[SOLVED] Can’t boot Windows 11 from M2 without old HDD connected

[KB-Tech]

I recently installed an M2 SSD on my PC (Seagate Firecuda), with the aim to install Windows 11 on it and remove my 10+ year old HDD with Windows 10 on it.

The problem is that, while Windows 11 installed successfully, if I physically remove the old HDD my computer cannot find/load Windows or select the M2 in the boot menu, even after clearing CMOS. Instead it goes straight to the BIOS menu on my motherboard (MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi). It is worth noting that I can see all of my drives just fine in the BIOS Menu.

Apparently I made the mistake of leaving all HDDs connected when I installed Windows 11, instead of disconnecting all but the intended installation drive. As a result, the old HDD still has the EFI System Partition and Recovery Partition. The M2 that I installed Windows 11 on only has one partition, listed on Disk Manager as a “Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Basic Data Partition”

When I boot up my PC with the old HDD connected, after the BIOS/POST screen, I am given an options menu to select whether I want to boot Windows 11 (M2) or Windows 10 (HDD), as the PC detects both installations.

My question is: Is there any way to fix this issue so that I can physically remove the old HDD and boot off the M2?

I was thinking of shrinking the partition on my M2 by about 600MB to create both an EFI and Recovery Partition. Would this help/work?
I’ve added a screenshot from Disk Management on IMGUR to give you a better idea.

I recall some threads for people with similar issues suggesting that, because I had the old HDD connected when I installed Windows 11 to the M2, the installation may have written to the existing bootloader on the old HDD, which provides directions/instructions to BIOS when booting. The bootloader should have gone onto the M2 if I understand this correctly. I’d be grateful to know if any of that is correct.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can get this fixed with your help.

 

[Lafong]

My question is: Is there any way to fix this issue so that I can physically remove the old HDD and boot off the M2?

Yes.

One way is a new clean install with the old drive disconnected.

The other way is to add the missing boot files to your current M2 install.

I'm not qualified to instruct on the latter, but it usually isn't a big deal.

You can wait for a proper instructor or do a new clean install.

 

[CountMike]

I recently installed an M2 SSD on my PC (Seagate Firecuda), with the aim to install Windows 11 on it and remove my 10+ year old HDD with Windows 10 on it.

The problem is that, while Windows 11 installed successfully, if I physically remove the old HDD my computer cannot find/load Windows or select the M2 in the boot menu, even after clearing CMOS. Instead it goes straight to the BIOS menu on my motherboard (MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi). It is worth noting that I can see all of my drives just fine in the BIOS Menu.

Apparently I made the mistake of leaving all HDDs connected when I installed Windows 11, instead of disconnecting all but the intended installation drive. As a result, the old HDD still has the EFI System Partition and Recovery Partition. The M2 that I installed Windows 11 on only has one partition, listed on Disk Manager as a “Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Basic Data Partition”

When I boot up my PC with the old HDD connected, after the BIOS/POST screen, I am given an options menu to select whether I want to boot Windows 11 (M2) or Windows 10 (HDD), as the PC detects both installations.

My question is: Is there any way to fix this issue so that I can physically remove the old HDD and boot off the M2?

I was thinking of shrinking the partition on my M2 by about 600MB to create both an EFI and Recovery Partition. Would this help/work?
I’ve added a screenshot from Disk Management on IMGUR to give you a better idea.

I recall some threads for people with similar issues suggesting that, because I had the old HDD connected when I installed Windows 11 to the M2, the installation may have written to the existing bootloader on the old HDD, which provides directions/instructions to BIOS when booting. The bootloader should have gone onto the M2 if I understand this correctly. I’d be grateful to know if any of that is correct.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can get this fixed with your help.

Just do clean install on SSD with HDD removed. After you should clean up all that has something to do with booting from HDD including Active flag. Best to delete all partition and data after a backup of what you want to keep.

 

[dwd999]

I recently installed an M2 SSD on my PC (Seagate Firecuda), with the aim to install Windows 11 on it and remove my 10+ year old HDD with Windows 10 on it.

The problem is that, while Windows 11 installed successfully, if I physically remove the old HDD my computer cannot find/load Windows or select the M2 in the boot menu, even after clearing CMOS. Instead it goes straight to the BIOS menu on my motherboard (MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk WiFi). It is worth noting that I can see all of my drives just fine in the BIOS Menu.

Apparently I made the mistake of leaving all HDDs connected when I installed Windows 11, instead of disconnecting all but the intended installation drive. As a result, the old HDD still has the EFI System Partition and Recovery Partition. The M2 that I installed Windows 11 on only has one partition, listed on Disk Manager as a “Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Basic Data Partition”

When I boot up my PC with the old HDD connected, after the BIOS/POST screen, I am given an options menu to select whether I want to boot Windows 11 (M2) or Windows 10 (HDD), as the PC detects both installations.

My question is: Is there any way to fix this issue so that I can physically remove the old HDD and boot off the M2?

I was thinking of shrinking the partition on my M2 by about 600MB to create both an EFI and Recovery Partition. Would this help/work?
I’ve added a screenshot from Disk Management on IMGUR to give you a better idea.

I recall some threads for people with similar issues suggesting that, because I had the old HDD connected when I installed Windows 11 to the M2, the installation may have written to the existing bootloader on the old HDD, which provides directions/instructions to BIOS when booting. The bootloader should have gone onto the M2 if I understand this correctly. I’d be grateful to know if any of that is correct.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can get this fixed with your help.

The first thing that you need to be aware of is that there are actually 4 partitions on a normal windows drive including 1 that you cannot even see in Disk Management. Secondly these need to be in a precise order with the hidden 1 second and the Recovery partition last. So you would need to attempt this outside of windows using other software to essentially copy all 4 partitions from 2 drives onto a 3rd drive. I can't even imagine how to do this. So as already advised just disconnect all but the Seagate Firecuda and reinstall Windows the correct way.

 

[TerryLaze]

Get the free version of easybcd go to the BCD deployment tab, select the M2 and write a new mbr and install a bcdstore to it.
That should be all you have to do to make it bootable.

You could also unplug all other drives, boot from the win11 installation media and let it do a startup repair several times, once is not enough, it should write a mbr and a bcd store automatically.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I was thinking of shrinking the partition on my M2 by about 600MB to create both an EFI and Recovery Partition. Would this help/work?

Yes. That's exactly, how you do it.
Execute from elevated command prompt. Regular command prompt will give error on last step.
If you get any errors then stop immediately! and show screenshot with result.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 4​

(select M.2 disk)​

list partition​

select partition X​

(select 931GB C: partition, X=1 or X=2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=K​

(assign a free drive letter)​

exit​

bcdboot c:\windows /s K: /f UEFI​

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