Windows won't boot without CD in drive.

NuclearIce

New Member
Messages
1
Hello,

I'm having a problem which I have been unable to solve and it's eating away at me. :eek: I have three hard drives. One is a Kingston Hyperx SSD 120GB. The other two are for internal storage and are WD 500GB Blacks. I recently upgraded my computer. My new mother board is the ASUS M5A99X. I installed Windows 8 just fine back in Dec 2012 and it worked up until April-Mayish. My USB Hub was causing my computer to halt before POST. After exchanging it with a new hub, I was able to boot just fine.

Later that same day, I cleaned out the dust in my computer and added another harddrive. I wasn't able to boot Windows 8. It would just stop with a blinking cursor right before it should show the four blue panes. I went into BIOS and it didn't have my SSD listed. I accidentally unplugged the SATA cable for my SSD and forgot to plug it back in. After I plugged it back in I set the boot priority back to my SSD first.

I still couldn't boot so inserted my Windows CD to reformat. After it says "Press any key to boot from CD...." I didn't press anything and it loaded into Windows just fine. I loaded Windows this way for a while until I was able to troubleshoot it. After reformatting, I get "Please select proper boot device.." message. If I put the CD in, that goes away and it loads into windows after saying "Press any key to boot from the CD..." Here's what I've done to troubleshoot so far:

1. Set SSD to first in boot priority order in BIOS. Forced boot to my SSD in BIOS. Changed SATA from AHCI to RAID (lol) to IDE.

I've used bootrec.exe and tried
  • bootrec /RebuildBcd
  • bootrec /fixMbr
  • bootrec /fixboot
This still didn't resolve my issue.

2. I flashed my BIOS to 1708 because it was going to fix an issue I had with a USB device.

3. I reformatted Windows 8 with all drives unplugged except my SSD.

4. I've unplugged all SATA devices except my harddrive and tried to boot.

5. I've set the 2nd partition (90+GB) to active partition on my SSD.


I can't seem to find a fix for the issue I'm having. Any help would be HUGELY appreciated! My next step is to RMA the motherboard and hope that will resolve it. :D

Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    AMD FX-8350 Vishera 4.0GHz Eight-Core
    Motherboard
    ASUS M5A99X EVO
    Memory
    32GB G.SKILL 1600 DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Will update
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 HP 21"
    Screen Resolution
    1440x900
    Hard Drives
    1x Kingston HyperX SSD 120GB
    2x WD 500GB 7200RPM Black
    PSU
    Will update
    Case
    Thermaltake
Your MBR has gotten ruined somehow. You'll have to fix that, then run the Bootrec program.

If you can download Partition Wizard Home Ed, you can right click on your system drive over on the left side and it says "REbuild MBR" - After you do that, reboot to the Windows Install disk and run the Command Prompt and then run Bootrec again, fixing both the Boot and MBR. Warning, this is a risky process.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
Wait a sec - You said it is not listing your SSD drive. So - Sorry, don't TOUCH your SSD drive. If it is not being detected by the BIOS then it's not being detected.

If you can download the tools for it from the MFG, you will have to check the drive, see why it is not detecting. It still may BE the MBR being bad, but before we go messing with Partition Wizard, we should run the Diagnostics which came from the MFG. Maybe your SATA cable is bad, it may be as simple as that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro with Media Center/Windows 7
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus § DualCore AMD Athlon 64 X2, 2300 MHz (11.5 x 200) 4400+ § Corsair Value Select
    CPU
    AMD 4400+/4200+
    Motherboard
    Asus M2N-MX SE Plus/Asus A8M2N-LA (NodusM)
    Memory
    2 GB/3GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GeForce 8400 GS/GeForce 210
    Sound Card
    nVIDIA GT218 - High Definition Audio Controller
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Hitachi 40" LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    "1842 x 1036"
    Hard Drives
    WDC WD50 00AAKS-007AA SCSI Disk Device
    ST1000DL 002-9TT153 SCSI Disk Device
    WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 ATA Device
    WDC WD32 WD-WCAPZ2942630 USB Device
    WD My Book 1140 USB Device
    PSU
    Works 550w
    Case
    MSI "M-Box"
    Cooling
    Water Cooled
    Keyboard
    Dell Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Intellimouse
    Internet Speed
    Cable Medium Speed
    Browser
    Chrome/IE 10
    Antivirus
    Eset NOD32 6.x/Win Defend
    Other Info
    Recently lost my Windows 8 on my main PC, had to go back to Windows 7.
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