Added a new ssd - hdd won’t boot

[hypernovae555]

Hey everyone,
I just installed a samsung 860 evo and used the creation tool on a usb to make it bootable. Now, my hdd won’t boot: when I set it to first priority, the ssd boots anyway, without the ssd, it can’t. The files are intact, I can read and write on it when using windows on my ssd. When I attempted a repair with the creation media, it just said it couldn’t, the log was blank.
I’d like to find some files that were left on the hdd through its own copy of windows, and not sift through file explorer on the other side.

The hard drive is a 2012 wd blue 1tb, I can provide other specs if need be.

I’d be grateful for any help!

 

[gardenman]

Hi, it sounds like you ran into a common problem that we see here often. You installed Windows to one drive, while another drive was connected. Windows creates at least 2 partitions (usually more) when it's installed, a System partition (we'll call this the "boot" partition) and a regular Windows files partition. Often the boot partition will be placed on the wrong drive when installing with 2+ drives installed.

It's likely that you overwrote the boot partition on the HDD when you installed to the SSD. This will do 2 things: #1. Make your HDD Windows unbootable and #2. Make your SSD Windows only boot with the HDD installed.

Let's verify this. Boot into the new Windows on the SSD and get a screenshot of Disk Management showing each partition and their location and post it. You can upload the screenshot to a site like https://postimages.org/ which will give you a link that you can post here.

If this is the situation that you are facing, I personally don't know of a fix other than to remove all drives but your SSD and reinstall Windows. Afterwards, make sure Windows is bootable with just the SSD then plug in the HDD and try to save any files that you can from it. Software is usually not transferable but personal files are. Most software will need to be re-installed on the new system. Unfortunately, the Windows on the HDD will remain unbootable.

 

[hypernovae555]

Hi, it sounds like you ran into a common problem that we see here often. You installed Windows to one drive, while another drive was connected. Windows creates at least 2 partitions (usually more) when it's installed, a System partition (we'll call this the "boot" partition) and a regular Windows files partition. Often the boot partition will be placed on the wrong drive when installing with 2+ drives installed.

It's likely that you overwrote the boot partition on the HDD when you installed to the SSD. This will do 2 things: #1. Make your HDD Windows unbootable and #2. Make your SSD Windows only boot with the HDD installed.

Let's verify this. Boot into the new Windows on the SSD and get a screenshot of Disk Management showing each partition and their location and post it. You can upload the screenshot to a site like https://postimages.org/ which will give you a link that you can post here.

If this is the situation that you are facing, I personally don't know of a fix other than to remove all drives but your SSD and reinstall Windows. Afterwards, make sure Windows is bootable with just the SSD then plug in the HDD and try to save any files that you can from it. Software is usually not transferable but personal files are. Most software will need to be re-installed on the new system. Unfortunately, the Windows on the HDD will remain unbootable.

https://postimg.cc/62dJ88yB

I did try looking around the forums for my situation, but thank you for your help anyways.

The SSD is currently bootable without the HDD connected - so maybe that’s not the case.

Edit: for some reason, with a disconnect and reconnect (into the same sata port), I could boot into my HDD with no problems. However, once I switched boot priority to SSD and back, the SSD stuck. A physical reconnect ‘unstuck’ my hdd only once.

 

[gardenman]

It looks like both drives have a System (boot) partition.

So you can now boot into your HDD and copy the files off to the new drive.

When I cloned my system to my new SSD from my old HDD, I left Windows on my old HDD for a few months afterwards just in case I needed it.