Solved Reboot and Select.. After bios update

Hello!

Solution: Reflashed to 10.08 with the drive in. Still not booting.

Reflashed again, using a different key- BOOTED!

W00T!

Thanks for the assist. Marked Solved.

Solution: Ensure usb key formatted to Fat32, format it again, don't flash bios unless you actually need to, and most of all- with this particular board and multiple hard drives, do not update bios to 10.10.

I've had this issue with the "Reboot and Select Proper..." since I did a bios update (cause I'm an idiot.) to 10.10 on my Z77A-GD65 board. Until the update, I had no issues booting.

Previous bios unknown (cause I'm an idiot).

Primary Drive (Sata 3 Intel Port) - 128GB Kingston SSD (Windows 8)
Secondary Drive (Sata 3 Intel Port) - 120 GB Kingston SSD (OSX 10.8.3)
Tertiary Drives: Seagate 1TB (D drive, Problem drive) Port 3 - Sata 2
Seagate 1TB (OSX storage) - Sata 2
Seagate 500GB (OSX backup) - Sata 2

I've checked (and then replaced) connectors, power lines (modular P/S). The system _will_ boot with the secondary (D drive) disconnected and I have hotswap enabled, so I've found a workaround in that I ground myself off on the case and when the Win Logo shows up, I reconnect the drive. The issue with that (other than my fat-a$$ climbing under a desk each time to disconnect and reconnect a drive) is that my case is open and this is an "always on" (I travel and stream to my iPad) PC, so sometimes BitDefender, Windows Update or "Other" force a reboot where my drive is connected and fails to boot- leaving the message about proper boot device on screen for hours, potentially days when I'm out of town.

This issue seems similiar to another on the forum here: http://www.eightforums.com/installa...ect-proper-boot-device-insert-boot-media.html Other than it's not my boot device itself with the issue.

I've tested by disconnecting all drives except the WIN SSD, it boots, adding in one drive at a time, it boots- until I plug the D drive. Same for the OSX side- all drives are fine, but OSX bootloader won't load if the D Drive is connected- Insert Media or ....

Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Thoughts?

I have a 1 TB Seagate drive that if connected to my system, fouls up the whole thing. But there is nothing wrong with it, it simply interferes with the rest of my Seagate Drives.

I tried everything, replacing power and Data cables, even bought an expensive Data line, to noah vail.

Finally I gave up and just stuck it into an External Box.

There might be a power issue with your PSU, maybe it is one too many HDs for it to handle and that HD is breaking the camel's back.

Dont give up, just try different Data cables and buy a good Power Connector.

When all drives are connected, which drives does it detect, also, with the two OSX drives disabled, will it detect and boot?

Try moving the drives around on the SATA bus as well, I've had to do all kinds of finicky things to get my system to find and use all of my drives.

I've switched cables (power supply and sata), changed ports. No go.

In reference to the detection, the bios sees the drives (all 5) with no issues, it's only post bios where the drive does it's broken magic and farks everything up. The mac side will boot when the issue drive is disconnected- it doesn't 'care' whether or not the winOS drive is connected or not - as a matter of fact, the bootloader will allow me to choose my Win8 drive and partition and will boot to Windows.

Sadly though, that awesome bootloader means nothing if I can't even get to it since the system seems to insist on loading *something* from that drive after bios POST.

The external box (toaster, I call it) is an option since I have one on my desktop- and would be a lot cheaper than the module I was trying to find that allows you to switch on and off drives with a button press (sits in an open dvd bay)... that I don't know the name of. The issue lies in that I paid a buddy with OCD to do my cable management and to get the drive out will ruin the whole thing. First world problems, I know- but I'd just like my system to work as it did before the bios update...

Is this a Mac Tower running Boot Camp, is some other kind of rig?

The BIOS may have not copied properly, you can either do it again, or, if you have the previous BIOS saved somewhere, you can try to put the old BIOS back in. I've done it before so I know it can be done, but I don't know what kind of Box this is, how are you running MACOS?

You may have to re-download the previous BIOS file from whoever made the MB, and install it.

OK, here is your board, you can download the BIOS right from there, it's 10.8

MSI USA ? Motherboard - Z77A-GD65

It's a hackintosh (with retail DVDs, paid mountain lion download).

I think your speculation on the bad bios flash is correct- I thought of it after my last reply but neither of my two USB keys do anything- I go to the update (over clock off, bios 'A'), choose the file on the key (I redownloaded 10.10) and it hangs. I gave it 20 minutes but didn't see the red DO NOT... DO ANYTHING AT ALL! (or such) warning with either key.

