Windows Won't Load After Fresh Install with Multiple Drives Connected

Wildfire96

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Okay,

So after a fresh install of Windows 10 I get the following error pictured below. If all the drives besides the boot drive are disconnected then Windows will load. I tried disabling all the drives besides the boot SSD in the BIOS, but I still get the error. Any advice would be appreciated. I am using the MSI Z77A-GD65 motherboard.
 

Wildfire96

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So I have four drives, an SSD boot drive and three 2 TB seagate data drives. I've gone into the UEFI BIOS and set priority boot option to the SSD, I have tried disabling the three data drives in the BIOS and have tried selecting the SSD boot drive from the boot options by pressing F11 at start up, but I still get the same error message unless I physically disconnect the SATA cables from the three data drives.
 

Wildfire96

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I physically disconnected the SATA cables for the three data drives before I installed Windows 10. With the drives disconnected I loaded windows and THEN plugged in the drives and they appeared to be working fine. I have also tried booting with only one data drive connected at a time, but unless all three are disconnected it won't load the OS on the SSD.
 

Wildfire96

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Don't know if it makes a difference, but I disconnected all the drives, booted into windows, reconnected all the drives and then ran the bcdedit from an elevated command prompt in Windows, if I need to run it in the CMD from a bootable USB recovery stick let me know.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {ac74b061-7c9e-11e6-95f1-e812f24a82b9}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 10
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {ac74b063-7c9e-11e6-95f1-e812f24a82b9}
recoveryenabled Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {ac74b061-7c9e-11e6-95f1-e812f24a82b9}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

C:\Windows\system32>Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
'Microsoft' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
2016 was unexpected at this time.

C:\Windows\system32>
C:\Windows\system32>C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit
'C:\Windows\system32' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>
C:\Windows\system32>Windows Boot Manager
'Windows' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>--------------------
'--------------------' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>identifier {bootmgr}
'identifier' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
'device' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>description Windows Boot Manager
'description' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>locale en-US
'locale' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>inherit {globalsettings}
'inherit' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>default {current}
'default' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>resumeobject {ac74b061-7c9e-11e6-95f1-e812f24a82b9}
'resumeobject' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>displayorder {current}
'displayorder' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
'toolsdisplayorder' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

C:\Windows\system32>timeout 30

Waiting for 27 seconds, press a key to continue ...

C:\Windows\system32>


 
Can you boot from windows installation media?

Connect all drives to your computer,
boot from windows install media,
goto Repair my computer/command prompt
execute those commands and post output (photo would be ok):

  • diskpart
    list disk
    select disk 0
    list partition

    select disk 1
    list partition

    select disk 2
    list partition

    select disk 3
    list partition
 

Wildfire96

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Okay so I figured out where the problem is, just not sure how to go about fixing it. One of the three drives in the SATA 2 slot is on it's last leg, Windows just needed some time to initiate the automated repair tool and now the system will boot with it connected, however it will not boot with SATA 7 or SATA 8 connected (I pulled all the relative data off the failing SATA 2 connected drive FYI). If I move the last two data drives to SATA 5 and SATA 6 then the system will boot. These are slower connections and are already in use by other peripherals so I'd rather use SATA 7 & SATA 8 which worked before the fresh Windows install. These last two SATA connections are Asmedia® ASM1061 SATA ports so at first I thought it was a driver issue. I went to the motherboard manufacturer website, downloaded and installed the SATA drivers, however the system will still not boot when the data drives are connected to SATA 7 & SATA 8. Any ideas?

 

Wildfire96

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Nope, I get the same error message whenever I use the SATA 7 & SATA 8 ports, I also disconnected my two hard drives and plugged in a formatted/clean hard drive, still the same error message. I found this forum post which appears to be about the same problem http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2220598/unplug-hdd-boot.html unfortunately the solution they come to appears to be simply not to use the last two SATA ports, they didn't seem to determine why they didn't work in the first place.