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hknatm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 21, 2018
115
10
Hi all, using mac pro 4.1>5.1.
i installed windows 10 legacy boot a ssd on bay1.
But windows do not recognize the hdd bays. It recognizes the pcie ssd but none of the hdds.

What is the problem you think?
 
May be you should also state that two of the HDD are formatted in ExFAT. Therefore, they should show up in Windows.
 
May be you should also state that two of the HDD are formatted in ExFAT. Therefore, they should show up in Windows.

It doenst recognize any kind of format, also i can not see under the disk management.
 
It doenst recognize any kind of format, also i can not see under the disk management.

APFS etc is expected to be transparent to Windows. That's why I suggest you better tell the others even ExFAT doesn't work. Otherwise may be some members will assume that's because lack to HFS+ / APFS driver.
 
APFS etc is expected to be transparent to Windows. That's why I suggest you better tell the others even ExFAT doesn't work. Otherwise may be some members will assume that's because lack to HFS+ / APFS driver.

Okay i got your point, yes that is right. Even ExFat isnt been recognized.
 
if you format exFAT in macOS it does not work in Windows. you need to wipe the drive and format to exFAT while running Windows 10. I think macOS puts an EFI partition on exFAT drives if I remember correctly. Not sure if that is why they wont be readable in Windows but I notice it as a difference between the two (macOS and Windows). And its a similar issue with APFS. Windows will not read that format due to lack of a functional driver

so @hknatm what you should do is back up these drives if needed, then WIPE/ERASE the drives under macOS since Windows cannot see them. Then with the drives still in their erased status boot to a Windows install and format them to exFAT there. They will then work for both macOS and Windows.
 
if you format exFAT in macOS it does not work in Windows. you need to wipe the drive and format to exFAT while running Windows 10. I think macOS puts an EFI partition on exFAT drives if I remember correctly. Not sure if that is why they wont be readable in Windows but I notice it as a difference between the two (macOS and Windows). And its a similar issue with APFS. Windows will not read that format due to lack of a functional driver

so @hknatm what you should do is back up these drives if needed, then WIPE/ERASE the drives under macOS since Windows cannot see them. Then with the drives still in their erased status boot to a Windows install and format them to exFAT there. They will then work for both macOS and Windows.

No luck, still cant see the disks in windows.
 
as in you cannot see the exFAT disks in Windows after formatting them as exFAT in Windows?

or you cannot see the disks in Windows no matter what, even if they are unformatted you cannot see them in disk management?

Use disk management or a 3rd party app such as MiniTool Partition Wizard, it's free. Don't do the formatting through the Windows explorer.

I know I got this working for myself. Pretty sure I did it with MiniTool Partition Wizard so that could be the key
 
as in you cannot see the exFAT disks in Windows after formatting them as exFAT in Windows?

or you cannot see the disks in Windows no matter what, even if they are unformatted you cannot see them in disk management?

Use disk management or a 3rd party app such as MiniTool Partition Wizard, it's free. Don't do the formatting through the Windows explorer.

I know I got this working for myself. Pretty sure I did it with MiniTool Partition Wizard so that could be the key

I do not see the disks no matter what under windows. Will try mini tool.

One thing how do you achieve to make disk unformatted?
 
I do not see the disks no matter what under windows. Will try mini tool.

One thing how do you achieve to make disk unformatted?

You could do just a normal erase, or a secure erase. It's been a while since I have done this, you may HAVE to do secure erase to leave it unformatted. Both OSX and Windows have these functions with their built in tools being Disk Utility or Disk Management. Or any 3rd party program will have the same functions

Even HFS+ disks that are no longer readable in Windows 10 due to broken driver support will still show up under Disk Management. meaning despite these disks not showing up in Windows Explorer, all disks still populate in Disk Management no matter what their format is, or unformatted or uninitialized. So something sounds rather strange if you cannot see ANY disks under Disk Management. Can you even see a USB thumb drive in Windows 10, in Windows Explorer or Disk Management?
 
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You could do just a normal erase, or a secure erase. It's been a while since I have done this, you may HAVE to do secure erase to leave it unformatted. Both OSX and Windows have these functions with their built in tools being Disk Utility or Disk Management. Or any 3rd party program will have the same functions

Even HFS+ disks that are no longer readable in Windows 10 due to broken driver support will still show up under Disk Management. meaning despite these disks not showing up in Windows Explorer, all disks still populate in Disk Management no matter what their format is, or unformatted or uninitialized. So something sounds rather strange if you cannot see ANY disks under Disk Management. Can you even see a USB thumb drive in Windows 10, in Windows Explorer or Disk Management?

