Inaccessible Boot Device - Disks show up + enabled in BIOS, but do not show up in diskpart / disk management.

[ElementalSon]

Aim: I am setting up a new PC. I have one old hard disk (OZVECTOR), and one new (M.2 WD Green). I have never been able to get the old hard disk to boot. At one point I installed Windows 10 Home on the M.2 and was able to boot this. Later, I had to install a new AIO cooler, and reset BIOS due to an HDMI No Signal error. There is no bootable disk on this machine, so I cannot use any settings outside of BIOS or command prompt. 

 

Issue: Now, neither disk will boot. If I try to boot them from the boot manager, I get the INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE error on a BSOD. If I try to boot from my windows installation USB, it takes me to the installation wizard. Attempting to reinstall does not detect either hard disk. If I use the command prompt, diskpart / list disk does not display either drive. Nothing is detected except the USB with the windows installation media. I believe the disks are not in a RAID configuration.

 

Attempted fixes:

• Only having one disk, or the other, connected during boot. Same outcome.
• Resetting BIOS. Same outcome.
• Activating / deactivating /reactivating disks in BIOS. Same outcome.
• Turning on Compatibility Support Menu (tried with automatic, legacy only and EUFI only - tried all three.) Outcome: HDMI No Signal outcome - no QLED error status on motherboard. 

 

OS: Windows 10 Home Edition, 64x

SPECS:

• ASUS ROG STRIX Gaming Z690-G
• Intel i9-12900k 12th gen chip 
• RTX 3070 GPU
• Corsair 1600 PSU
• Disk: M.2 WD Green 1tb
• Disk: OZVECTOR 1 TB 2.5 SATA.

[Windows7ge]

Does the motherboard have a Boot Override menu? Does a bootable drive appear there? The override menu is sometimes in the BIOS but if not F10, F12, or another specific function key should take you to a dedicated boot override menu.

[ElementalSon]

7 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Does the motherboard have a Boot Override menu? Does a bootable drive appear there? The override menu is sometimes in the BIOS but if not F10, F12, or another specific function key should take you to a dedicated boot override menu.

It does. The drives show there (both of them), but booting from either of them results in the same INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE BSOD. 

[Windows7ge]

2 hours ago, ElementalSon said:

It does. The drives show there (both of them), but booting from either of them results in the same INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE BSOD. 

Hmn...I'm not sure then. You already tried CSM settings so if UEFI only boot or Legacy boot don't work then I don't know what other crucial BIOS setting was enabled during the OS installation.

 

I don't think Secure Boot would change anything but it would be enabled by default. You could try disabling that and see if the behavior changes.

[ElementalSon]

8 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Hmn...I'm not sure then. You already tried CSM settings so if UEFI only boot or Legacy boot don't work then I don't know what other crucial BIOS setting was enabled during the OS installation.

 

I don't think Secure Boot would change anything but it would be enabled by default. You could try disabling that and see if the behavior changes.

I've tried that as well - same outcome. I'm  currently trying a USB partition wizard (AOMEI) and it can't detect them either. I have no idea why. Thank you for trying to help though!

[Windows7ge]

35 minutes ago, ElementalSon said:

I've tried that as well - same outcome. I'm  currently trying a USB partition wizard (AOMEI) and it can't detect them either. I have no idea why. Thank you for trying to help though!

If the BIOS sees them fine but no boot media is recognizing them it sounds like Windows wants you to load a driver. I'd plug a Linux installer into the computer and see if Linux picks them up. Something like Ubuntu Server. The Linux distros more often come with drivers that Windows may not during OS installation. If this is true it's possible the mode the drives are in requires a driver though that doesn't make sense. Default mode should be recognized by the Windows installer.

 

Any chance you have the situation where the motherboard says "you can use this port or this port but not both."? Might be a switch you have to flip somewhere. Kind of like enabling bifurcation for M.2's on PCI_e risers.

[ElementalSon]

 

I've attached some screenshots. As with the screenshot of diskpart in the command prompt, only the USB devices show up in the AOMEI disk partition wizard.

 

As far as I know, there's nothing in the BIOS (nor either the motherboard or BIOS manual) about one port excluding another.

 

I'm not very familiar with Linux - trying Ubuntu Server now, cheers for the tip.

Spoiler

 

 

[ElementalSon]

Just tried the Ubuntu Server USB - BSOD, Inaccessible Boot Device error. 

 

EDIT

 

I tried a new USB, and it appears to have worked - on the one, I installed Ubuntu Server and have successfully got the WDm.2 to boot to (non-GUI) desktop. I'll try to convert it to Windows from there. 

