Z97 Pro BIOS update results in BOOTMNGR missing. ASUS Support no help.

[Matt_Stevens]

Well isn't this lovely. Pretty much everyone has been telling me to update the BIOS on my new ASUS Z97 Pro Wifi USB3.1 MB. I did not want to do it. I have had enough problems. But I decided to listen.

It looked like it was successful, but before I could get into Windows I saw BOOTMNGR MISSING.

And now my system cannot Boot into Windows (7 Pro 64-bit) because my SAMSUNG SSD (850 Pro 256gb) is not listed under BOOT PRIORITY in the EZ Menu of the BIOS.

My DVD drive and my E drive are listed. But no SSD (though it's clearly visible under "SATA Information".

I updated to the latest BIOS via USB using the BIOS' utility.

http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/Z97PROWiFi_acUSB_31/HelpDesk_Download/

Under Advanced i can see the BIOS is properly set to RAID and the drives are all where they were for SATA information.

I called ASUS Technical Support and as usual they know LESS about computers than I do. These idiots continue to believe that you cannot have the BIOS set to RAID and have one single drive as the C drive. They believe that I must have TWO drives in an actual RAID for the C drive. So Two Samsung SSD's.

They cannot fathom that you can have an SSD in SATA Port 1 as the OS drive, then a DVD-ROM in port two and two hard drives in 3 & 4 in a RAID. They flat out told me that my setup is impossible to work.

They even told me my Samsung SSD 850 Pro is unsupportable." Really?

Eventually the ASUS rep got mad and asked me "why did you update the BIOS? That was really stupid of you."

I immediately asked for his supervisor. He told me to "F**k off" and hung up.

I am not making this up.

So I am at the point where I want to tear this stupid MB out and return it for a refund. But that will be hell on Earth. I would prefer to fix the problem if I can.

I am begging for help here.

P.S. I should ad that I tried to flash back to the earlier BIOS, but the MB's Tool said it was not valid so it refused to flash. So I appear to be stuck on the latest BIOS.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I have a feeling you dont have the entire OS on the 850 SSD and its a common issue when people install with multiple storage drives in the system. Try disconnect the SATA cables for the 2 other HDs and see what it says. And if it still nags, try boot the widnows DVD/USB stick and run a repair.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

Only the SSD was installed when I set this system up. The SSD and the DVD-ROM. Absolutely no other drives.

Once Windows was installed and stable the other drives were added.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Are you sure the SSD is in top of the boot priotity order? I have a feeling its trying to boot from your RAID then.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

This is the problem. As I mention above, under BOOT PRIORITY the SSD is now completely missing. It's just not there. Instead, my E drive (which is a RAID 1) is listed underneath my ASUS DVD-ROM.

Under Advanced and then Boot I can only boot into the SSD by clicking on it in the Boot Override. That's the only place it is listed. But of course, that's not helpful. It's a one-time thing.

I am thinking that some settings have been changed with this BIOS update. i am going through them one by one to see. FAST BOOT was enabled and that shouldn't be, but after disabling it I am not seeing any changes.

UPDATE: Deep in the Advanced Section I found a way to choose the SSD. it appears that this latest BIOS update is flawed in that it somehow keeps SSD's from being view-able in the EZ menu. You really need to get deep inside to find the SSD and force it into the top drive boot position.

I rebooted successfully once and will try and again and see what happens. Basically I have disabled my entire EZ Mode Menu.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Odd, good thing you found the solution

 

[mfenn]

Whenever you update the BIOS (any motherboard), you should always Load Optimized Defaults to make sure that you don't have any old invalid settings.

Regarding "EZ Mode", my feelings on that are the same as the last thread. To reiterate: Completely ignore EZ Mode. Always go into Advanced mode, which is the "real" BIOS setup.

Anyway, glad you got it figured out.

 

[vailr]

I called ASUS Technical Support and as usual they know LESS about computers than I do. These idiots continue to believe that you cannot have the BIOS set to RAID and have one single drive as the C drive. They believe that I must have TWO drives in an actual RAID for the C drive. So Two Samsung SSD's.

