move boot disk to PCIe SATA controller: inaccessible boot device

Ben Hastings · 27 May 2021

Just a disclaimer upfront: This is about Windows Server 2019 but I believe it will be the same for Windows 10. Win Server 2019 is build 17763 which is version 1809 (October 2018 Update).

The boot disk (SSD) was attached to the mainboard's onboard SATA port when I installed the system. I recently decided to attach the boot disk to a PCIe SATA controller card instead. It is quite an old card that shows in device manager as "Silicon Image SiI 3132 SATALink Controller". Driver and BIOS dates for that card are from 2009 but it works just fine with Windows.

Windows did not boot anymore and showed a blue screen (inaccessible boot device). In the Recovery Environment (RE) I could see that the drivers for the SIL card were loaded and the boot disk's partitions and volumes where accessible. Windows still refused to boot.

It looks like Windows is looking for the boot disk on the mainboard's SATA controller and refuses to boot if it cannot find the disk there, even though it should be able to find the disk on the SIL controller. I don't think it is a driver problem because the disks on the SIL controller show up in Windows RE command prompt.

I ended up attaching the boot disk directly to the mainboard's SATA port again and Windows booted normally again.

My question is: How can I have the boot disk on the SIL controller without getting the 'inaccessible boot device' error? I would like to avoid reinstalling Windows.

Edit: Perhaps I should explain, why I am doing this: The SIL SATA controller is only SATA 300 MBps but the onboard controller is SATA 600 MBps. I'm trying to have the boot disk on the slower 300 MBps connection and have data SSDs on the faster mainboard SATA ports

Megahertz · 28 May 2021

Does BIOS see the SSD on the PCIe SATA controller card as a boot device?
Did you install the drivers for the PCIe SATA controller before you moved the SSD from the SATA controller to the PCIe SATA controller?
Is the SSD a Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT?

Ben Hastings · 29 May 2021

Megahertz said:

Does BIOS see the SSD on the PCIe SATA controller card as a boot device?

Yes, the BIOS sees the SSD and can boot from it but then the Windows boot loader throws the inaccessible boot device error.

Megahertz said:

Did you install the drivers for the PCIe SATA controller before you moved the SSD from the SATA controller to the PCIe SATA controller?

Yes.

Megahertz said:

Is the SSD a Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT?

I'm using legacy boot. The disk is MBR partitioned.

One thing just occurred to me: When does the blue screen with inaccessible boot device error also occur, if I'm not mistaken? When users install Windows while the BIOS setting for the SATA controller is in IDE mode, and then switch to AHCI later. And what's the solution for that? It is to switch back to IDE. But the other solution is to boot up the Windows installation DVD, go into command prompt, and somehow through the registry make Windows load the AHCI driver for the boot device? Or am I mistaken?
Couldn't this work with the SIL SATA controller drivers as well?

jimbo45 · 29 May 2021

Ben Hastings said:

Yes, the BIOS sees the SSD and can boot from it but then the Windows boot loader throws the inaccessible boot device error.

Yes.
I'm using legacy boot. The disk is MBR partitioned.

One thing just occurred to me: When does the blue screen with inaccessible boot device error also occur, if I'm not mistaken? When users install Windows while the BIOS setting for the SATA controller is in IDE mode, and then switch to AHCI later. And what's the solution for that? It is to switch back to IDE. But the other solution is to boot up the Windows installation DVD, go into command prompt, and somehow through the registry make Windows load the AHCI driver for the boot device? Or am I mistaken?
Couldn't this work with the SIL SATA controller drivers as well?

If you switch from / to IDE then "All bets are off -- system won't boot"

Your best bet is to image your system from the device it works on and then restore to the target device using something like Free Macrium. If it still fails to boot use the stand alone recovery from Macrium to fix boot problems. Ensure also target device isn't GPT partitioned if using MBR boot. You can ensure both IDE and SATA drivers are installed - if the "working system" sees the target system restoring an image to it should work and the "Fix boot problems" should manage boot questions.

Cheers
jimbo