I recently built a new computer and installed Windows 11 on an MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard. The BIOS was updated when I built the system last fall. I have a 1TB Samsung NVMe SSD for Windows 11, which I installed in the M1 slot without any issues. Now, I want to dual boot with Ubuntu using a second 1TB Samsung NVMe stick. Both drives are the same model. My idea is to have Windows 11 as the main OS, but I can manually switch to Ubuntu or set it as the default if needed.
I was careful not to accidentally overwrite Windows 11 with Ubuntu, so I removed the Windows drive during the Ubuntu installation, which went smoothly and booted just fine. However, after reconnecting the Windows NVMe drive, the motherboard only recognizes the Ubuntu drive in the BIOS boot order. Although both NVMe sticks are detected by the motherboard, I can't see the Windows 11 drive in the boot order section of BIOS. I'm looking for help to get both drives to show up in the boot options. I suspect this might relate to having two identical drives or maybe there's something peculiar about my motherboard. Help, please!
3 Answers
Your concern about how Ubuntu was installed might have some merit. If you set up Ubuntu without the Windows drive plugged in, it might have omitted creating an entry for it. As a last resort, try reinstalling it. Before reinstalling, disconnect all drives except the one you wish to install to, ensuring there are no conflicts when it creates the boot entries for both systems. Just be careful with installations, as they can sometimes mess up the bootloader.
You could check the boot priority settings in the BIOS. If Windows is installed correctly, it should appear there. Try using the F11 boot menu during startup to manually select Windows until you sort it out. Also, ensure that Secure Boot is disabled, as it may interfere with seeing the boot options for multiple OS. Casual question — have you tried booting Windows while the Ubuntu drive is disconnected just to see if it shows up again in BIOS?
It sounds like your BIOS settings might be the issue here. First, try resetting your BIOS to factory settings to refresh any configurations that might be causing conflicts. Also, make sure that the SATA mode is set to UEFI, as both Windows and Ubuntu should be installed in that mode. If that's already correct, the boot options could be limited due to both drives having the same identifier. In some cases, using drives from different manufacturers can help with recognition. You could also try moving the drives to different slots if your motherboard allows for it.
Yeah, I've had similar issues with identical drives before. If that doesn’t work, you might want to check if there are any firmware updates for your motherboard. Sometimes a simple BIOS update can resolve these types of boot issues.
Good call! Disabling Secure Boot can often solve strange detection issues. If the NVMe drive still doesn’t show up when booted alone, there might be some deeper compatibility problems with the drives.