Windows not booting

Hi all,

I just wiped and reformatted my main boot drive (SSD in RAID 1 array) with a fresh Windows 10 pro install. Everything went as expected and on initial boot I was on the desktop and installing drivers ect.. After the initial restart the BIOS can no longer find the OS and reverts to the BIOS menu selecting the C: drive with the windows install in the bios menu for boot loads a black screen 2 _ flash then it reverts to BIOS. Selecting Windows boot mgr restarts the pc. Loading the Windows installation media and selecting repair both automatic and through cmd prompt (MBR record repair)come back as fine. I then tried reinstallating a fresh install and going through this whole process again.

Now I am at my witts end on how best to proceed, if anyone has an idea it would be greatly appreciated.

ok, bit more background, what mobo, BIOS version and hardware (drives, connections etc). The fact you're saying BIOS and not UEFI suggests slightly older kit?

I've had a similar thing in the past where BIOS jumped out of AHCI mode and tried to treat drives as IDE. Sounds stupid but it caused just this problem. RAID adds a bit more complexity, but let's see how we go.

Also is it onboard hardware RAID, PCIe card RAID or software RAID you're using?

Any other disks in the machine? If so... what's the boot order? Sounds like you may have the bootloader installed to a drive that is detected before your new OS install.

mobo: Asus Z87 Expert
CPU: Intel 6600K
SSD: Samsung 850 EVO 250GB x 2 connected via SATA into the onboard intel RAID array (built by the control chip on this mobo)
HDD: Seagate barracuda 2x500gb in RAID 0 array currently with only one drive in so not active. The other drive recently had a corruption issue which broke the array after 8 years so I am waiting to try and extract the data at a later point. Then I have a 500gb Seagate barracuda as another back up drive.

Its a UEFI, I am just use to saying BIOS sorry for the miscommunication. Boot order I have removed all except for the ssd array and it still won't boot.

"still won't boot" - exact same symptoms with all other disks (including backup) removed, or slightly different? What's the boot order specified as within BIOS? Also: can you fully disconnect all other disks and confirm what happens?

Removing all other drives except the ssd array worked and i now have full access to windows. Such a simple solution i should of just taken a step back. So now I need to add the hdds one by one until the problem occurs, load that hdd into an external caddy, export the drive wipe it and put the required data back then continue.

Just change the bios boot order so that the SSD array is seen before other disks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Splash

Just change the bios boot order so that the SSD array is seen before other disks.

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^this. it sounds like 2 drives have MBR and windows is looking to the wrong one. changing the boot order in BIOS will solve this.