Let me say this i installed paragon apfs and it shows HS installed pcie ssd. Also i can ser usb connected storages. Also i have mojave in on of the hdds at the bay. “Sometimes” i see it under paragon’s support then some other time it dissapears.
For your info, I have no issue with mac os
 
it would be most helpful If you listed the details of your system. Particularly any HDDs, SSDs, PCIe devices (even if they're not a SSD), what format they're in if their drives, and what is on the drives. As in do they have a bootable OS or just a standard data drive

I also cannot tell if you actually erased the drives in OSX. If you don't want to boot to recovery and do a secure erase you could do a normal erase and format it as FAT32 (assuming it is under 2TB drive?). It will surely show up in both OSX and Windows in a FAT32 format. Then you could boot into windows and change the FAT32 drive to a exFAT drive with disk management, MiniTool Partition Wizard, etc

If disk management isn't doing it for you then I would def check out MiniTool Partition Wizard. Paragon APFS is for seeing APFS drives (being able to read and write) so I wouldn't consider that a helpful tool in this situation

FYI screen shots work just as good as typing out system details
 
it would be most helpful If you listed the details of your system. Particularly any HDDs, SSDs, PCIe devices (even if they're not a SSD), what format they're in if their drives, and what is on the drives. As in do they have a bootable OS or just a standard data drive

I also cannot tell if you actually erased the drives in OSX. If you don't want to boot to recovery and do a secure erase you could do a normal erase and format it as FAT32 (assuming it is under 2TB drive?). It will surely show up in both OSX and Windows in a FAT32 format. Then you could boot into windows and change the FAT32 drive to a exFAT drive with disk management, MiniTool Partition Wizard, etc

If disk management isn't doing it for you then I would def check out MiniTool Partition Wizard. Paragon APFS is for seeing APFS drives (being able to read and write) so I wouldn't consider that a helpful tool in this situation

FYI screen shots work just as good as typing out system details

Mac pro 2009 4.1 > 5.1 dual cpu E5520
8x1 Gb rams


I have 4 bays at full loaded;

1- 120 gb ssd kingston ssdnow / MBR ntfs disk installed legacy windows 10.
2- 1,5 tb of seagate barracuda 7200rpm/ GPT apfs mojave system disk
3- 1,5 tb of seagate barracuda 7200rpm / GPT exFat data disk
4- 2tb of seagate barracuda 7200rpm / GPT exFat data disk

Pcie slots;

1- zotac gtx680 efi flashed gpu
2- empty
3-Dodocool d26 usb3.1 card
4- kingston predator 960 gb pcie ssd / Afps system disk for HS

I erased those 2 data disks in Mac os maybe 10 times (havent done secure erase but)

I formatted one of the disks Fat but even that didnt work.

All those efforts i havent see the drives under windows disk management utility.
 
hmm you may have something fishy going on with Windows or maybe boot camp drivers. I don't know right now. I will try to go through doing this again for myself that way I can list the steps I did. I know I discovered this quirk when I accidently formatted a USB3.0 thumb drive in OSX as exFAT instead of FAT32 and it was not readable at all in Windows. I thought there was an issue with USB drivers or my USB ports until I booted back to OSX and it was fine. So thats how I found out formatting exFAT in OSX will not always work in Windows. You gotta format exFAT in Windows to get it to work across both OSX and Windows. I even double checked that my 4TB media HDD was in fact in exFAT last night but I will need to refresh myself on the exact steps I took to get there. I used boot camp drivers "BootCamp5.1.5621" as a FYI.

It's really odd that all four of the drives in the SATA bays are not seen in Disk Management
 
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Waiting for your answer then, will look into it .

Is it worth to uninstall all bootcamp drivers and look what happens?

I an using bootcamp drivers from brigadier. 5.1 and 6.1 app to boot into high sierra.
 
Funny things guys, i removed my pci ssd and windows have seen the exfat partition.

That was the issue when i was trying to install the legacy windows. I continiously said “no bootable device” after i removed the it installed the windows.
 
glad you found the quirk with the PCIe SSD! as a note, formatting as exFAT in OSX does not always make the drive able to be seen in Windows. It sounds like it worked for you though. From what I researched, it sounds like a hit or miss issue with only some people, myself included, having to format exFAT drives in Windows instead of OSX to get the drive to been seen on both operating systems. Perhaps this could be dependent on the drive itself for all I know.

for an additional troubleshooting step. try reformatting one of the exFAT HDDs as exFAT in Windows with the PCIe SSD removed. The drive should still be visible in both Windows and OSX. Then after confirming that it is visible in both operating systems, reinstall the PCIe SSD and see if the exFAT drive is still visible in both Windows and OSX. If it is, then it concludes formatting as exFAT in Windows is preferred over macOS in order to have it visible in both operating systems. If it is not, then it concludes something is interfering from letting those drives be seen in Windows due to the presence of the PCIe SSD. If that is the case, I would make sure you have the most recent compatible firmware installed for the SSD.
 
