuming it boots from the SSD and does it quickly using the new default Boot Manager, you can go back into msconfig and delete the other (non-default) Boot Manager entry on the Boot tab.

CKarlson · Answer

Hello! Landed here trying to change boot order. F12 works each boot, but (obviously) that is a pain each time. Called Dell, they want to call me back and spend 45 minutes reformating old sata, etc. I don't necessarily want to do that. So, do you know how/where to change boot order and get it to stick? There has to be a simple way. Thanks in advance!

Vic384 · Answer

I know of no simple way to change the boot order with a UEFI BIOS like what you have with the XPS 8930. The reason you have this issue is that you have more than one bootable device (disk). I don't know how this happened with you; it could happen if you cloned your original bootable drive. The simple fix to this problem is to copy the data you wish to save off the drive you are NOT booting from and then re-initialize that drive before restoring your data. Here is the procedure to re-initialize the drive: https://macrorit.com/partition-magic-manager/initialize-disk-gpt-mbr-from-cmd-diskpart.html

Use the List Disk command to identify the correct drive and the Select Disk command to select the drive to initialize.

XPS Desktops

XPS 8930, boot order

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