HP Omen Obelisk 875 won't boot from SATA SSD

[foehammer111]

I have an HP Omen Obelisk 875 Desktop that I purchased 3 years ago, and recently upgraded the 1TB HDD to a 2TB SATA SSD.  I installed the SSD as the C drive with the original 1TB HDD as the D drive.  I used a Windows recovery USB stick to install Win11 on the new SSD, and everything went smoothly.  After I transferred my files from the HDD to the SSD, I powered off the PC and put a 2TB HDD as the D drive for extra storage.  However, when I turn the PC on now, the BIOS does not see the SSD as a bootable drive.  It only sees it as a non-RAID drive and will only let me boot to Windows if I also have the original 1TB HDD installed as a secondary drive.

I have tried turning off Secure Boot and turning on Legacy Boot in the BIOS, but it still doesn't seem to see the SSD as bootable.  I tired updating the BIOS since the current version is from 2020 and there is an F.27 update from 2021.  However, it never actually seems to update as the version is still from 2020.  Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated.

[erico]

What specifically do you mean by " Windows recovery USB"?

"It only sees it as a non-RAID drive" Why do you state that? Unless you have the PC set up to boot to a RAID setup that is how it should be. 

What brand and model SSD did you install?    Is it M.2 or 2.5" SSD format?

You should install the Windows 11 to the SSD, install it in the Obelisk and then remove the original HDD since it has the boot flag set.

Boot to the new SSD Windows installation. 

After that has been done successfully you can put the original disk back in. It will still need to be setup to use it as secondary storage.

Use Diskpart to clean the original drive and remove the boot flag.    
How to use invoke and use DiskPart
Have you used DiskPart to see if the SSD is bootable?

[foehammer111]

What specifically do you mean by " Windows recovery USB"?

I used a Windows recovery USB created from the Windows Media Creation tool to do a fresh install of Win11 on the SDD.

"It only sees it as a non-RAID drive" Why do you state that? Unless you have the PC set up to boot to a RAID setup that is how it should be.

Maybe this screen shot will make it clearer.  When installed with the original HDD, it shows the SSD as a non-RAID physical disk.  It's a Silicon Power 2.5" SATA SSD.

Here are the other boot settings in the BIOS:

I have looked at the volumes using Disk Management and DiskPart but it looks correct.

[erico]

Ok. That is helpful.

Again I suggest that you disconnect the original disk and then boot to the newly installed disk.

Have you tried setting the new disk as the first one in the EFI disk boot order?

[foehammer111]

Again I suggest that you disconnect the original disk and then boot to the newly installed disk.

I have disconnected the original HDD so only the SDD is connected.  When I do this with the OS Boot Manager or Internal Hard Drive listed first in the boot order, this is the error message I get.  I've tried this with the SDD connected to each SATA cable, but it never seems to be recognized as a bootable drive.

[erico]

That is helpful.

I should have caught the following two items when you provided the BIOS images. 

In Bios, Legacy support is enabled and secure boot is off. 

CSM mode is OK but I see no mention of that in the BIOS information list.
Your disk volume is GPT (EFI), mot MBR(Legacy) so that could be the issue.

Secure boot should be turned on.

Give those settings a try, one at a time. Turn off legacy support first, uness you see that it is CSM in the information to the right hand side. If it says CSM then it is OK.

If it fails again all that I can see that is left is to test the SSD to see if it is faulty.

With the original disk back in place and the new SSD connected to the PC via a USB cable or enclosure, test the SSD.

Silicon Power 2.5" SATA SSD is not really a mainstream brand, so perhaps you got a bad one.

[foehammer111]

Originally Secure Boot was on, but after reading suggestions on other HP support forum threads, I turned Secure Boot off and turned Legacy Boot on.  Legacy Boot does mention that it uses CSM in the information on the right side.  I reenabled Secure Boot and Disabled Legacy Boot, but still run into the same problem when the original HDD is not connected.

Could this be an issue with the original HDD not being connected while the Intel Optane memory still is?  I removed the Optane memory from the motherboard and disconnected the original HDD, but still have the same problem of no boot device being found.  When the original HDD is disconnected, but the Optane memory still is, there is a message in the BIOS about the Optane memory volume being incomplete.

The SDD is working fine except for not being able to boot from it.  I am currently typing this message from Win11 on the SDD, and can boot to windows on it as long as the original HDD is also connected.  There just appears to be a setting somewhere in the BIOS that is not seeing the SSD as boot.

[foehammer111]

For more information, here is what is shown in the Intel Optane memory app.

Intel Optane PCIe is on Controller 1, Port 0

The original 1TB HDD is on Controller 0, Port 2

The new 2TB SDD is on Controller 0, Port 0

There's an option to disable the Optane PCIe Memory, but I'm not sure what impact that will have on the system.

[erico]

Essentially the Optane disk just speeds up memory access.

It would seem you have a bad new SSD.  You can use Silicon Power's toolbox software to see if that is indeed the case

https://www.silicon-power.com/web/ir/software

[foehammer111 · Accepted solution]

I was able to resolve the issue.  The issue was right in front of us the whole time.

I checked in Disk Management again and realized that the new SSD didn't have an EFI boot partition.  I used CloneZilla to copy the EFI partition from the old HDD to the new one, and now the SSD boots without the original drive installed.  Thank you for your help!