[SOLVED] Can I physically shift Win 10 hard drive to (the laptop) optical drive position and then boot it from there?

[c050]

I have an ASUS K55VJ. I've acquired an SSD on which I eventually will install Win 10.

This video physically shifts the (platter) hard drive to the optical drive position and installs an SSD instead.
If I just move the platter drive like this, can I then just reboot the drive from the optical drive position? Might need to edit the UEFI firmware boot order.

If this works can I then clone the platter drive to the SSD and then just reboot from the SSD?
A video on cloning from the Caddy maker.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

i tried it with my notebook when i first got it and it didn't even work properly in the caddy. it all depends on your laptop and what kind of hardware it has but it's anybody's guess if it works.

try putting SSD in the caddy and see if you can clone, then remove the hdd, and put ssd where hdd goes, if that works, you will be done

 

[mortemas]

If it doesn't work, you can get this for less than $8 and clone to the new drive through the USB 3.0 port:
https://www.amazon.com/BENFEI-Drive...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[c050]

try putting SSD in the caddy and see if you can clone, then remove the hdd, and put ssd where hdd goes, if that works, you will be done

That was my first thought but then I thought to be clever...
So cloning the SSD while in the caddy works. That was another question of mine.
Then I don't have to acquire an adapter for the USB3 port.

My very first thought was to just start with the SSD in the caddy and place my favorite game there before installing O/S to SSD. Maybe I'll start there.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

yeah, but as pointed out above, the thing you need is only a small purchase, just in case your plan doesn't work.

 

[blackcatpc]

You could use a cleaning software to replace the drivers......... chipsets........ but there are many issues you could run in to

 

[c050]

try putting SSD in the caddy and see if you can clone, then remove the hdd, and put ssd where hdd goes, if that works, you will be done

I've installed the SSD in optical drive caddy and it works.

Now I'm ready to attempt cloning. It occurred to me. After cloning is done, will there be a conflict? Will it be a problem to have two "C:" drives?
Maybe the software won't let me name the clone "C"?
If it is a clone I think it must be named "C:", or else nothing will work when I physically install it.

Maybe I should just get this USB3 to SATA cable to avoid trouble.

 

[USAFRet]

Cloning:

After the clone operation is complete, power OFF.
Remove the old drive, and allow the system to try to boot up with only the new drive.
Resist the temptation to "look around" in the new drive to see if everything is there. Barring an error message, it is.

And use Macrium Reflect for this clone operation.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

do as @USAFRet says above.

After the cloning I would power off remove the hard drive and put the SSD where the hard drive goes so you have your open caddy again for the dvd drive

 

[c050]

Eventually I'm going to put the platter hard drive in the caddy optical position. I might put the Page File there (to reduce SSD writes).

I would like to keep the platter drive with it's Win 10 system untouched for a while, until I know SSD works.

Now I'm concerned if I put the platter drive in the caddy the O/S will immediately want to change it's C: name and then I can't put it back in the regular hard drive place again.

I wonder if there is a way around that? A way to make it "C:" even if there already is a "C:". Not to run with, but just to immediately power off. If it has been renamed G or H I tend to think nothing will work because "C" is ingrained everywhere in the O/S.

Simplest is to not risk put it in the caddy until I'm sure the SSD works as C: drive. I'd like to put it in right away though so I can have the page file there.

I know I can change drive letters in Computer Management (done that with extra G and H drives) but to do it with the C drive seems like asking for trouble.

 

[USAFRet]

The "C" drive is whatever drive it is booted from.
The 'other drive' also having an OS is simply going to be given a different drive letter.

But having 2x drives with identical OS's is rarely a good idea.
Assuming the system boots up from the SSD once or twice, it is fine. It won't go bad next week.

 

[USAFRet]

And don't bother putting the pagefile on a different drive, in an effort to reduce write cycles on the SSD.
Given sufficient RAM, the pagefile is rarely used. And current consumer level SSD's have a huge write cycle limit as compared to actual use.
It will run out of warranty time before you get to 10% of the warranty TBW number.

 

[c050]

Can I physically shift Win 10 hard drive to (the laptop) optical drive position and then boot it from there?

To answer the title question myself. Yes, I can. Worked fine.

Risked it after having solid disk images. Booted from UEFI (BIOS). I can select to boot the SSD (default) or platter drive.

Macrium Reflect started up fine but I've done all cloning already. I just wanted to peek in Control Panel which Nvidia driver worked fine before Win 10 update 1903 wiped the old driver for an even older (2013). Unexpected. I'll keep the old platter drive as is, a little while longer, just in case.
~

Ed/add update.
1903 upgrade did NOT (it seems) wipe the driver and replace with an old from 2013. It kept the same drivers (388.57?) over the update. It just didn't show in Control Panel -> Uninstall until after installation / uninstallation of newer driver (391.35). After uninstallation of 391.35, 388.57 was listed as drivers again as they were before the 1903 upgrade.