HP Pavilion not viewing new SSD as bootable

[zachploen]

Hello Forum,

I have an HP Pavilion Laptop Model e8A85UA. It has an i7 processor with 8gb ram and 1tb 5400rpm hard drive.

I have attempted to install a new Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500gb in place of the old hard drive. I am having some serious issues installing any operating system to the new SSD and I feel that the new UEFI settings are to blame.

Here is how far I have gotten. I can boot from a windows cd and begin a clean install to the ssd which is recognized in the windows setup. However, when the pc reboots to complete the install process the SSD is not recognized as a bootable device and I get a 3f0 error. I have tried everything in the bio's to get this to work. It does not recognize the new drive in the bios and only gives me the option for "os boot manager".

I have tried booting and installing in legacy mode with the same results. Somehow this pc just does not want to recognize this device as bootable. 

I have tried cloning the old hard drive and all partitions and booting with same result. I have tried cloning just the operating system partition with same result. I have tried repairing the pc from the windows disk after I have tried both a new install and a clone install, same thing.

I can put the original hdd back in and everything boots just like it should.

The SSD drive is also recognized when setting up windows but then fails on rebooot. It is also recognized by USB when plugged in through an external sata enclosure.

It is concerning that even with a new formatted SSD that the bios on this HP will not let me install windows on it, or recognize the new ssd as bootable.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Zach

[zachploen]

Update*************

Since I could still make a hp restore disk, I decided to try that and created one on a 32gb flash drive. I attempted to boot from this device, which it did correctly. I then tried to restore to factory settings from the recovery instance, but again on reboot to finish installing, it failed to recognize the ssd drive as bootable.

Update 3/13/15

So I did get the install of windows 8.1 to successfully complete by a fluke, but it is recreatable. I can successfully install windows 8.1 if I install from UEFI USB instance. Then on reboot when the computer fails to recognize the hard drive as bootable I can again let it boot from the USB, go into the "Repair my pc" option on the install screen and select "continue to windows", I also remove the usb here so that nothing external is plugged in. The laptop will immediately reboot, and fail to see the drive as bootable again. However, if I power off the pc, then turn it back on, it will boot from the new ssd hard drive into windows normally. Now if I shut the pc off or restart, bios will fail to recognize the drive as bootable. The only way I can get it started is if I boot from windows install usb, remove the usb, click the "continue to windows", let it auto reboot and fail, then shut the pc off and turn back on and it will boot fine into windows and bios recognizes the drive.

Thats where I'm at. Also bios is at f.24 which is the latest available for my pc.

Zach

Cheers,

Zach

[zachploen · Accepted solution]

So after like 2 weeks of messing with this, I finally figured out what the issue was. I returned the original ssd I purchased and got a second one, same thing Samsung 850 EVO. Formatted the drive, tried to install a clean version of windows, same issue, would not boot. 

I took the pc to MicroCenter where I bought it and they have free tech support. I showed them what was going on and they had no ideas, but they did say they would try to install windows for a fee, but if it didn't work they wouldn't charge me, so I had nothing to lose at this point. 

Tech called me 2 days later and said that the drive was bad, that he ran into the same issue. He said he took another SSD they had there and installed windows on it just fine.

So I returned the Samsung 850 EVO SSD to the other vendor and bought a Crucial MX100 512gb ssd from them.

Installed the SSD and booted from my Windows Install USB, windows installed just fine and has been working like a champ. Only thing I can think of is that Samsung has some type of firmware on their SSD, at least that model, that is not compatible with my PC's BIOS.

Anyway if anyone runs into the issue that I just had, maybe try a different brand SSD or a different model.

Hope this saves someone 2 weeks of pulling your hair out.

Cheers,

Zach