Can't boot w/o HDD...

[l187l]

So, I finally forked over the $300 for a 1TB 850 EVO to finally ditch the HDD for good. Now I'm stuck with a problem. I had the HDD installed when I installed Windows 10, so it won't let me boot unless the HDD is in the computer.

Is there any way to get around this w/o completely reinstalling Windows 10? If I clone the 250GB SSD onto the 1TB SSD, would it get rid of my problem? I'm guessing it won't which is why I haven't tried. Is there some registry keys or something I can edit?

When I go into Disk Manager, the HDD has 2 partitions. One is where I keep all my movies, and the other is 100MB unallocated.

Windows won't let me delete or format the HDD either.

I can't even get to the repair screen. It just posts and instantly gives an error message saying there's no OS on the drive.

 

[ThatVietGuy]

You need to reinstall Windows 10 without the HDD installed.

When you installed Windows 10 initially with the HDD installed, it made that partition on the HDD and became integral to the boot process of the OS.

 

[bignastyid]

With just the SSD installed(hdd unplugged), boot to the win 10 media and run a startup repair.

 

[guanyu210379]

- unplug the HDD
- Check the boot devices and priority in BIOS, correct if necessary
- If you have already Win10 in the SSD, boot to the win 10 media and run a startup repair.

 

[l187l]

would creating a recovery drive through windows work? or do I need the Win 10 ISO?

 

[bignastyid]

Recovery disc will probably work.

 

[l187l]

Recovery disc will probably work.

OK. I started creating one right before I made this thread hoping it would work. Thanks.

It takes forever to create this thing... I wish I would have set my RAM back to 2400MHz and my cpu back to 4.6GHz after resetting bios to try to get it to find the OS... I'm having to manually select the HDD as the boot drive even though it's not the OS drive now for some reason... Hopefully this works. I've put 200 GB worth of games on my 1TB drive, so it won't be the end of the world if I have to reinstall.

 

[guanyu210379]

Downloading and using Win10 image will work fine too. (Bootable disc or USB)
You need ony the repair part. Just make sure you download the same version as the one you have e.g. Win10 x64 pro.

 

[l187l]

I think I'm going to have to just do a clean install because the repair/recovery isn't working. it's not finding any version of windows, and every time I boot, I get an error and it tells me I need to repair with a repair tool(not even sure what that means)
It gives me 3 options, retry, start up menu, and select another OS. The first two do nothing, and if I click select another OS, it boots just fine.

When I boot with the recovery drive(usb) it can't find windows or any partitions...

So, f it. Just moving all the big stuff onto my 1 TB drive and going to install windows with just the 2 SSD's hooked up.

I'm sleep deprived and should have just messed with it in the morning, but I was messing with the HDD in the disk management thing and I think I messed something up.

 

[guanyu210379]

Fresh install is always the best.

 

[Paperdoc]

Two posters above already gave you the easy solution and you've ignored them. You do NOT need to re-Install Windows. You need a REPAIR INSTALL, as follows.

You need an Install disk (or flash drive) for the SAME version of Windows already installed on your SSD. It does NOT have to be the exact same DVD disk (or flash drive) you originally used to install Windows.

DIS-connect ALL storage units (HDD and SSD) EXCEPT the one with your Windows OS already installed. Put the DVD in your optical drive (or plug in your flash drive) and boot directly into BIOS Setup. Make sure it is set to boot from that optical drive (or flash drive) first, and the SSD with Windows on it second. If you made a change to set this, be sure to SAVE and EXIT. Your machine will re-boot from the Install disk. Do NOT do a normal Install. Look for the REPAIR INSTALL option and run that. It will discover that certain important semi-hidden system backup files are not present on the ONLY drive (your SSD) available and put them there, then set Windows to look on THAT drive for them and not some other unit. When this is finished, shut down, remove the Install disk, and reboot directly into BIOS Setup again. Re-adjust your Boot Sequence as you wish, then SAVE and EXIT. The machine should boot cleanly from your SSD now.

When this has succeeded and you know that it can boot from the SSD alone, you can shut down and re-connect whatever other storage units you want, and remove any you don't want. Then boot up again to prove it all works.

 

[l187l]

Two posters above already gave you the easy solution and you've ignored them. You do NOT need to re-Install Windows. You need a REPAIR INSTALL, as follows.

You need an Install disk (or flash drive) for the SAME version of Windows already installed on your SSD. It does NOT have to be the exact same DVD disk (or flash drive) you originally used to install Windows.

DIS-connect ALL storage units (HDD and SSD) EXCEPT the one with your Windows OS already installed. Put the DVD in your optical drive (or plug in your flash drive) and boot directly into BIOS Setup. Make sure it is set to boot from that optical drive (or flash drive) first, and the SSD with Windows on it second. If you made a change to set this, be sure to SAVE and EXIT. Your machine will re-boot from the Install disk. Do NOT do a normal Install. Look for the REPAIR INSTALL option and run that. It will discover that certain important semi-hidden system backup files are not present on the ONLY drive (your SSD) available and put them there, then set Windows to look on THAT drive for them and not some other unit. When this is finished, shut down, remove the Install disk, and reboot directly into BIOS Setup again. Re-adjust your Boot Sequence as you wish, then SAVE and EXIT. The machine should boot cleanly from your SSD now.

When this has succeeded and you know that it can boot from the SSD alone, you can shut down and re-connect whatever other storage units you want, and remove any you don't want. Then boot up again to prove it all works.

as I've already said if you would actually read, it doesn't find an OS to repair with or without the HDD hooked up.

 

[Paperdoc]

I did read.

1. You have a working OS on the SSD. You can boot from it if you do NOT remove the old HDD.

2. Your earlier post said you could not find any OS to repair when you use the REPAIR / RECOVERY DISK that you made. I said you should do the work with a WINDOWS INSTALL DISK.

 

[l187l]

I did read.

1. You have a working OS on the SSD. You can boot from it if you do NOT remove the old HDD.

2. Your earlier post said you could not find any OS to repair when you use the REPAIR / RECOVERY DISK that you made. I said you should do the work with a WINDOWS INSTALL DISK.

both are the same when it comes to the repair option(they both take you to the same screen and they both ran into the same issue)... I could never boot from the SSD, I had to select the HDD as the boot device, even though the SSD had the OS on it.

Doesn't matter anyway, I just moved all my games and movies to the 1TB drive and did a fresh install. Just gotta install MS Office and Visual Studio and I'll be back to normal.

 

[Paperdoc]

So it's an unresolved puzzle why you never could boot from the SSD. But now you got it working properly by the re-Install? Good news, although I appreciate it's taking more time and effort than you expected!