Ill buy a new key tomorrow and try again. Let you know.

I really wish I'd paid attention to which bios I had- it was stock as in I'd never updated it yet and the board is only February-old, but...? I'll do some comparisons from what I know of dates and go from there.

It was probably 10.8, depending on how long you've had the board.

I'll have to talk to you about how you got OSX to install - I tried installing it to my Gateway laptop, but my power section burned up.

I specifically bought hardware I knew would work (tonymacx86), which made everything SOOOOO much easier- I know, because I used to run horrible hacks that were so butchered you'd be hard pressed to call them OSX. Including distros so I could run them on AMD systems.

MyHack has some decent reviews if you have access to a mac at all to make the key from it. I've never had it work for me though, but maybe try there first.

I haven't had a chance yet to reflash- been working on my other rig all night, but I will reply back later today when I get a chance to reflash and test.

I don't like what I heard about it hanging up during re-flash, maybe it was a bad file.

I have in trhe past accidentally used a wrong BIOS file, I had to put the Bios Flasher on a Floppy Disk and fix it that way.

Just in case, the newer motherboards will not maintain a boot device in many circumstances. Usually all you have to do in to into the bios and put the device you need to the first priority. If you are using a UEFI system, it would be a Windows boot Manager, Legacy install would be the drive itself, and I have no idea for Apple, but maybe something that mentions UEFI.

Saltgrass: I've done the manual selection- as long as the added drive isn't plugged in, it works. O/S independant- even an Ubuntu live key.

I have my bios set for UEFI/Legacy- since I never installed WIn8 through UEFI (which I should've for the speedup).

XweaponX: Floppy. ... What is that? J/K! I threw out all my floppy drives years ago. I do have a built in sd reader though that I may try if this keeps up.

I'm still working on recovering Boss' hard drive- pretty sure it's toast though- I/O trying to even load it into seatools
I swear I will try the bios recovery today.

Download Hiren's Boot CD, burn it, boot to it. Go into Dos Programs and into Hard Drive Tools. Look for ViVard - Use that, try a 'Smart Remap"

It will remap the drive even if you have hundreds of bad sectors, it will run until it is done, takes about 4 hours.

You may have to buy a USB floppy, the Dos version of the flasher program can't be run otherwise, and it has to be Drive A or B, which a card will not do. I actually prefer updating BIOS this way, because I don't trust the ones that are on the board, they depend on the BIOS thats in there. Unless there is a BIOS updater that will run in the OS, but not all board makers have those.

I always keep USB floppy drives around, and I have a supply of fresh floppies, I actually have hundreds of viable programs on Floppy disks, I have to dig in to them constantly.

I am finalizing my Boss' install right now- still no luck getting a chance to reflash.

I don't know if you missed it though- I can't boot to _anything_ if the drive is connected- I've tried dvd/cd/usb/osx/winboot. As long as the secondary drive is plugged, I can access nothing. Normally, I'd disconnect it just to run the tools, but it needs to be connected for said tools and I am not terribly comfortable just plugging it in without a hotswap-capable O/S running to catch it.

I'll try the flash (I have 10.8 on a better key right now) when I get the chance- this weekend just turned out to be my chance to help every person I know instead of myself, is all.

[DEL]Reflashed to 10.08 with the drive in. Still not booting.[/DEL]

Reflashed again, using a different key- BOOTED!

W00T!

Thanks for the assist. Marked Solved.

Solution: Ensure usb key formatted to Fat32, format it again, don't flash bios unless you actually need to, and most of all- with this particular board and multiple hard drives, do not update bios to 10.10.

Excellent! Yah I forgot to mention it has to be on a Fat32 disk. So you had no problem, locating the Flash Drive and doing the BIOS?

I would keep my eye on the Driver page and see when a new BIOS comes out, also, you should report your problems to who made the motherboard. Usually BIOS updates don't cause problems, but once in a while they do. If it works, don't be in a hurry to "update" it, that applies to OSes, Drivers, even hardware.

I always read the specs for everything I update, if it doesn't look like it will help me out, I avoid it.

Sadly, I updated since I was having an issue updating the drivers for the MB- chipset and such.

They're definitely going to aware of my issue with 10.10.

Thanks for the assist, it's been... a blast?

Hope you find out if it was a bad BIOS file or not. Thanx