They cannot fathom that you can have an SSD in SATA Port 1 as the OS drive, then a DVD-ROM in port two and two hard drives in 3 & 4 in a RAID. They flat out told me that my setup is impossible to work.

The optical drive should usually be connected to the highest numbered Intel SATA port, which is not how you describe having yours set up.
The 3rd-party controller (such as Asmedia or Marvell) for Raid might be a better option. Set the Intel SATA ports for AHCI mode, with the boot drive on the lowest numbered Intel SATA port, and use the 3rd-party SATA controller for Raid. That's how I'd do it, anyway.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Even going back to my Z68 boards -- and as far as I can tell with Z77 -- there are two items (2) in the "Advanced" menus that are relevant. One of them chooses the boot order; the other one chooses drives for that list. I'm fairly sure it's something like that. I will re-boot to my BIOS and post a more lucid explanation . . . Jus'a'minute . . .

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Even going back to my Z68 boards -- and as far as I can tell with Z77 -- there are two items (2) in the "Advanced" menus that are relevant. One of them chooses the boot order; the other one chooses drives for that list. I'm fairly sure it's something like that. I will re-boot to my BIOS and post a more lucid explanation . . . Jus'a'minute . . .

Yeah . . . in Advanced, there is an item to choose a rank-order for boot priority. Two more items choose a rank-order for optical disks and "hard disks." If you don't prioritize the hard disk submenu properly, the boot drive you THOUGHT you had will not show up in the first, boot-priority list.

The user needs to poke through these three items (or howsoever many there are for Z97) to "get it straight." You might have boot from CD as first priority, then your Samsung drive as second priority. But you need to prioritize the Samsung on one of the other two menus if you have both.

I've seen this for both Z68 and Z77, so no reason the later boards wouldn't have a similar BIOS organization and features for something so . . . essential . . . so . . established . . .

And . . . S***W the "EZ mode" menus. First thing I do with these ASUS boards: I switch off EZ mode as default so that BIOS entry leads to Advanced menus.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

The optical drive should usually be connected to the highest numbered Intel SATA port, which is not how you describe having yours set up.
The 3rd-party controller (such as Asmedia or Marvell) for Raid might be a better option. Set the Intel SATA ports for AHCI mode, with the boot drive on the lowest numbered Intel SATA port, and use the 3rd-party SATA controller for Raid. That's how I'd do it, anyway.

From everything I have ever known that is incorrect. This MB's only RAID controller is the Intel. Why install a third party RAID card at additional costs what the INTEL ports are designed for RAID?

ASMedia's two ports do not do RAID.

Further, my RAID has been working perfectly. I did not even have to recreate my raids. Intel RST saw the drives, knew what they were and presto. My RAID was up and running.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

From everything I have ever known that is incorrect. This MB's only RAID controller is the Intel. Why install a third party RAID card at additional costs what the INTEL ports are designed for RAID?

ASMedia's two ports do not do RAID.

Further, my RAID has been working perfectly. I did not even have to recreate my raids. Intel RST saw the drives, knew what they were and presto. My RAID was up and running.

I would say that is all quite correct. You can select RAID-mode in BIOS for the main Intel controller; you can have a single SATA drive as boot drive under that storage mode; you can have another two (or more) HDDs as a RAID storage volume -- 0, 1, or whatever. There should be no problem with any of that.

I still suspect my analysis of your "Boot" BIOS menu options is the key to solving all of this. I have had exactly the same unpleasant surprise with BIOS flashing. But one must go into the new BIOS immediately and assure all is kosher, and part of that means you need to reset boot priority and other related items.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

I did indeed go into the BIOS and check around, but I clearly missed this crucial part. But all seems well now. I have rebooted a dozen times since. So I am a-okay for the moment.

 

[vailr]

From everything I have ever known that is incorrect. This MB's only RAID controller is the Intel. Why install a third party RAID card at additional costs what the INTEL ports are designed for RAID?

