Can only select one HDD to boot from in BIOS (have two installed)

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NoOneCares

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Jan 22, 2015
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Hi all,

In my Asus P5Q3 Boot Menu, i can only select one of my two installed HDDs to boot from. I can also select CD-ROM or "Removable drive" ect, but i can't boot from my second HDD (that has working Windows installed on it).

Info:
Two SATA HDDs (one 40GB SSD and one 500GB mechanical) and one SATA DVD-ROM installed (i can see them all in Windows, no issues there).
channel SATA0: 40GB Kingston SSD HDD
channel SATA1: 500GB WD HDD
channel SATA2: DVD-ROM

Shouldn't matter in BIOS, but here's what is in the HDDs:
SSD has Windows 7 installed on it.
500GB has Windows XP SP3 on it (my old HDD, Windows should still work), plus my "data" (storage space).

BIOS detects all 3 devices (AHCI mode), but in Boot Menu i can only select the 40GB SDD to boot from, not the 500GB :(

Thanks in advance! :)
 
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Nuwan Fernando

Nuwan Fernando

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Jul 26, 2013
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In the same place where you select the boot devices, go little below and there you can select the HDD priorities. From there you'll need to select the HDD as the first. Then it'll appear on your boot menu.

Also most of the XP is installed using IDE mode of the SATA configuration. So after you change your boot priorities, if you face problems, try setting it to IDE rather than AHCI to make it usable. You'll need to revert to AHCI when you change your boot order again to make the win 7 work.
 
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NoOneCares

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Jan 22, 2015
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Thank you very much Fernando, that was what i had to do!
I switched the HDD Priorities (from No1 SSD / No2 500GB to the other way round) and now 500GB is the boot drive.

WinXP where also on ACHI in my case, but they won't load because they used to be on the first motherboard SATA channel (Device0) and they are on the second now, but i'll deal with that, just a bit of Fixboot/fixBMR should do it.

Thanks again to both of you for your replies :)

 
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NoOneCares

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Jan 22, 2015
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Well it did in my case, i got a BSOD when i tried to boot with the WinXP HDD as first boot device.
All ok again when i set the Win7 SSD HDD as first boot (Win7 loaded just fine).

Just in case this happens to someone else, i ended up using the Win7 dvd to fix the issue:
I chose DVD-ROM as first boot device and the WinXP HDD as second one.
Booted from the Win7 DVD, and then got to command prompt strait away (not "Repair").
C: was still assigned to the SSD and D: to the WinXP HDD.
Run the following commands:
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
"Yes" to adding first found Windows installation (Win7 on C:
"Yes" to adding second found Windows installation (WinXP on D:

Now if i select the Win7 HDD as "First Boot Device" in BIOS i will boot strait away to Win7, and if i select the WinXP one i will boot to WinXP.
No multiboot menu in either case (as i was expected), just strait Windows loading.

Again thanks for the help :)
 
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