H77M-D3H boot order and random HDDs detection problems

[ppinto]

I have a new system based on a GA-H77M-D3H with the latest F10f BIOS and two HDDs, an old 120 GB Sata I connected to Sata2_2 with WinXP installed, and a new Sata III 1 TB connected to Sata3_0, without an OS installed as yet.

I have two problems:

1. The BIOS doesn't save the "Hard Drive BBS priorities" setting: after I select in the BIOS the boot option #1 to HDDs and the Hard Drive BBS priorities to the 120 GB, save and exit with F10, the system boots fine but on the next boot it tries to boot from the 1 TB HDD and of course fails, because it doesn't have an OS installed.

Going into the BIOS again, in the Hard Drive BBS priorities the 1 TB HDD is selected, so my choice wasn't saved (this only happens with Hard Drive BBS priorities: all other BIOS options get properly saved).

Changing it back to the 120 GB HDD and saving, the system boots fine again, but on the next boot it tries again to boot from the 1 TB HDD and fails.

2. The second problem is that sometimes when I boot, maybe 1 out of every 4 ou 5 boots, the system doesn't detect neither of the HDDs, the HDD light stays on and it tries to boot from the DVD (connected to Sata2_3). I then reboot, and both HDDs are detected again.

This also happens sometimes when I go into the BIOS: the HDD light stays on and in the boot option #1 only the DVD is available, so the HDDs weren't detected. If I reboot and go into the BIOS again, both HDDs are detected again.

I have tried BIOS F9 and it makes no difference to either of these problems. I have also tried after loading Optimized Defaults (F7) or after making several changes in the BIOS settings, but neither has made any difference to the problems.

Please help.

[Muppet Rat]

Has this problem been solved?  I'm having the exact same issue.  ppinto, did you find a solution please?

MB: H77 D3H
BIOS version: F11
4 hard drives
Win7 HP on one
Win7 Ult on another

Please help.

[ppinto]

I must say that the biggest problem I've had this past year is that the board increasingly doesn't recognize the older 120 GB HDD (at best, only 1 in 10 boots or wake ups from sleep): I'm not sure it's a problem with the board or the HDD but probably the HDD as it's almost 10 years old. What's curious is that when this HDD is recognized, it works very well, no errors whatsoever, its SMART status is almost pristine and it was always recognized in my previous ASUS motherboard until a year ago, when I moved it to the H77M-D3H.

So regarding problem #1, I no longer need to (cannot) boot much from that HDD and therefore haven't looked to see if the later BIOSes (F11 and F12) solve that problem or not (I'm now running F11).

Regarding problem #2, it's still there and BIOS F11 doesn't solve it either, but I found that it happens mostly when the 120 GB HDD isn't recognized (almost always, nowadays) and/or when there is a USB flash drive inserted. It (almost?) never happens when the 120 GB HDD is recognized (or has been removed from the system) and there's no USB flash drive inserted.

So I would say that it looks like the BIOS gets 'confused' when the old HDD isn't recognized or when there's a USB flash drive inserted, maybe there are timing issues there and it waits for some signal that doesn't come, but it's certainly very annoying when it happens.

Fortunately it's not a major issue for me as I don't boot much as I leave the PC in sleep mode overnight, but I'm not sure I wouldn't go back to ASUS in my next system (never had any of these issues with ASUS, it always worked as expected, the boards never broke even after 8+ years of daily use, etc.).