Can't boot OS from removeable SATA SSD, only M.2 SSD

[fredmau]

Been running a (used) CF-54 Mk. 1 (CF-54C3002CM) successfully for about 2 years now, Windows 10 LTSC 2019 on a 250 GB Western Digital M.2 2280 stick. (p/n WDS250G2B0B-00YS70, dated 12/2021). Bios updated from the original v1.00L20 to At some point I added a regular removable SATA SSD as a D: Drive. This arrangement has worked PERFECTLY. (When I got the machine (used), I never even tried to install Windows to anything but the M.2 stick that I'd bought new at the same time.)

NOW, I want to remove the M.2 stick, and install several different OS's each to their own removable SATA SSD. The purpose is to compare (4) different linux distros (Rocky, Debian, Ubuntu, Oracle) to see which one works "best", with a (5th) removeable SSD running Windows 10 as a benchmark to prove all the hardware works correctly.

What I've found is that I can install ANY of the (5) OSs to the M.2 stick and they work... But, with the M.2 stick removed, I can't install any of the 5 to a regular SATA SSD and then boot from it. What I get is:

WINDOWS 10: installation to a "regular" (not m.2) SATA SSD fails with the message "Windows could not set the offline locale information. Error code: 0x80FE0000" Microsoft says this means a bad hard drive. It's not. This persists across different SSDs even different Brands of SSDs, all tested with the mfr's utilities. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/win ... 77aab3d898

LINUX (Any flavour): installation SEEMS to go perfectly. But, upon reboot, kicks me into BIOS setup instead of booting, as if there is no HDD/SSD

The explanation I've seen on the 'net that I'd like to believe is that it's a TPM issue; that TPM has "locked on" to whatever drive the original owner had in the SATA bay, and won't boot to anything other than that drive; that booting to the M/2 stick is merely a "workaround". But it's NOT that, either. I've cleared TPM, disabled it, and my current BIOS settings are:

TPM Configuration:
TPM State [Disabled]
Pending TPM Operation [None]

Current TPM Status Information:
TPM Enable Status: [Disabled]
TPM Activated Status: [Deactivated]
TPM Owner Status: [UnOwned]

Security:
Hard disk Lock: [Disabled]
User Password Protection: [No Protection]

Any ideas, anyone?

[ADOR]

One thing to try is set bios to default. Save then reboot. I know it has worked with a few other toughbooks that was having booting issues. Another trick was to boot a few times with no drive in it at all then boot have the drive you wanted installed.

[fredmau]

One thing to try is set bios to default. Save then reboot. I know it has worked with a few other toughbooks that was having booting issues. Another trick was to boot a few times with no drive in it at all then boot have the drive you wanted installed.

It was the last bit that did the trick. Thanks.

I discovered that the bios in my CF-54 just DOES NOT like PNY model CS3611 120GB SSDs. With a CS3611 installed, not also does the information page of the bios setup show Hard Disk as "Empty", but also indicates "Empty" for any other drive I put in immediately after the CS3611... UNLESS, after removing the CS3611, I power up to a genuinely empty bay, let the bios see that, power down again, and then I can install any other drive and it works.

[ADOR]

There is lots of little tricks to toughbooks. That was a trick needed to boot up some older models from the single core days. Also some of the older ones were really picky about what brand ram you used.