Hi all. Not sure if there is a topic regarding this already but I could not find it. Gonna make it as simple and short as I can.
Bought a Samsung 500G SSD. My friend, who works with computers for a living, came over yesterday and installed it (already had the operating system on it). When we booted up it booted from my old drive. The SSD was plugged into the P0 port and the HHD on P2. Under system info it showed the C Drive as my old drive and then SSD as D. Not sure if this is normal but I wanted the SSD to read as C as its where the OS was and I wanted to used my original drive as the D drive, where I would install all my programs. He uplugged the HHD and left the SSD in P0 and it booted up from there. So went back in and replugged the HHD and the computer would not boot. Could not find anything to boot from. 1 hour later, after plugging and unplugging, I decided it was time to go into BIOS and tell it to boot from my old drive (by this time he had unplugged the SSD). It booted and he left. This morning I had the same issue but I managed to have it boot by going into BIOS again. The SSD is still unplugged. Any ideas?
From what I can gather from this, you should have been okay with the original connections. You just needed to update the BIOS to your chosen settings. It sounds like you still need to do that now. Your friend should have known this. Exact details are listed with the motherboard manual most times. Make sure you save any updated BIOS settings. If settings will not save, and the motherboard is older, it may have a dead battery. These can be replaced in most cases.
Older computers used to need the primary partition set to active manually.
I had a feeling about the Bios but I didnât want to interfere with my friend as he does this for a living. I did finally mentioned it and was able to pick the HD to boot from (not the SSD, this is still not connected). However I put the computer on Hibernate during the night and this morning when I woke it up it was back to not booting and asking to pick a boot option. I had to go into Bios once again and pick it. The funny part is, when I pick the actual drive it doesnât work I have to choose the option that says Windows Boot Manager with the name of the drive next to it. And this is where it gets wierd, this morning the space was there but it was blank - I clicked it anyway and it booted into Windows. Needless to say, no more hibernation for now.
I tried looking for this - I also thought of it, but nowhere on the bios did I find this option. More than likely I missed it. I was watching what he was doing so I feel comfortable going back and plugging the SSD back, well, unplugging the HD from P0 and putting the SSD there and the HD on P2. But that will be another day. This stuff stresses me out, which is the reason I stopped doing it years ago. Iâm happy just being able to have a boot
I most certainly do NOT do this for a living, but it seems like lately when Iâve added a SSD I ended up having to go into the Windows Management Console to assign letters. Until I did, it was like Windows could SEE the SSD, but didnât really know what to do with it.
Open File Explorer, right click on This PC and select Manage. Google from there for specifics, as I donât remember.
Also I could be talking out of my ass. But hey, itâs free!
No. The SSD should not have C: assigned to it. C: in Windows is the boot drive, if it doesnât boot from the SSD, the SSD is not C:
The BIOS can only boot from a drive that actually has a boot sector on it. And the boot sector needs to be written by Windows to actually contain boot options. (This is the boot manager you ended up in). No boot manager, no options and itâll boot from whatever the bios has set as default.
In your case, you have 2 OSâs, both Windows, correct? In that case, both drives will have a boot manager associated with it, but neither drive will actually have a boot manager that knows of the existence of the other disk/OS. So toggling which one boots in the BIOS can only boot the one you defined.
The fact you say itâs âalready installedâ on the SSD, will cause exactly these kind of problems, since neither of the installs knows about the other one.
What you need to do is stop messing around with whatâs connected to what, since that doesnât matter at all The concept of having a Master drive and a Slave drive hasnât been relevant for 25 years The drive you set your BIOS to boot from should have a complete set of all OSâs installed on your different drives and/or partitions in its boot manager. Adding in a disk with an already pre-installed OS will not add it to the bootmanager. You appear to not be very comfortable with digging into the nasty configuration options, so Iâm not sure how to help out there
If your BIOS doesnât hold the boot order, then as previously said, the battery might be dead.
