How to include any type of drive in the BIOS?

A lot of users are faced with the problem of buying new drives, whether they are external hard drives or drives for optical media. It would Seem, connected them, and business with the end. But here the system for some reason automatically recognizes them categorically refuses. What to do? Here, knowledge will come to the aid of how to incorporate any type of drive into the BIOS. In most cases, this is the most relevant solution.

BIOS does not see the drive: what should I do initially?

Although the problems of why this or that proposed solution does not work, and it is customary to write in conclusion of the topic, it is better to see at a glance what problems can appear initially.

As many experts believe, the very problem of the fact that in the devices section the newly connected drive is not displayed is that it is not powered or the voltage is simply not enough. Therefore, you should first check these parameters.

Rules for connecting any drives

On the other hand, the problem may also be the wrong connection of the drive. Typically, most computer systems have a Master / Slave connection rule.

In this case, the connector of the cable, designated as Master, is connected to the main hard drive, and the Slave to any other. Similarly, you can not turn the Master into a Slave connector and vice versa. At best, you can only achieve that the drive is defined, but the operating system will not be loaded.

How to enable the optical drive in the BIOS

So, let's start with optical drives. The simplest solution to the question of how to include a drive in the BIOS is to go into the BIOS using a standard key or a combination of keys (usually Del, F2, F12, Esc, their combinations or dedicated keys on laptop panels) and find there Corresponding section.

Depending on the version of the BIOS and the manufacturer, this can be the Main page, Standard CMOS Setup, Advanced or Advanced BIOS Features, etc. Here you should make sure that there is a drive in the list, call the menu by pressing the Enter key, and then set the value to Enabled.

If for some reason the user of his drive is not found in the list, you should refer to the boot section (Boot Sequence, Boot Setup or simply Boot), where you can scroll through the available devices in the boot devices (for example, use the primary boot device 1-st Boot Device) . This is usually done using the PageUp and PageDown keys. If the device is detected, then everything is in order, and the user just did not find it.

How do I enable an external hard drive?

Now let's see how to open the drive in the BIOS settings in the form of a plug-in external hard drive. There are subtleties here - it all depends on what standard it has.

So, to begin with, as usual, we enter the settings of the primary input-output system, after which we search for the tab corresponding to the parameters of the drives. Now you need to be very careful. Depending on the type of drive, you need to find the lines of either SATA, or IDE, or USB. Usually, if the connection is made correctly, even in one of them the given device will be displayed, even if you do not know its standard. Next we look, that it is opposite the disk drive. If Disabled is selected there, enter the additional menu and change it to Enabled.

We do not forget that without saving the changes, the drive will not work. We use the appropriate BIOS commands. In the standard version, in order not to rummage through the main menu sections, it is enough to press the F10 key, which corresponds to the Save & Exit Setup command, that is, to save and exit the settings. After that a confirmation window will appear with a choice of using the keys (Y - yes, N - no). Hit Y and wait for the system to reboot.

Priority start of system boot

How to open the drive in BIOS, it is already clear. Let's look at another important point. Let's say you need to change the boot order and install the optical drive or an external hard drive as the first device. This approach can be used when installing the system, troubleshooting or simply to boot the OS from an external HDD.

As already understood, go to the boot partition and install the required drive (drive) as the first boot device, then save the changes.

Instead of the total

As can be seen from all of the above, the problem of how to include any type of drive in the BIOS is solved quite simply. However, this technique can sometimes require additional actions. For example, in some cases, you need to check the device in the appropriate manager, which can be called from the "Control Panel" or the devmgmt.msc command from the "Run" console. Perhaps, it will need to be included here. For some non-standard devices that are not automatically detected by the system, you may need to install the manufacturer's "native" driver. However, the physical state of the drive or hard drive should also be noted. If the microcontroller is out of order, you can not do anything - no matter how hard you try, the device will not work.