Booting from SSD in this mobo M4A87TD/USB3

[Aulex]

I recently installed an OCZ vertex 3 120 gb max IOPS into my computer, but im having a minor issue of correctly booting. So i used to have windows 7 on my old hdd, but then i installed a fresh copy of windows 7 onto my ssd (i still kept the old copy on my hdd), but now when I go into my bios storage settings I can select which drive is the primary drive, and when I select my ssd my computer doesn't recognize an OS installed on it so it cannot boot, but when i switch to my hdd, it recognizes both copies of windows and also another extra random one which i checked is 0 bytes so idk where that came from, now my question is how can i boot from ssd and not from my hdd.

Also another question i had was regarding to setting up AHCI with my specific motherboard as listed below. Now I did that regedit settings change in windows, also i changed it in my bios so both my hdd and ssd are in AHCI mode while my dvd drive is in ide mode.

Also a third tiny concern is that when i set ahci i have to set in groups, the first 4 sata have to be set in a mode together while the last two can be set seperate, so i set the first four as ahci while i set the last one as ide, but when i go into the bios, it only shows sata ports 5 and 6 and not the other 4, now this hasn't brought up any issues i was just concerned about this, do you think this should worry me or is there a fix.

System specs:
Mobo: M4A87TD/USB3
Cpu: phenom ii x4 840
ram: avexir 8gb ddr3 1600 mhz cas 9
gpu: evga 460 gtx 1gb
HDD: Seagate (I think) 320gb
SSD: OCZ vertex 3 120gb max IOPS

 

[o1die]

Try booting with the ssd and the other hardrives disconnected. I usually clone my ssd if my old drive installation matches the motherboard. Then I boot up with the ssd only, and install the other drives while windows is running. If your old drives are ide, be sure the jumper is set to "slave" (secondary). Windows will automatically set the drives up if you connect them while windows is running in achi mode.

 

[Aulex]

I already tried booting without the hdd connected and my computer doesn't recognize an OS on it, but it does recognize the drive, also how do I change which drive is the master and which drive is the slave.

 

[o1die]

Try the cloning program with your drive connected. It's called maxblast 5.0, a large file that will work with your seagate drive. I would boot up to the seagate drive only, then connect the ssd. Install maxblast 5 after you download it. Reboot and connect the ssd while windows is running. Windows should detect it. Then run the maxblast clone utility program; when you reboot at the promp maxblast will begin copying files to the ssd. Then it will tell you to press any key to shutdown. Then disconnect the seagate drive and leave the ssd connected. After windows loads, you can connect the old seagate drive and windows will set it up as a secondary drive.

 

[Aulex]

im running windows from my ssd, i don't need to clone i can install straight from my ssd, i think you misunderstood what i said, my computer can only show the list of windows installed if i use my hdd as my primary drive, but i can still boot from my ssd if my primary drive is the hdd, and also what does maxblast do

Edit

Ok so i looked into max blast, im not looking to transfer my data, but to set the ssd as my primary drive

 

[o1die]

If you're using the same windows version with both drives, then windows should set up the seagate as a secondary drive if you're running in achi mode. You simply hook it up while windows is running. If you clone, then both drives will be in sync and both should show the windows files. Unless the seagate drive has too much stuff on it.