No: you misunderstand what I said.
What I was referring to, was the Asmedia SATA ports already present on the motherboard; not about adding "a third party RAID card at additional cost".
Using only the Intel SATA ports (configured in RAID mode) should also work fine.

But: although I personally avoid RAID configurations of any kind, my inclination would be to go ahead and use the Asmedia SATA ports for a 2 disc RAID array; and leave the Intel SATA ports configured in AHCI mode.
Just a simple suggestion, which is completely up to you implement, or not.
Also: if not using the Asmedia SATA ports, they can simply be (optionally) disabled in bios setup.

As to whether the Asmedia SATA ports are RAID capable, or not?: I would assume that they are RAID capable, unless proven otherwise.
Note: that option may not appear in the bios setup unless and until hard drives are connected to both of the Asmedia SATA ports.

I'll also repeat this observation: "The optical drive should usually be connected to the highest numbered Intel SATA port."

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No: you misunderstand what I said.
What I was referring to, was the Asmedia SATA ports already present on the motherboard; not about adding "a third party RAID card at additional cost".
Using only the Intel SATA ports (configured in RAID mode) should also work fine.

But: although I personally avoid RAID configurations of any kind, my inclination would be to go ahead and use the Asmedia SATA ports for a 2 disc RAID array; and leave the Intel SATA ports configured in AHCI mode.
Just a simple suggestion, which is completely up to you implement, or not.
Also: if not using the Asmedia SATA ports, they can simply be (optionally) disabled in bios setup.

As to whether the Asmedia SATA ports are RAID capable, or not?: I would assume that they are RAID capable, unless proven otherwise.
Note: that option may not appear in the bios setup unless and until hard drives are connected to both of the Asmedia SATA ports.

I'll also repeat this observation: "The optical drive should usually be connected to the highest numbered Intel SATA port."

As I understand it for the Asmedia SATA controllers on my Z68 and Z77 boards, the motherboard manual and specs are clear to say it is AHCI-only. In earlier motherboard revisions I remember for LGA-775 chipsets, you could actually configure two disks in RAID0 for the feature controller. But in those days, you even had a limited number of SATA-150 ports on the Intel controller.

 

[mfenn]

As to whether the Asmedia SATA ports are RAID capable, or not?: I would assume that they are RAID capable, unless proven otherwise.
Note: that option may not appear in the bios setup unless and until hard drives are connected to both of the Asmedia SATA ports.

The ASMedia SATA controller on the OP's motherboard is an AHCI HBA, it does not support RAID.

I'll also repeat this observation: "The optical drive should usually be connected to the highest numbered Intel SATA port."

It really doesn't matter. All the Intel ports are equivalent.

 

[Matt_Stevens]

It's working great where it is so I won't be messing with it.

 

[rcarlos243]

Try to see if there is any setting for UEFI / Legacy BIOS / Windows 8 CSM support as you might have installed windows under legacy BIOS and the BIOS setting got changed.

If so you need to set it to Windows 8 CSM mode or Legacy BIOS.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah . . . in Advanced, there is an item to choose a rank-order for boot priority. Two more items choose a rank-order for optical disks and "hard disks." If you don't prioritize the hard disk submenu properly, the boot drive you THOUGHT you had will not show up in the first, boot-priority list.

Try to see if there is any setting for UEFI / Legacy BIOS / Windows 8 CSM support as you might have installed windows under legacy BIOS and the BIOS setting got changed.

If so you need to set it to Windows 8 CSM mode or Legacy BIOS.

Both good suggestions.

 

[don55]

If you need disk i have one for it iam pretty sure

 

[don55]

I have z97 disk for it if you still need one drivers and utilities installation disk

 

[Matt_Stevens]

It's been over a week since I last posted and I can report the system is running very well. The only complaint is with the ASMedia SATA ports. When I need to access the HDD on that port it can hang for a few seconds before waking up.