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Boot device priority keeps changing


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I have a Asus P5Q-E Mainboard, updated to latest bios to see if it fixes this problem, still no luck.

Heres the problem.

My connected hard drives goes as follows:

X2 80GB in RAID0 - Main OS

500GB Internal Sata Drive

250GB eSATA drive

500GB USB Seagate FreeAgent Harddrive

1TB USB Seagate FreeAgent Harddrive

My boot device priority is set as follows:

1st - ATAPI CDROM

2nd - INTEL RAID

3rd - Disabled

Each time I turn my PC on - Not after a reboot, the Priority changes! I have to go back into the bios, change it, then reboot successfully.

IT changes randomly to things like:

1st - USB FreeAgent 500GB

2nd - USB FreeAgent 1000GB

3rd - SATA 500GB

4th - SATA 250GB

5th - ATAPI CDROM

This can apear in any random order, with the INTEL RAID not showing, I have to re-enable it in the Connected Hard Drives options.

Any Ideas? I'm pretty lost now!

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Odd indeed, but flash your BIOS, if it is the latest go one step back, do a total reset of the BIOS too. Set "boot from USB device" to "no" if that is found in your BIOS.

There could be also something wrong with the RAID setup as well (eg. faulty Southbridge).

But hey, to try never hurts does it ;).

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I have 3 USB sticks (same models) that are apparently too slow to be detected by most Bios at cold boot so I always have to reboot first if I want to boot them (and unfortunately reenter bios and shift in HDD boot order). Other sticks don't do that.

This could be (only half) an explanation to your problem though yours seems more complicated ("random order" ?).

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kept trying to change boot order and any other settings that could relate to it, but no luck, it seems to be that when it detects the USB hard drives it for some reason wants to put them in the first boot order...very strange...

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i don't think i've ever had that problem, but if you disable "boot from other device" does it stop?

my theory is that the BIOS detects the drives and adds them to the boot list trying to boot off them. simply having them plugged in when the computer starts makes the computer 'go stupid' a little, and check to see if it can boot off them.

if that isn't the case then i have no idea what to tell you, but i've had similar problems. but moving to firewire for my external hardware changed all that.

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@Maleko:

Boot the computer with all devices plugged in and turned on.

So that it lists :

1st - USB FreeAgent 500GB

2nd - USB FreeAgent 1000GB

3rd - SATA 500GB

4th - SATA 250GB

5th - ATAPI CDROM

Enter the BIOS, make sure in Main => Storage Configuration that configure SATA as is set to RAID. If it is not, hit F10 to save the settings, reboot, re-enter the BIOS and confirm that it is saved correctly.

Now, go into your boot devices and change it to :

1st - ATAPI CDROM

2nd - INTEL RAID

3rd - USB FreeAgent 500GB

4th - USB FreeAgent 1000GB

5th - SATA 500GB

6th - SATA 250GB

Save it with F10, reboot and confirm that it's been saved as such.

If after rebooting you have confirmed that the settings were correctly saved, NOW you can set your settings to:

1st - ATAPI CDROM

2nd - INTEL RAID

3rd - Disabled

And that should work.

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Gave that a go jcarle, still no luck im afraid.

I have however seem to have solved it!

After going through each setting one by one in the bios I came across the USB Mass Storage Configuration.

In there you can set the emulation for attached USB storage, it was set to AUTO, emulating as a hard drive, so I set it to FDD and now it never seems to take over in the hard disk setup, as it gets seen in BIOS as removable storage, but still a usb hard drive in windows! :)

Edited by Maleko
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In there you can set the emulation for attached USB storage, it was set to AUTO, emulating as a hard drive, so I set it to FDD and now it never seems to take over in the hard disk setup, as it gets seen in BIOS as removable storage, but still a usb hard drive in windows! :)
So, BIOS defaults set's it to AUTO? Good to know this for other people who have the same "problem".
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