Your steps after that completely depend on which version of Windows you run, how old your motherboard is, if youâre running EUFI or not, if you want to keep the other install intact or not, etc.
How was the OS installed ? Was it cloned by using a program like acronis or something like that ? I know that some drives come with a copy of something like that. I wouldnât use that for windows 10 better of with a fresh install. Then transfer files from the other drive.
Was the old hard drive plugged in when you installed the OS on the new ssd ? Just curios I know it should not matter, but never know.
There should be a key you can press when booting to select other bootable devices not sure which one because I do not know what motherboard you are using or brand of computer.
I wouldnât say the battery is dead the date and time would be wrong as well in the bios. The date and time is not wrong is it ?
And the whole C: thing Splutty explained well windows assigns C: to the drive windows boots from. In your case the ssd would be C: if windows boots from the ssd and label the other one D: or something other if D: isnât available.
I am curious as to how windows was installed since you said it was installed already. Was it installed prior on another machine to installing the ssd ? ÂŻ\ _ (ă)_ /ÂŻ I donât know if I missed anything or not I might have, but good luck.
Hi cazx - battery is good. Time is correct. Windows was installed on the SSD by my friend at work, a fresh install - it wasnât installed on my puter with the old HD.
F12 will bring up the Bios settings. Iâm sure there is a setting in there for Drive order I just havenât gone back and during the whole thing I didnât immediately see - most likely I missed it. And frankly, at the moment, I donât even wanna open the case again until the whole nightmare is over - lol. But I will. All I have to do is go in there and replug the SSD. Splutty says it doesnât matter where I plug it in. Right now the HD is in P0 and P2 and P4 (this is how they are labeled), are available.
The very first time the SSD was put in, the computer booted but from my old drive, which is when the whole thing started. At that time I should have stepped in and suggeted the whole drive order from the Bios, but I assumed he knew what he was doing as heâs been doing it for 20 years. Go figure.
The biggest problem is that the terminology youâre confronting is meaningless.
C: doesnât mean anything outside of Windows, D: doesnât either. P0, P2, P4, those donât mean anything at all either.
If you have sata interfaces, then there is no âorderâ of drives, there are just hardware addresses for drives. You can set the boot order for these in the BIOS. But that literally has again nothing to do with Windows. Even in Windows itself, you can reconfigure and remount your âD:â drive to be the K: drive if you want.
Look in your BIOS for something like âBoot Orderâ, and itâll generally list your drives by their names, then arrange those so your SSD is first. Then after that, boot into Windows from the SSD, and if you want to keep the OS on your other drive, look online for how to add that to the boot manager on the SSD. And done. Or just copy everything you want from the other drive and reformat it. This is also exactly the reason why âpreinstalled Windowsâ is a horrible idea unless you have the most simplistic of systems. The install of Windows wonât see any of the hardware you have on the actual install, so it could be missing drivers, it doesnât automatically assign things like it should, etc, etc.
wow⌠About a year ago I picked up a new SSD to add to my rig. My technician actually had to do a direct clone to the SSD since I wanted that to be my boot drive. After he did that and got it working, he did a complete format on the old drive since I wanted to use it for storage. I did not understand all the reasoning but I trusted his decision.
This past fall I picked up an new SSD and he did the exact same thing for me. What Splutty said sounds practically what my technician explained to me when I asked about all that. But I use Acronis so we were able to do a back up clone since I had the space now and I use the newer SSD for my boot up drive.
I did not realize there were so many variables until I went through all this last year, so I can understand your frustration Sarvadi. I know I would not want to mess with my system because of all this. I worked in DOS back in the day and it was a totally different animal then, compared to today. So glad I found my current technician.
If not, Iâd recommend you unplug your old HDD, plug in your new SSD and do a fresh Windows install on your system. That should eliminate any issues of Windows freaking out because of new/different hardware from the offsite install. Assuming that goes well then plug your HDD back in. At that point youâll need to ensure your SSD is higher on the boot device list and should be good to go.
