How do i add a second HD to Windows 8 on a UEFI BIOS?

At The Gates · 6 Jan 2013 at 12:02

Hi,

I seem to be in a bit of a predicament. I installed Windows 8 on a PC with a UEFI BIOS to my SSD in SATA3_0. It all works fine. However when i try and plug in my old mechanical HDs with all my stuff on, into any other SATA port, Windows refuses to boot. It either sits at the Windows logo doing nothing, or eventually says it's trying to repair Windows and then says it can't.

It's nothing to do with the drive boot order as i know it's booting to the right drive as the second drive doesn't have Windows 8 on (it might have XP or a beta of 7, i can't remember now which OS was on that drive as it dual booted to loads).

If i remove the second HD Windows boots normally again with no fuss.

I read somewhere that you can't connect a second drive with an extended / logical partition (which my second drive has) to a Windows 8 machine on a UEFI BIOS. So WTF am i to do? I need this second drive (the data is backed up) for storage. I have no other PC with which to install it and get into Disk Management and sort out the partitions.

Anyone had this issue and got around it?

Maybe disconnect my SSD, then try and run Windows 8 setup on the mehcanical drive to get to some form of disk management?

Thanks

At The Gates · 9 Jan 2013 at 22:02

Anyone had this issue? I'm at my wits end!

Some more information - i installed Windows 8 off a USB stick so apparantly this means it did not install in UEFI mode, whatever that means.

I have since removed the SSD. Plugged my Deskstar into SATA3_0, plugged my Raptor into SATA3_1 and installed Windows onto the Deskstar. All worked fine and i can see both drives. Then in Windows 8 i deleted all partitions on the Raptor, made one new single partition, NOT marked as Active and turned off.

Put the SSD into SATA3_0 instead and Windows just boots to "Preparing Automatic Repair" and does nothing. Unplug the Raptor and bang it works perfectly again from the SSD.

So i put the Deskstar back in, and made the Raptor's partition Active. Plugged the SSD back in and...."Preparing Automatic Repair".

Complete nightmare

Should i have installed Windows off a UEFI device like a DVD drive and had the second drive plugged in during the install.

I just can't work out why i can run windows with 2 mechanical HDs, but not an SSD and a HD.

zakblood · 9 Jan 2013 at 22:10

i also saw this before, couldn't find a work around so didn't install on UEFI in bios but saw others who have used the regedit work around which let them have it, which i also would need it as i wanted to add a hdd as well with data on.

for me the speed advantage of using it seems to also be a problem if anyone wants a used hard drive in there as well, 2 sdd's doesn't seem to cause the problem, only a mechanical drive

MonkeyBasher · 10 Jan 2013 at 14:45

This is not an ideal solution I know, and I have heard that win8 has issues with USB in general.

Would a work around be to buy a cheap USB caddy, or one of the even cheaper USB cable systems and run the extra drive over USB?

spoffle · 10 Jan 2013 at 14:48

Have you tried disabling all other drives in the boot sequence?

At The Gates · 10 Jan 2013 at 14:52

Yeah, the only drive listed in the boot sequence is the Samsung SSD.

And Windows boots fine if i install Windows to the Deskstar then plug in the Raptor and reboot. Doing my head in now, i think i might give up and just buy a second SSD and reinstall Windows on the 1st SSD WITH the second SSD plugged in at the same time.

El_Watcher · 10 Jan 2013 at 15:10

Have you tried removing the partition on the Raptor entirely, and then trying to boot from the SSD? If it does boot, then you can try partitioning the Raptor in Win 8.