I recently upgraded my computer with a new motherboard, CPU, RAM, and SSD, but I'm having issues getting my Samsung 990 EVO Plus M2 SSD to be recognized as a primary boot drive. After building the PC with an MSI MAG B850 Tomahawk MAX WiFi motherboard and doing a fresh Windows install on the new SSD, everything seemed to work fine at first. I had an old HDD connected as well, which had Windows installed previously, and I was able to boot from either drive for a while. However, now that the old HDD is formatted, the SSD doesn't appear in the UEFI when I try to set it as the boot device. The only time the drive shows up is when I switch to CSM mode, but that leads to a boot loop where Windows won't load properly. I've heard that the lack of a bootloader on the new SSD might be causing the issue. Is that the case, and would attempting to repair the bootloader cause any problems? I've ensured that the SSD is formatted correctly and is in the right M.2 slot. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
I think it's crucial to note that you should have just installed the M2 SSD by itself to avoid these issues. Since you’ve already done a clean installation, check that the M2 is set as your primary boot device in the BIOS. If it still doesn’t show up, a repair of the bootloader could be the next step. Just follow the steps you’ve outlined and you should be fine. You’re not likely to cause additional harm, but make sure to back up any important data first!
It sounds like you might have encountered the old bootloader issue because the previous drive was connected during the new Windows install. To fix it, I suggest disconnecting all other drives and doing a fresh install directly on the M2. This will ensure that the bootloader is created on the new drive itself and you won’t run into issues trying to boot from the old HDD anymore. It shouldn't cause any harm and you can always add the old drives back in after the installation.
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