 

From the log it looked like the issue was in the PMBR, and a missing Nvidia driver.

 

Thank you so much for your help @Windows7ge - I could not have done it without you.

[ElementalSon]

Okay so, update - the disk runs to Desktop in Ubuntu, but isn't recognised by Windows and diskpart freezes. Going to try and reformat using Ubuntu and install windows over the top (it's a single boot system rather than dual boot so it should be workable) - Windows also doesn't recognise the usb with the driver on it.

 

EDIT

 

I am now reformatting the drive in Ubuntu ISO setup - converting it to GPT,  as that's the only option (MBR not mentioned) - I need to choose the format to complete the reformat. The options are ext4, xfs, btrfs or swap, or leave unformatted. Leave unformatted greys out the 'done' option.

 

EDIT 2: None of these have worked. Hell with it - I'm going to just install a Windows VM through Ubuntu Server. Thanks again.

[Windows7ge]

Sounds like a lot has happened. Given the option you want GPT instead of MBR. Do you have any spare drives you could try connecting? The behavior is still strange and doesn't make sense.

 

If Ubuntu recognized the drive then it sounds like drivers. Which means some setting in the BIOS somewhere isn't right causing them to not show up in the Windows installer because it needs a motherboard driver to see the drive. That is usually caused by enabling RAID mode but you mentioned you are in IDE or AHCI?

[ElementalSon]

22 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

Sounds like a lot has happened. Given the option you want GPT instead of MBR. Do you have any spare drives you could try connecting? The behavior is still strange and doesn't make sense.

 

If Ubuntu recognized the drive then it sounds like drivers. Which means some setting in the BIOS somewhere isn't right causing them to not show up in the Windows installer because it needs a motherboard driver to see the drive. That is usually caused by enabling RAID mode but you mentioned you are in IDE or AHCI?

I ended up setting up Ubuntu Server and using QEMU to make a Windows VM on the WD. I'm hoping from here I can use this to somehow get back to bare-metal Windows.

 

I am in ACHI. I have also tried creating a ROG STRIX driver bootable USB, or installing the driver through command prompt (nvidia_driver_525_server) with no success. I still cannot get it to boot directly into Windows. I have no idea what in BIOS might be not causing it to show up. Any suggestions of where to look would be appreciated.

 

I can pick up a spare drive next week to give it a shot.

 

22 hours ago, TechlessBro said:

You have the OCZ drive before the WD so the windows boot after install would be from OCZ even if you got the installer to see the disk.

 

You may want to use the secure erase in bios on the WD drive. SSDs have built in erase functions that you can run form bios or Linux with hdpram. 
 

That way you know the disk is back to factory and won’t have any boot partition or anything on it.

I have tried it in both orders, also with only one (or the other) connected - no dice.

The OCZ was an older drive, which already has an active Windows installation and data on it. It won't boot either.

I did delete the partition for the WD in Ubuntu, and now have a virtual Windows machine running on it.

 

I have not virtualised the OCZ disk.

 

 

EDIT:

 

Using linux's command prompt and the command lspci , I was able to see what driver is currently running on the RTX 3070 - it's called nouveau. I'm going to update the kernel driver in use to the appropriate Nvidia one and see if this has any effect.

 

Edited March 23, 2023 by ElementalSon

[ElementalSon]

I now successfully have the nvidia driver for the GPU. I'm not certain this will make any difference, but it's notable that trying to install Windows 10 on the WD did not include dling the correct driver for the GPU.

 

I do want to end up with a bootable hard drive with the Windows OS as its only OS, as opposed to running a Windows OS as a VM (mostly so I don't have to go through the headache of GPU pass-through.)

 

What I'm considering at this point is V2P conversion - taking the VM Windows machine I have and attempting to make it physical. I'm going to follow the guide here if I do: https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/virtual-to-physical-V2P

 

If you have any thoughts / input on any of the above I'd appreciate it. It really shouldn't be this hard to make a disk which can boot and run Ubuntu AND support a QEMU Windows 10 VM, run with Windows 10 as a bootable native.

Edited March 23, 2023 by ElementalSon

[Windows7ge]

If the SSD is PCI_e M.2 you could do hardware pass-through using QEMU/KVM. This would install Windows to the drive as though it were bare metal. If your hope is to then boot that drive native though you will likely run into issues with Windows activation and the OS generally not liking the sudden hardware change. Not a good idea.

 

Given the circumstances it might be worth trying a BIOS update. If there's any chance this is a bug with the board it might help. Also try re-creating your Windows installer USB. Maybe something went wrong there. .ISO files can be funny in a not fun way.