Question BIOS detecting the HDD but not booting from it

[Titoris]

BACK STORY:
So I tried to plug in an old HDD as an additional hard drive, with the one I’m using right now, that’s been sitting around for a few months to see if it still worked but I saw that when I booted my PC it asked me for a pin that I kept when I worked on it and of course I didn’t remember so I signed in using my Microsoft account password, when I signed in everything I’d see normally without the old HDD on my desktop was gone, even the pinned icons and stuff on the task bar and the Device Manager wasn’t detecting the old HDD even though the BIOS was, bit strange so I removed the old HDD but that’s not my main issue but I don’t know if it could be the one leading to it.

MAIN ISSUE:
Now after I removed the old HDD I turned on my PC with only the current HDD and it booted up how it normally would and everything was back on the desktop and everything was running smoothly, even played some games for a bit before shutting it down. Now that I’m booting it up it shows me the motherboard logo (and the BIOS is detecting my HDD and it is indeed set on 1st Boot Priority) and then immediately it switches to a black screen saying “Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key”

I’m a bit baffled as it worked fine just a few hours ago, there’s not something very important on the drive but it is of somewhat importance, I’d prefer not losing it but wouldn’t mind if I needed to

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

when I booted my PC it asked me for a pin that I kept when I worked on it and of course I didn’t remember so I signed in using my Microsoft account password, when I signed in everything I’d see normally without the old HDD on my desktop was gone, even the pinned icons and stuff on the task bar

this would be because the system booted from your old drive, ignoring the newer OS installation.

immediately it switches to a black screen saying “Reboot and Select proper Boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key”

you seem to have disturbed the Boot Manager setup by switching back & forth between these two drives.

it should be possible to get everything back to normal but i would suggest formatting the old drive and deleting all system partitions if you plan on using it along with the newer one.

try running a Windows installation media and selecting to repair the current installation.
hopefully through the MS repair tools you can fix whatever has been altered.

 

[Titoris]

this would be because the system booted from your old drive, ignoring the newer OS installation.

Should I have checked the boot priority in BIOS while booting up to avoid that?

you seem to have disturbed the Boot Manager setup by switching back & forth between these two drives.

it should be possible to get everything back to normal but i would suggest formatting the old drive and deleting all system partitions if you plan on using it along with the newer one.

try running a Windows installation media and selecting to repair the current installation.
hopefully through the MS repair tools you can fix whatever has been altered.

The data in the old HDD is what is important, not the newer one, I would really like for the data to be recovered before I delete everything on it.

Alright I’ll try fixing it with Windows installation media and get back with the results

 

[DSzymborski]

Another thing to try is putting your old hard drive into an enclosure, running your PC normally with your new drive, and then plugging the old drive in the enclosure in via USB. And then finding your data that way.

Unfortunately, the way to protect data is a proper backup plan. If losing a hard drive causes data loss, something is very wrong with your backup plan, and that's a very basic part of PC upkeep.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

The data in the old HDD is what is important, not the newer one, I would really like for the data to be recovered before I delete everything on it.

if you can still properly boot from the older HD just start the system with this drive as the primary boot drive and then backup the important data elsewhere.

I’ll try fixing it with Windows installation media and get back with the results

if the newer drive's data isn't important you can always just do a fresh Windows install onto that drive to get it working again as the primary OS drive.

just make sure the older drive isn't connected during the installation or it may have some system partitions created on it.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Titoris]

Another thing to try is putting your old hard drive into an enclosure, running your PC normally with your new drive, and then plugging the old drive in the enclosure in via USB. And then finding your data that way.

Unfortunately, the way to protect data is a proper backup plan. If losing a hard drive causes data loss, something is very wrong with your backup plan, and that's a very basic part of PC upkeep.

The enclosure idea sounds good, I’m actually searching for one at the moment to try this.

I do have a backup for everything in another HDD that’s plugged in my other PC that I don’t use much, I just want to avoid going through the struggle copying everything and shifting it onto the PC I use. I’m trying to make another back up is what you can say I’m trying to do and making the old HDD workable again in the process

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

I’m trying to make another back up is what you can say I’m trying to do and making the old HDD workable again in the process

how do you want this to end up;
using the older drive as the primary OS drive and the newer as extra storage,
using the newer drive as the primary OS drive and to just recover some data from the older drive,
etc..?

 

[Titoris]

if you can still properly boot from the older HD just start the system with this drive as the primary boot drive and then backup the important data elsewhere.

if the newer drive's data isn't important you can always just do a fresh Windows install onto that drive to get it working again as the primary OS drive.

just make sure the older drive isn't connected during the installation or it may have some system partitions created on it.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

The thing with the older HDD is when I booted my PC (with the older HDD connected as an additional drive) using the newer HDD, which I assume, was primary boot priority it booted the way my older HDD would which was weird, as I’ve mentioned it asked me for a windows login pin I kept when I worked on this HDD but as I logged in the device manager wouldn’t detect the drive and everything on the desktop was gone as well, when I removed the older HDD and booted up my PC solely with the newer HDD everything retired to normal.

I will have to move to fresh windows installation as a last resort once I’ve tested everything mentioned here to fix it

 

[Titoris]

using the newer drive as the primary OS drive and to just recover some data from the older drive,

This is exactly how I want it to end up

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

it booted the way my older HDD would which was weird

and if you can still do this;
boot from the old drive again,
just copy the data you want from that drive to another location and then disconnect it or format it for extra storage or whatever,
then reconnect the new drive and do a fresh install if repairing doesn't work.

 

[Titoris]

and if you can still do this;
boot from the old drive again,
just copy the data you want from that drive to another location and then disconnect it or format it for extra storage or whatever,
then reconnect the new drive and do a fresh install if repairing doesn't work.

but again it’s not detecting my old HDD once I have logged in, no partitions or anything of older drive, just one partition merged with other partitions of my newer drive with everything I installed in it, and that is when I try to boot up with my newer drive, I’ll try booting up solely on the older HDD