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HP Recommended
Z600
Microsoft Windows 7 (64-bit)

I have an HP Z600 running BIOS v3.54. Three HDDs total:

 

SATA0 and SATA1 holds HDD that I'd like to configure as RAID1. I am bringing these over from an old NAS setup, so I may need to reformat them. They have an EXT2 filesystem on them.

 

SATA3 holds my SSD with Windows 7 Pro.

 

I need to be able to boot from SATA3 and have the BIOS skip SATA0 and SATA1 for boot. However, when I start my PC, it's attempting to boot from the HDD (supposedly SATA0).

 

Is there a way to change the SATA order of the boot?

 

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

 

 

First.... I'd recommend upgrading your BIOS to the latest, 3.60 released in April of last year.  Just google for Z600 drivers and go to the top HP link.... it is easy to find.

 

We don't do RAID but we do have multiple boot drives in the HP workstations.  For example:

 

Z600:

1.  Kingston Predator M.2 SSD in PCIe interface card, inserted in PCIe slot 1, W7Pro64

2.  Intel SSD in SATA drawer 0, W10Pro64

3.  Samsung SSD in SATA drawer 1, W7Pro64

 

Z620:

1.  HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 Generation 1 SSD in its HP PCIe interface card, in PCIe slot 4, W7Pro64

2.  (same as for the Z600)

3.  (same as for the Z600)

 

F10 into BIOS, go over to the Storage tab, down to Boot Order, and I order for fastest general boot times (Hard Drive, then OD, and finally USB).  There are other BIOS settings posted about here for getting the fastest boot times.  From within that "Hard Drive" BIOS area you can change the boot order for each of the workstations easily and quickly, simply by highlighting the drive you want to boot from, shifting it to the top of the list, saving the selection there, and then saving the change in BIOS on the way out of BIOS.  In my examples you'll still be able to see all 3 boot drives in Windows File Explorer but you'll notice whatever you're booting from will be called the C drive there.

 

Finally, for me it is best to have different brand SSDs because having the identical SSD type showing up in that BIOS list when I'm selecting which one to boot from makes things confusing.  Having different vendors makes it quick and easy to recognize which is which.

 

I run our Z620s in legacy mode, and thus the BIOS interface for the Z600s versus the Z620s if very similar.

 

We need to do this multi-boot thing because our workstations are outfitted with very expensive monitors and we need to cover duties requiring different major software platforms.  In an emergency we can shift from one software platform to another using the same hardware and be up and running in a little under 1.5 minutes.

 

View solution in original post

2 REPLIES 2
HP Recommended

 

 

First.... I'd recommend upgrading your BIOS to the latest, 3.60 released in April of last year.  Just google for Z600 drivers and go to the top HP link.... it is easy to find.

 

We don't do RAID but we do have multiple boot drives in the HP workstations.  For example:

 

Z600:

1.  Kingston Predator M.2 SSD in PCIe interface card, inserted in PCIe slot 1, W7Pro64

2.  Intel SSD in SATA drawer 0, W10Pro64

3.  Samsung SSD in SATA drawer 1, W7Pro64

 

Z620:

1.  HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 Generation 1 SSD in its HP PCIe interface card, in PCIe slot 4, W7Pro64

2.  (same as for the Z600)

3.  (same as for the Z600)

 

F10 into BIOS, go over to the Storage tab, down to Boot Order, and I order for fastest general boot times (Hard Drive, then OD, and finally USB).  There are other BIOS settings posted about here for getting the fastest boot times.  From within that "Hard Drive" BIOS area you can change the boot order for each of the workstations easily and quickly, simply by highlighting the drive you want to boot from, shifting it to the top of the list, saving the selection there, and then saving the change in BIOS on the way out of BIOS.  In my examples you'll still be able to see all 3 boot drives in Windows File Explorer but you'll notice whatever you're booting from will be called the C drive there.

 

Finally, for me it is best to have different brand SSDs because having the identical SSD type showing up in that BIOS list when I'm selecting which one to boot from makes things confusing.  Having different vendors makes it quick and easy to recognize which is which.

 

I run our Z620s in legacy mode, and thus the BIOS interface for the Z600s versus the Z620s if very similar.

 

We need to do this multi-boot thing because our workstations are outfitted with very expensive monitors and we need to cover duties requiring different major software platforms.  In an emergency we can shift from one software platform to another using the same hardware and be up and running in a little under 1.5 minutes.

 

HP Recommended

Thanks for the help. I think my problem stems from having v3.54 of the BIOS, which doesn't have all the options you mentioned. I'll update to 3.60.

 

To solve the problem in another manner, I simply repositioned the SSD to SATA Drawer 0 in the Z600 (top-most slot in the box). That solved the problem for me. 

 

However, your notes will help me with my dual boot setup that I plan to have. I'd like to do a clean install of W10Pro on a new SSD drive. This allows me to maintain the integrity of the original W7Pro SSD.

 

Thanks for your help!

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.