After cloning HDD to SSD, Windows won't let me format HDD.

[spennyboi]

So I've recently cloned my HDD over to my SSD and set my SSD as the boot drive in the BIOS. Yet going to the Windows 10 disk manager, it won't let me format the HDD. In Disk Manager the SDD is labelled in System Reserved as (System, Active, Primary Partition).

The HDD is labelled in the main partition as (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition).

Any help in properly formatting the HDD would greatly appreciated!

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, @spennyboi!

I'd advise you to try booting from the SSD without the HDD connected to the system. This is how you will make sure that everything the system needs to boot properly has been cloned successfully onto the solid-state drive. If you encounter any issues doing this, I'd suggest you repeat the cloning procedure again! The SSD needs to bean exact copy of the HDD including the boot, page files, crash dump, etc.

After the system recognizes its new primary drive successfully, you shouldn't face any issues deleted the duplicated files from the hard drive & reformatting it for secondary storage.

Give these a try and let me know how it goes.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[ArtPog]

Read, and then re:read the first sentence in SuperSoph's response to you.

Don't touch the data on the HDD until you FIRST attempt a boot to the system with your newly-cloned SSD as the ONLY drive connected in the system when you attempt this boot. Capiche?

Unless you absolutely know at this time that the SSD will boot & function without any problems when it is the SOLE drive installed in your system, follow the above advice.

Should there be NO problem in this regard then we can focus on the formatting problem with the HDD.

 

[EastCoastCanadianMrFixIt]

Simply Fdisk the drive and then try format again. Try Deleting those partitions first- delete them all unless you need windows.old drivers, pics and stuff.