No I havenât bothered with it yet. I canât do a fresh install on the SSD as I donât have the installation disk. You know these days these pcs come with the Windows OS installed and no disk. I do have a âRe installation Diskâ. Maybe I can use this. But the Windows install on it now is a fresh install and he used my Log In info and Key when he installed it. I will, when I get the nerve, open the case, re-plug the SSD and try to find, in the Bios, the loading order. These days when something stresses me out I put it aside and ignore it. I still have a functioning machine, which allows me to play my games soâŚ
Thanks for asking. Iâll keep you all informed. Iâve been thinking of upgrading my Video Card so maybe Iâll just take it to Best Buy and have them do the whole thing.
The problem here is windows⌠Both operating systems are valid and activated. They are both valid boot items, especially to the UEFI portion of your BIOS. Why it isnât consistently numerating the SSD as the first available drive as it is on a lower address than the spinner is a mystery to me, but it seems to be what it is happening.
The good news⌠SATA is a miracle interface. It is hot pluggable, but the power interface, not so much.
I suggest to plug both drives into their power interfaces but only connect the SATA cable to the SSD. Boot off the SSD, give the system some time to become stable, check your system settings to ensure that there is a paging file active on that drive drive. After about 5 minutes of it being on, plug the SATA cable into the old drive and then check the drive manager to make sure it has joined your machine with no fuss. Move the files you need off of the old drive to the SSD, then use the drive manager to format (Quick Format is fine) the old drive and you shouldnât have any more problems.
OR! While the old drive is in and working, back up the files you need to DvD or a USB drive, if you have one, then try the above method, minus the file movement part.
Iâm off to the Google to check my suspicions about UEFI entries and dates of installations as pertaining to the Windows Boot Manager are correct.
Edit: Well, my suspicions were wrong about dates being the deciding factor. Still investigating and learning more about Windows Boot Manager. I certainly wish this would have been a GRUB (Linux) issue. Those are easier to fix than Windows.
2nd Edit: Iâm going back to my Linux crayons. The whole UEFI/BCD/Windows Boot Manager rabbit hole I just fell down has raised more questions than I can answer about your situation. However, thank you for the interesting problem. I now have the solution to the SOs problems from 10 years ago! (snicker)
Thanks scoot for all your research. One question, when you say SATA cable, is this the big plug with the color cables - the one that actually provides the power?
The one with all the colors is the power cable. Yellow is 12V, Red is 5V, Black is the return or ground.
The small one that is semi-flexible is the data (SATA) cable.
Ok my friends, I thank you for all your input. I managed to finally get it working - on my own (pats self on the back). I waited all this time cause I wanted to make sure I was in the mood - ya gotta be in the mood when you fudge around with a windows box.
I found where on the Bios I could set the order of the Boot - finally. The next issue was that when my friend installed Windows on my SSD he did it with another machine so when Windows kept asking to âActivateâ I could not as I did not have the Key to do so and it was reading a different box than mine.
Today I was supposed to take the box into my friendâs place of work and his coworker was going to fix it. Well, they both got quarantined - long story, so they are off work for at least 14 days. I just could not wait that long. I started researching on the web about Keys and found a site where I could get one for $39. I figured if it was a scam I would only be out on $39. This decision was made after I called my computerâs manufacturer and they were closed - no surprise there. Geez, a little wordy but Iâm so freakin thrilled cause the Key worked, my system is Activated and Iâm good to go!
Again thanks all for your imput. I actually learned a lot with this experience
The drive you set your BIOS to boot from should have a complete set of all OSâs installed on your different drives and/or partitions in its boot manager. Adding in a disk with an already pre-installed OS will not add it to the bootmanager. You appear to not be very comfortable with digging into the nasty configuration options, so Iâm not sure how to help out there