Windows 11 (on SSD) will not boot with HDDs connected.

[Contreras1010]

Hello,

I have installed Windows 11 on an SSD in an HP Z6 desktop. Windows boots fine if I only have the SSD connected.

If I connect two 8TB HDDs to the computer it will not boot.
If I boot from the SSD and then connect the two HDDs windows can see it and can partition both drives and data can be saved.
However, when the computer is restarted the problem happens again where Windows will not boot up unless those HDDs are disconnected.

How can I fix this where I can boot up (start and restart) with the drives connected?
Is there something in the BIOS setup that I am missing?

HP Z6 G4 Workstation (Intel(R) Xeon(R) Silver 4116CPU@2.10GH

[WAWood]

I don't understand the issue.  Why would you partition the 8TB drives every time you connect them? That is something you only need to do once.

What is sounds like is that your PC sees the drives and in the default boot order, places one or both of the HDDs ahead of the SDD, so it tries to boot from them.

I have the same problem with an HP laptop if I have an external drive connected while booting.  There is no fix for this in that case.

What you can try is connecting all the drives and then accessing the UEFI settings on your PC.  Check the boot order of the drives and using the settings, move your SSD to the top of the list.  Once you do that, it should not change and you should be able to boot using the SSD after that.