Can't set NVMe SSD as primary boot drive on Acer Aspire A515-52g.

[Hawkk]

Can't set my new NVMe SSD as the primary boot drive as it does not shows up on the boot priority order. The only available option is "Windows Boot Manager" even though both storage devices are being recognised by disk management and BIOS (first pic). I want to use HDD as the storage drive along with SSD as the boot drive.

• Storage Installed: 1tb HDD (pre-installed), WD Blue 570 1tb NVMe SSD [(recently installed)(windows and data cloned using Macrium Reflect)].

•Boot Mode: UEFI (Legacy mode not available).

•SATA Mode: Optane without RAID (currently set), other option available is AHCI (laptop does not boot up when set on this mode).

Would appreciate a solution ASAP.

[whispous]

First, test your new drive's clone by unplugging the SATA cable from the HDD, and booting.

 

IF EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS THERE AND WORKING, plug the HDD back in and delete all the partitions and re-format it.

[Bombastinator]

Do you have an optane drive in there?

[Hawkk]

1 hour ago, whispous said:

First, test your new drive's clone by unplugging the SATA cable from the HDD, and booting.

 

IF EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS THERE AND WORKING, plug the HDD back in and delete all the partitions and re-format it.

Already tried that, the computer says "No Bootable Device". I prepared a Rescue Flash Drive using Macrium Reflect just in case, which is recognised by BIOS as a bootable device. I can boot into my windows 10 installed on the SSD using this method (using the flash drive), but not without it (it goes back to saying "No Bootable Device" if i try turning on the computer without flash drive).

[Hawkk]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Do you have an optane drive in there?

Nope.

[Bombastinator]

29 minutes ago, Hawkk said:

Nope.

Then you clearly need to make the computer aware of this. It seems to think you’ve got one.

[Hawkk]

36 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Then you clearly need to make the computer aware of this. It seems to think you’ve got one.

Whenever I change SATA Mode to AHCI the windows refuses to boot up for some reason. It gets stuck in a restart loop.

[Bombastinator]

55 minutes ago, Hawkk said:

Whenever I change SATA Mode to AHCI the windows refuses to boot up for some reason. It gets stuck in a restart loop.

Ah so the question is how to do that? Have you tried safe mode?  Or recovery mode?  (The internet knows what those are) a third thought is What about pulling your hard drive, doing the things in bios that need to be done, and reattaching it?  Have you tried booting off the install stick?  I kinda wonder if Linux would have a problem seeing the hard drive or if it would exhibit the same problems?

[Hawkk]

36 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah so the question is how to do that? Have you tried safe mode?  Or recovery mode?  (The internet knows what those are) a third thought is What about pulling your hard drive, doing the things in bios that need to be done, and reattaching it?  Have you tried booting off the install stick?  I kinda wonder if Linux would have a problem seeing the hard drive or if it would exhibit the same problems?

Haven't tried safe mode or recovery mode yet but tried the third method which didn't give any better results. Will try safe mode and recovery mode though.

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Hawkk said:

Haven't tried safe mode or recovery mode yet but tried the third method which didn't give any better results. Will try safe mode and recovery mode though.

Safe mode cuts out all your drivers and replaces them with older, baked-in drivers that windows requires hardware makers to be able to function with.  Not everyone does though so it works or it doesn’t. WinRE is even deeper. It’s what you use to fix boot drives with problems on them.

Both are even harder to get to in win10 than previous versions.  I suspect win11 is worse if it has it at all.

[Hawkk]

26 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Safe mode cuts out all your drivers and replaces them with older, baked-in drivers that windows requires hardware makers to be able to function with.  Not everyone does though so it works or it doesn’t. WinRE is even deeper. It’s what you use to fix boot drives with problems on them.

Both are even harder to get to in win10 than previous versions.  I suspect win11 is worse if it has it at all.

Gotcha. Will try it out and update the results.

[Hawkk]

10 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Safe mode cuts out all your drivers and replaces them with older, baked-in drivers that windows requires hardware makers to be able to function with.  Not everyone does though so it works or it doesn’t. WinRE is even deeper. It’s what you use to fix boot drives with problems on them.

Both are even harder to get to in win10 than previous versions.  I suspect win11 is worse if it has it at all.

So, I tried it out with and without HDD connected.

CASE I (with HDD connected): When i got into WinRE, I tried searching for an option to boot from the SSD, but there were none.

CASE II (with HDD disconnected): Like I said before the pc says "no bootable device" after disconnecting the HDD, so I connected the rescue flash drive which I made using Marium Reflect and I was able to boot into my windows installed in the SSD. So I decided to experiment a bit. I made a seperate 1gb partition in my SSD and cloned the Flash Drive onto it. Next I checked the bios and there it was "Windows Boot Manager" in the boot priority list. I then unplugged the Flash Drive and was able to boot into the windows normally installed in the SSD. Then I tried going into the WinRE, the picture of which I will attach to this reply.

[Hawkk]

[Bombastinator]

1 hour ago, Hawkk said:

So, I tried it out with and without HDD connected.

CASE I (with HDD connected): When i got into WinRE, I tried searching for an option to boot from the SSD, but there were none.

CASE II (with HDD disconnected): Like I said before the pc says "no bootable device" after disconnecting the HDD, so I connected the rescue flash drive which I made using Marium Reflect and I was able to boot into my windows installed in the SSD. So I decided to experiment a bit. I made a seperate 1gb partition in my SSD and cloned the Flash Drive onto it. Next I checked the bios and there it was "Windows Boot Manager" in the boot priority list. I then unplugged the Flash Drive and was able to boot into the windows normally installed in the SSD. Then I tried going into the WinRE, the picture of which I will attach to this reply.

WinRE assumes your boot partition is messed up.  It has tools that can only be used from there.  It exists because you can’t fix your boot partition from the inside.  Bootrec /fixboot is one iirc. There are several though.  The commands list will be needed.  There is a command that can tell you their names and another that can tell you what each does.  The flag would be bootrec /?  For bootrec for example. One of the things you will need to find out is if the boot partition is MBR (master boot record) which is older, or GPT (general partition table) which is how UFEI does it. MBR is basically pre- UFEI legacy stuff.

Edited September 28, 2022 by Bombastinator

[Hawkk]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

WinRE assumes your boot partition is messed up.  It has tools that can only be used from there.  It exists because you can’t fix your boot partition from the inside.  Bootrec /fixboot is one iirc. There are several though.  The commands list will be needed.  There is a command that can tell you their names and another that can tell you what each does.  The flag would be bootrec /?  For bootrec for example. One of the things you will need to find out is if the boot partition is MBR (master boot record) which is older, or GPT (general partition table) which is how UFEI does it. MBR is basically pre- UFEI legacy stuff.

Will resetting or reinstalling the windows solve the problem?

[Hawkk]

I backed up my data and clean re-installed the windows. It fixed everything.

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, Hawkk said:

I backed up my data and clean re-installed the windows. It fixed everything.

That works too

“…Nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure”  - Riley

[Hawkk]

5 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

That works too

“…Nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure”  - Riley

It was wasting too much of my time, so at the end I decided to go with the reinstallation. And thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.