Z820: Windows 10 installer/BIOS can't see HDDs, but Windows 7 still boots ok

[StephenH83]

Hi there. I'm trying to install Windows 10 Pro 64 on a new HDD in my Z820 workstation, however none of my internal hard drives are being detected by the Windows 10 installer. The drives are also not showing up in BIOS. However, my Windows 7 Pro 64 system still boots up with no problems - and when Windows 7 has started, all my internal drives show up correctly in Device Manager etc. Could anyone offer some solutions please? Many thanks.

[DGroves]

windows 10 pro, contains all required drivers for the z820, no others are required for a OS install

if the bios does not see the drive then it should be obvious that windows will also not see it as the bios runs before the OS and is responsible for detecting attached hardware, and presenting this list to the OS during it's install

failure to detect in bios is limited to only a few things

For SATA devices

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no power to drive, or bad SATA cable

bad or bios disabled sata /SAS port (the z820 has onboard SATA and a onboard LSI SAS/SATA controller)

bad drive

SAS drive instead of SATA drive connected

for M.2 devices

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bad SSD, or trying to us a SATA ssd in a nvme only M.2

bad M.2 carrier if using a pci-e card

bad pci-e slot

wrong pci-e slot, most m.2 nvme ssd's require a x4 capable slot and will not work in a x2 slot

for the z820 the SATA boot ssd/HD needs to be in one of the TWO SATA 6GBps ports, that are next to the 5 white Intel "SCU" sata 3GBps ports

the 7 white LSI SAS/SATA ports along the bottom should not be used for booting and the onboard LSI boot rom should be disabled in the z820 bios

last, the bootable drive should be the topmost device shown in the bios, and legacy and UEFI needs to be enabled in the bios

i recommend resetting the bios to factory defaults, and the only disabling the LSI and onboard nic boot roms

[StephenH83 · Accepted solution]

The solution was to load an Intel(R) C600 Series Chipset SAS RAID Controller Driver for Windows 8 64 from a USB stick and this allowed the Windows 10 installer to see the drives.

[DGroves]

the z820 only has TWO SATA 6GBps ports, all others are 3GBps this includes the 7 LSI ports along the bottom

HP recommends connecting boot drives to the fastest port, instead of the slower ones

win 10 has driver support for the two 6GBps as a bootable/installable device