Aurora R10, won't boot from SATA SSD

Question

My Dad's original NVMe drive failed. I was able to reformat it with help from tech support chat and reinstall, as it was deemed unrecoverable.

He lost everything, which was a lot. Looking through my spare SSDs, I found one that I had made a clone of back in late September.

Currently, I put the SATA 3 SSD (Intel) in and tried to boot from it, but the boot menu had nothing but the NVMe drive as available in the BIOS. I reboot and hit F12 and it shows the SSD, and it boots fine if I do this every single time I boot my PC. My Dad won't put up with that.

But I can't get it to boot as primary drive until my new NVMe arrives (I don't trust the Micron NVMe it came with, as it failed in less than 9-months personal use. So I have to wait 2-weeks (maybe more) on shipping of my new Samsung 970 Pro 512GB replacement I ordered from Amazon (sold by, shipped by Amazon).

So, what's the trick to get this SSD to boot properly in the BIOS? I can't believe what a pain this is to do, for such a simple task.

redxps630 · Accepted Answer

try remove the Dell nvme and boot again. If it is UEFI it may be a bit more tricky to let pc auto boot from new sata 3 ssd. in UEFI the first boot option is Windows boot manager in which it had a link to boot from nvme ssd. since the dell nvme ssd is wiped, it can cause boot issue.

if it is legacy it would be easier: go inside boot priority and move sata 3 ssd to top of list (assuming AHCI is the sata operation mode).

redxps630 · Answer

Are you using UEFI or legacy boot option in R10?

inside bios, do you have legacy oprom enabled or disabled?

Load Legacy OPROM

Allows you to enable or disable the Legacy Option ROM.

Re: I put the SATA 3 SSD (Intel) in and tried to boot from it, but the boot menu had nothing but the NVMe drive as available in the BIOS

I presume the SATA 3 ssd contains a clone of the OS originally installed on the Dell NVMe ssd.

you may try change BIOS>sata operation from RAID (Dell default) to AHCI (then save change and exit bios).

SATA Operation

Allows you to configure the operating mode of the integrated SATA hard drive cont

if you do not trust the Dell nvme while waiting for your own new NVMe, you might as well remove the Dell nvme from pc.

as a last resort, you may do a fresh clean install of Win 10 on the sata 3 ssd (and remove the Dell nvme ssd).

rmjohnson144 · Answer

It said it was in AHCI already in the BIOS. It was the first thing I checked. maybe I will set it AHCI manually, maybe it just says AHCI as it is in order, but raid-on may be actually checked?

I haven't removed the NVMe drive yet, because the system still isn't functioning properly.

I will also double check UEFI.

And yes, I cloned the SSD from within the R10 to SSD directly with Macrium Reflect clone ability. So that it would be setup properly for the Dell.

redxps630 · Answer

If it is UEFI, this may work to fix error in file winload.efi

With Windows 10 installation/recovery media (such as USB) open the command prompt in advanced tools
Diskpart
list volume (take note of boot partition volume and windows partition letter)
select volume # (replace # with the partition responsible for booting the system, hidden partition in fat32)
assign letter w (to be able to recover the boot files)
exit (exit diskpart)
bcdboot X:\Windows /s w: /f UEFI (replace X with the partition letter that contains the Windows folder)
reboot the system (select the new boot option if more than one)
msconfig (Boot - delete the \Windows options and leave only the c:\Windows option)

redxps630 · Answer

nice. Hope your father likes it now. PS Dell moderator will probably remove your private service tag in discussion.

rmjohnson144 · Answer

Well, my dad will be back in an hour or so. I will see what he wants at this point, then I can hopefully get this figured out.

The Micron NVMe is installed and working fine. It is just empty, besides a few apps he installed until the new drive arrives.

But I found no way to change it out of UEFI, not even a dual UEFI/Legacy options than seems fairly standard.

I also tried RAID-ON and AHCI in different combinations in case I might have missed something and it still doesn't show any SATA drives. I may try removing the nvme and test, but I hate taking it apart as that side panel is janky as can be and frail. I bent one once on my old Alienware and could never get it to snap back on all of the way. It worked one-time and game over.

Also, do you know what the, "Boot Option List UEFI" is for. It seems like some drive access feature to disable drives. It was on always, except internal, and then I set it to never, hoping it will trigger legacy mode and give me back my sata drives. but no luck.

rmjohnson144 · Answer

Well, I can't get to the BIOS as on first launch of sata drive, it booted to a black screen. I tap the power button and it shuts off gracefully, it seems anyway.

I turn it back on and no splash screen nor options to get into the BIOS.

I blindly restart it while holding F2 and still no video.

Did you want me to use the BIOS for factory BIOS reset? Or do I need to set jumpers on the motherboard?

redxps630 · Answer

re: Boot Option List UEFI

Boot List Option

Displays the available boot devices.

try reset bios to factory default if you have changed too many things in bios. save changes then exit. you can keep the Dell nvme ssd in system as long as it has been wiped clean.

it sounds like you are in UEFI boot mode. try the command prompt steps I sent in last reply. as I said the last resort is to do fresh clean install if your father agrees. there is not much data to lose on the new sata ssd.

rmjohnson144 · Answer

OK, here's my

I still got nothing with resetting bios from motherboard. The video seems to engage, it just shows a blank screen. I already tried the F2 and F12 keys without success. I even unplugged video cable and reconnected with no luck.

EDIT:

I marked removing the NVMe as solution, as that seemed to do the trick, outside of the video cable.

Now we'll see how the Samsung Pro works when it arrives.

rmjohnson144 · Answer

OK, I unplugged the video cable and plugged it back in and tried F12 and it went straight to the boot menu and it booted to desktop without issue. I hope it's fine now.  lol

redxps630 · Answer

no do not need to open case to reset jumper. how did you successfully enter bios before? try power off and unplug power cord, press power button to drain all flea power. then power on and press F2 again. If still does not enter bios, try the power drain again then power on press F12. in the F12 menu there may be an option to enter system set up (bios).

are you able to boot from Windows 10 installation media (USB)? if yes try the command prompt fix steps.

if too much trouble, then consider fresh clean install of win 10.

rmjohnson144 · Answer

My father's running late, but I'm sure he'll be pleasantly surprised. Thanks again.

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Aurora R10, won't boot from SATA SSD

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