<< Solved >> BIOS Shows 2 HDs When There Are NONE

[wstrohm]

Trying to convert my "Mini-ITX 1" computer (below) to a Windows 10 computer. Along the way, I removed one of the two Sandisk 1 TB SSDs and re-entered the BIOS to find that it still showed two.

I removed the second one and the BIOS still showed two bootable disks! I cleared the CMOS on the motherboard, "Q-flashed" the BIOS with Gigabyte's latest (same as before) BIOS firmware... and the BIOS STILL shows the two disks that are NOT there.

Where is there any memory in the computer that can do this?

 

[Jamesbond007]

Trying to convert my "Mini-ITX 1" computer (below) to a Windows 10 computer. Along the way, I removed one of the two Sandisk 1 TB SSDs and re-entered the BIOS to find that it still showed two.

I removed the second one and the BIOS still showed two bootable disks! I cleared the CMOS on the motherboard, "Q-flashed" the BIOS with Gigabyte's latest (same as before) BIOS firmware... and the BIOS STILL shows the two disks that are NOT there.

Where is there any memory in the computer that can do this?

Are the Sandisk SSDs SATA or NVMe? I don't suppose your H87 motherboard has any M.2 slots.

If they are SATA SSDs, after you removed them did you still see them listed in the SATA section of the BIOS?

When you say the BIOS still showed two bootable disks, where did they show? Pressing F12 to show the boot menu? Or on Clover / OpenCore?

 

[wstrohm]

Thanks for responding. The SSDs are SATA III Sandisks (made by Western Digital, I think). You are right... no M.2 sockets in my motherboard. Yes, after I removed them and powered up the computer, pressing F12 and looking in the BIOS section, both showed up as boot choices. Removing first one, and then both, they had still shown up. I ran the current version of Gigabyte's BIOS update called "Q-Flash, and after the update I loaded the "optimal" settings. They were still there, which is why I posted this thread. As of now, it makes no difference, since I have converted that computer to a Windows 10 Pro computer, and both SSDs are now formatted as NTFS. But I would still like to know what the heck was happening!

 

[Yomiro]

Trying to convert my "Mini-ITX 1" computer (below) to a Windows 10 computer. Along the way, I removed one of the two Sandisk 1 TB SSDs and re-entered the BIOS to find that it still showed two.

I removed the second one and the BIOS still showed two bootable disks! I cleared the CMOS on the motherboard, "Q-flashed" the BIOS with Gigabyte's latest (same as before) BIOS firmware... and the BIOS STILL shows the two disks that are NOT there.

Where is there any memory in the computer that can do this?

When you say showing up..

Do they show up under the NVME or SATA Configuration section?

Or are they showing up in the UEFI Boot Entry Section? You said bootable so I assume they show up here.

 

[wstrohm]

When you say showing up..

Do they show up under the NVME or SATA Configuration section?

Or are they showing up in the UEFI Boot Entry Section? You said bootable so I assume they show up here.

They showed up in the SATA configuration, in the UEFI Boot Entry Section, and in the initial boot selection window before entering "Enter Setup." But not as Icons on the desktop.
It really doesn't matter any more, because I finally installed Windows 10 on that computer. They are formatted by Windows as NFTS, and I've giving the computer away, so it's just a curiosity question now.

 

[jaymonkey]

They showed up in the SATA configuration, in the UEFI Boot Entry Section.

@wstrohm,

You just answered your own question ...

The two disks had boot entires stored in the UEFI's NVRAM, to remove them you could have tried reseting NVRAM, or booted to a EFI SHELL (for example both OpenCore and Clover have an EFI Shell) and used the BCFG BOOT RM XX command to remove just the UEFI Boot entires, where 'XX' is the index id of the boot entry you want to remove (which can be found using the BCFG BOOT DUMP command).

Most UEFI BIOS's have the means to remove Boot entries, however different manufactures using different terminology and controls and sometimes it will not remove the NVRAM boot entires so using an EFI Shell and the BCFG command is a more standard way that will work on all systems.

NOTE: OpenCore's EFI Shell disables writing to the UEFI's NVRAM by default, to enable writing you must use the OpenControl.efi tool.

Cheers
Jay

 

[Yomiro]

You just answered your own question ...

The two disks had boot entires stored in the UEFI's NVRAM, to remove them you could have either reset NVRAM, or booted to a EFI SHELL (for example OpenCore has a EFI Shell) and used the BCFG BOOT RM X command to remove just the UEFI Boot entires, where 'X' is the index id of the boot entry you want to remove (which can be found using the BCFG BOOT DUMP command).

Cheers
Jay

That was my assumption too.

The UEFI boot entries will continue to show up unless they are deleted manually. Either in the BIOS or by resetting NVRAM.

 

[pastrychef]

Oh yes! How could I forget??

I think jaymonkey nailed it. I remember having to manually delete entries in EFI shell on older chipset systems. I haven't had to do it on anything Skylake or newer.

 

[wstrohm]

The two disks had boot entires stored in the UEFI's NVRAM, to remove them you could have either reset NVRAM

That's news to me, thanks. So the fact that there were no longer any disks in the computer was not recognized because the "boot entries were stored in NVRAM?" Silly me, I would think that if you removed disks, the computer would know that and report it. Live and learn. Next time that happens I will clear the NVRAM... My Open Core EFI folder has made that very easy... one click.

 

[pastrychef]

That's news to me, thanks. So the fact that there were no longer any disks in the computer was not recognized because the "boot entries were stored in NVRAM?" Silly me, I would think that if you removed disks, the computer would know that and report it. Live and learn. Next time that happens I will clear the NVRAM... My Open Core EFI folder has made that very easy... one click.

When I experienced this, clearing NVRAM was not enough. I had to go in to EFI shell and manually delete the non-existent entries.

Please see the following for more info:

[GUIDE] Remove extra Clover BIOS boot entries & prevent further problems

Clover is a great boot loader, and tonymacx86 has developed some great tools to get you up and running. However, some people are still having problems. I think a lot of this has to do with the design of the systems. Many have extra backup internal hard drives or partitions with legacy boot...

www.tonymacx86.com