I recently built a new system with an Intel DH87RL motherboard and i3-4330 CPU. The primary boot drive is a Samsung 840 SSD and with a Pioneer BD-RE optical drive as an alternate boot. It is setup in UEFI mode, and it runs Windows 8.1 x64 with no problems. My issue started when I added two 750 GB Samsung hard drives from an older build into the new PC. With both 750 GB drives connected, the system freezes every time at the initial boot screen that displays the Intel logo and F2 = Setup, F7 = Update BIOS, F10 = Boot Menu screen. If I disconnect either 750 GB drive, the system boots flawlessly. I updated the BIOS to the Dec 4 2013 release from the Intel website, but no change. I don't believe that its a power supply issue since the supply is 450 Watt and the new Intel hardware is very low power, both drives spin up properly, and the system boots with both drives powered, but only 1 of the drive(s) sata cable connected.
I also tried switching to legacy boot, but that mode wants to boot partition 0 on my SSD, where UEFI boots partition 1, so there is no bootloader for Windows on partition 0. The message "unable to locate any bootable partitions" is displayed repeatedly. For a system that works so well with 2 or 3 drives connected, I just don't understand what causes it to freeze on the 4th drive, I guess if I can't solve this problem, my only choice will be a new 3 or 4 TB hard disk to replace the dual 750 GB drives. It seems a shame since they still function flawlessly.
Anyone who has ever experienced a problem like this, I would greatly appreciate any help, thanks.