HDD detected in Windows 10 but not in UEFI BIOS

[Phil84]

Hi,

I have a 10 year old system with an ASUS mobo, and installed a new WD Blue HDD that I had purchased 4 years ago, as an extra hard drive, that had been laying in my desk in its unopened packaging for this time. The ASUS post screen went from the usual 3 second delay to about 20 seconds on the initial boot after the upgrade (BIOS fast boot is disabled after a hardware change), and I could hear the HDD spinning up, it was then detected in device manager and I initialized it GPT in disk manager, without formatting it yet. But on shutdown the HDD made a screeching sound, which I looked up and appears to be normal for some WD hard drives.

But then on subsequent boots the POST screen again always took an abnormal long 20 seconds, with the screeching sound on subsequent shutdowns, so I went into the BIOS a couple of times to find out that the sata port consistently comes up as empty, with the HDD thus not being detected, in boot priority, but also under storage settings or boot override… Device manager in windows detects it every time, and showing the correct port in the hard drive properties.

Fast boot is on in the BIOS (and off in Windows), but off if new hardware is detected, and BIOS fast boot is set to detect all sata drives, to give an error message in case of an issue, with f1 to be pressed to continue, so the user can see the message, but none is given, only POST taking an abnormal long 20 seconds every time. BIOS is set to AHCI and legacy supported.

What I don’t understand is how that it is possible for it not to be detected in the UEFI BIOS, but able to be detected in windows, as the BIOS should be at a more fundamental level?

The HDD on which windows is running is also from WD, but would you suspect compatibility issues with the newer hard drive, or a mobo firmware issue, or a defective hard drive (with the spin up and screeching shutdown sound), which the BIOS therefore doesn’t want to recognize because it doesn’t meet certain checks, but windows does? Could it be a faulty connection?

I have another new HDD laying around which is exactly the same one, but this one is only a couple months old, but I don’t want to use this one in case it would give the same issue.

What could be the cause of this, and what should I do?

Thanks!

[DataWizard0103]

This does not sound like a compatibility issue. When BIOS takes 20 seconds and sometimes shows the SATA port as empty but Windows still detects the drive, that usually means the drive is slow to respond at power on and BIOS times out. Windows storage drivers retry and pick it up later. The screeching and spin up delay make me suspect either a weak SATA cable, bad SATA port, or a marginal drive from sitting unused for years. I would first swap the SATA data cable and try a different motherboard port. If it still acts the same, I would return or replace the drive and not risk using it.

[Phil84]

Thank you so much for providing me with an explanation!!

So the BIOS post will time out, but then later on it is “up and running” enough for it to be detected by Windows. Hot plug is enabled in the BIOS for all SATA ports so a HDD that would be detected later on by windows after post would then not be an problem for the system.

Would you recommend still using the HDD because of this issue, or would you expect the drive to die very soon, or would it become better after it becomes more in use over time, as it has been laying idle for the past 4 years, and was never used before this, or would you think this issue would have been present even if I had started using it right after I had bought it?

[Vegan]

I suggest using a USB enclosure for the disk so that migrating to a more recent or different machine is easy. Old machines may be less secure due to the vintage.

[DataWizard0103]

@Phil84

Thank you so much for providing me with an explanation!!

So the BIOS post will time out, but then later on it is “up and running” enough for it to be detected by Windows. Hot plug is enabled in the BIOS for all SATA ports so a HDD that would be detected later on by windows after post would then not be an problem for the system.

Would you recommend still using the HDD because of this issue, or would you expect the drive to die very soon, or would it become better after it becomes more in use over time, as it has been laying idle for the past 4 years, and was never used before this, or would you think this issue would have been present even if I had started using it right after I had bought it?

Drives that sit unused for years can sometimes have stiction or stiff spindle lubrication, especially older WD Blues. When you first power them up after long storage the motor can take longer to reach full speed, which explains the slow POST and why the BIOS sometimes misses it during its quick detection window while Windows later sees it once the drive finally spins normally. If it were my system I’d fully format the drive and run a SMART and extended surface test using WD Data Lifeguard or another diagnostic. If those tests pass and the noises reduce after a few power cycles it’s probably fine as a secondary storage drive. If the screeching or detection delay continues after a few days of use then I would stop trusting it and replace it before putting anything important on it.