bootdrives Can't get all four of my drives to show up in BIOS

[Skcorpion86]

Hello all, been a while since I've posted here. I'm in need of some help.

 

As the title states I can't get all four of my drives to show up in BIOS.

 

I used to have 2 computers. One with a 1 TB SSD as a boot drive and a 2 TB HDD for additional storage.

 

The 2nd computer has a 250 M2 SSD for a boot drive and a 4 TB HDD For additional storage. 

 

I decided I no longer need two computers, so I ended up taking apart my first computer to get ready to sell the parts individually. I also decided I wanted to keep the storage and just throw it into my 2nd computer for more storage than I need just because why Not?

 

The problem is I can't get all four drives to show up simultaneously. When I plug them all in, all but one will NOT show up. 

 

I assumed one of my sata ports on the mother board were not working so unplugged and re plugged all the sata cables to see what what going on.

 

I'm rulling out the fact that one of my SATA port is not working because as of now all my SATA drives are showing up in BIOS. My M2 SSD is currently not showing up in BIOS. To get my M2 SSD to show up I have to rearrange my SATA ports on the motherboard and BIOS seems to just pick 3 random drives to show up.

 

Things to note:

 

I'm using a MSI Krait Gaming Motherboard

 

The 250 GB M2 SSD has been a boot drive for a while now. The fact it refuses to show up in BIOS when all the other drives are plugged in is a mystery to me. Although like stated before it can show up if I move arrange the sata ports differently in the Motherboard. 

 

When the 250 GB M2 SSD does not show up, the computer boots from my 1TB Sata SSD. (Since it was the boot drive from my Other PC)

 

Am I Missing something? Or can I just not have all the dives active at once? Like I said I can only get 3 to work simultaneously.  

 

Thanks for the help in advance.

 

 

 

[DrMacintosh]

are all the drives initialized?

 

Do they all show up in disk utility or whatever windows calls it? 

 

Does device manager see them all?

 

Are they formatted correctly? 

 

I have never had a drive work, I have always had to spend time researching why. I really don't like Windows sometimes 

[Skcorpion86]

Nope Windows does not see all of them. Bios and Windows share the same story. Refuse to show all 4 drives.

 

The most annoying part is BIOS will have all 3 of my extra drives at "bootable" drives but not my M2 drive.

 

Seems as if I can only boot from the m2 drive with 2 extra drives instead of 3 like I want

 

I have managed to get each and every drive usable in Windows. Just not all at once for some reason 

[airdeano]

what version of the krait? z87, z97, z170, z270?

 

due to the lane compatibility of the chipset, use of M.2 SATA/PCIe can render some of the SATA ports disabled to leave room for the PCIe distributions to the board slots x1 and USB.

[Skcorpion86]

 

1 minute ago, airdeano said:

what version of the krait? z87, z97, z170, z270?

 

due to the lane compatibility of the chipset, use of M.2 SATA/PCIe can render some of the SATA ports disabled to leave room for the PCIe distributions to the board slots x1 and USB.

z170.

 

And thats seems what its doing. It disabled a sata port when it's on. And when all 3 sata drives work the M2 is off.

 

So I'm assuming I'll have to sacrifice a drive? I cri evertim 

[airdeano]

as per the manual, states using the M.2 (SATA mode) you'll only be able to use 2x SATAIII drives (total three drives).

you'll lose the SATA 5/6 (SATA express) and the SATA 3/4 to leave use for USB and x1 slots:

 

 

remove the M.2 and you'll have all six SATA ports available.

[Skcorpion86]

Well this is a bit annoying, however for some reason very thrilled that it wasn't something I was doing incorrectly. Just lack of knowledge with my motherboard and M2s.

 

I didn't need the 2 TB HDD anyway.  Just wanted to put it in there just because. 250 GB M2 SSD, 1TB Sata SSD, and 4 TB HDD should be plenty for a while.

 

Now I need to figure out what to do with my extra 2 TB HDD. Haha.

 

Thank you for the help.