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Now i tried it. Formatted under windows then put back the ssd it still can not be seen.

When the ssd out it is all okay but when in it is the problem

I am using the latest firmware of the ssd.

What should be the cause ?
 
well I am glad you were able to troubleshoot to what I would call a "Band-Aid fix" having to remove the PCIe SSD but unfortunately I am at a loss to provide more steps to take. I don't recall anyone else posting similar issues with PCIe SSDs. I am not familiar with that particular one so only thing I could think of at this point is either that particular Kingston 960GB SSD is giving you the problem, or could be the controller you used to install it on. It could be helpful to share what controller you are using.

So there actually is another step to take as I right this but would require a different SSD and/or different controller. That would eliminate if it's one of those particular models that are creating the issue. By swapping in a different SSD on the PCIe controller, if exFAT drives are seen then it means the 960GB SSD is the problem. If you use the 960GB SSD on a different PCIe controller and exFAT drives are seen then it means the original (currently installed) controller is the problem. If neither of those things work then I am back to I don't have a clue LOL

you could try taking your 120GB SSD in the SATA bay and put it on the PCIe controller in slot #4 for the SSD test. I am guessing you don't have another PCIe SSD controller on hand though. But if you do, that would be the 2nd thing to try

I really have no idea about the root cause of the issue though. It is one I haven't experienced or ever read about
 
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Thanks for the help :)

I am not able to change ssd on pcie with sata one coz i am using nvme ssd on pcie slot 4

Changed the pcie slots for any case but nothing changed. Tried to update driver from settings, nothing changed.

Here is the controller it is provided by the kingston itself.

b270f7d755f64953124e6149e2dc6fd7.jpg
 
oh I wrongly assumed that hyper predator 960GB SSD was a 2.5" SSD, not the M.2 form. I didn't include the hyper predator part in my google search. typing just Kingston 960GB SSD came up with a 2.5" form SSD. My bad!

Bummer! in that case it sounds like you are out of other components on hand to exchange for troubleshooting. if the Band-Aid fix still fits your use case then I'd say call it day since it does what you need it to. if it's still a pain in the rear and you really want to resolve it then get a known good compatible M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD and controller. You could then do the methodical changes I mentioned to help determine further what component is giving you the issue

refer to this thread
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/blade-ssds-nvme-ahci.2146725/

the first post has a list of known working, and not working M.2 SSDs and controllers. Though it doesn't seem like your setup is "broken", without having several other users input that it works flawlessly or has known bugs, there could be a chance there is some sort of incompatibility happening with those particular Kingston M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD and/or controller

I can attest to a Samsung 970EVO PCIe NVMe SSD works perfect with an Aqua Computer KyroM.2 EVO PCIe 3.0 x4 controller. However, I will report back with another finding, double checking I can still see exFAT drives on my cMP with the 970EVO installed. Right now I know the exFAT drive is in my cMP that does NOT have the 970EVO. I'll swap the exFAT HDD over to the cMP with the 970EVO and boot up Windows 10. Whether or not it sees it will help determine if its a bug with all M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs or something that is more specific to your particular setup
 
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I found some info online
People who uses m2 form of ssd started not seeing hdds , they are pc users. After installing ssd hdds are bot being recognized and they are talking about it is a mb problem and need to be figured in bios.

Others say if you plug ssd on soesific port on sata it disconnect sata somehow and it is written in mb manuel they say.

I am so confused right now.
 
hey @hknatm I stuck my exFAT HDD into my cMP with the 970EVO and both macOS and Windows 10 had no issue seeing the exFAT HDD. I left the 970EVO installed the entire time. Now it is worth noting that Windows Explorer doesn't see the 970EVO due to it is a HFS+ format, so Disk Management is unable to assign it a drive letter. But, the 970EVO does populate under Disk Management. So it seems that everything is working as it should with my particular setup.

this leads me to believe there IS some sort of incompatibility/bug happening with your specific Kingston PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD and/or controller.
 
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Will check kingston, will contact them if there is an issue at the hardware.
 
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