My computer is a Dell T3600 with RAID capability, even though I have only one hard drive. The hard drive is connected to the 'HDD0' port, which is used with RAID. The DVD-R/W drive is connected to the 'SATA0' port.
At first, I could not upgrade from Win 7 to Win 10, because Win 10 could not see the HDD0 port. I asked Dell support. They said to connect the hard drive to the SATA0 port, and the DVD drive to the SATA1 port. Windows 7 took that in stride, after a reboot due to the hardware change. I was able to upgrade to Win 10.
The drive is attached via a SAS controller. Has anyone else seen this issue? I have tried loading the Storage Controller drivers from Dell's. SAS Controller Driver for Dell - Precision T3600 working on Microsoft Windows 7 Professional.
Now I wanted to move the drive back to the HDD0 port. I was able to do so after getting a link for a driver from Dell. In Win 10's Device Manager, the RAID controller was shown without a driver, which I installed after downloading it from the Dell link. So, after accomplishing that, my hard drive is back on the HDD0 port, and the DVD drive is back on the SATA0 port.
Now - here is my issue. When the hard drive was on the SATA0 port, the boot sequence was Dell BIOS screen, black screen, black screen with Windows logo, black screen, gray-green screen, login screen. With the hard drive on the HDD0 port, the boot sequence is Dell BIOS screen, black screen, black screen with Windows logo, black screen, black screen with Windows logo, black screen, gray-green screen, login screen. It appears that Windows is testing, and waiting for a timeout on, the SATA0 port before trying the HDD0 port, where it succeeds. I tried disabling the SATA port by removing its driver in Device Manager, then disabling the port in the Dell BIOS. The delay still happens.
How can I get Windows to go direct to the HDD0 port to boot, and to skip the SATA port? Dell Support has told me, in effect, 'that's the way it works', because they don't understand Windows enough.
Storage Controller Driver For Dell T3600 Download
Dell Precision T3600 Raid Driver
Computer was running fine. Thought I would run a scan on my SSD drive. So I made the mistake of right clicking on my SSD drive with the Win 10 Pro OS, selecting properties, and then Scan. It immediately went into a scan and repair loop always ending at Automatic Repair screen.
I tried the normal tricks like bcdedit /set GUID recoveryenabled No but it stayed Yes anyways and wouldn't work on reboot. I eventually removed the right RAM module top break out of it and it now goes straight to Automatic Repair screen.
I did a chkdsk /r and after five hours it finished successfully, no problems found on disk. Did a sfc /scannow and it verified 100% finding no problems.
System Restore failed. So I ran a copy e:windowssystem32configRegBack* e:windowssystem32config as my Windows directory is on the e: drive. Copied find but on reboot straight back to Automatic Repair screen.
Ran bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd
'Successfully scanned Windows installations. Total identified Windows installations: 0 The operation completed successfully.'
Ran bootrec.exe /fixmbr
'The operation completed successfully.'
Ran bootrec.exe /fixboot
'Access is denied.'
I'd like to do an inplace upgrade but can't boot into Win 10 to run it. Any ideas?