[SOLVED] Hard Drive Combination.

[josephpelton4thewin]

I have a 1 TB hard drive with windows installed and have been using for everything for the last 3 months. The thing is i also have a 250GB hard drive and would like to use it as well to give me some more space. I'm new to messing with drives, what would be the best way to do this?

 

[scout_03]

do you want to use it for files holder or back up .

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

I would like to use it as a backup.

 

[scout_03]

you could copy your os on this way https://www.google.ca/search?source=hp&ei=IaRIXIr0G8nXjwSJ7KDADg&q=using+a+drive+as+os+backup&btnK=Recherche+Google&oq=using+a+drive+as+os+backup&gs_l=psy-ab.3...2509.12912..14783...0.0..0.225.2752.12j13j1......0....1..gws-wiz.....0..0i131j0j0i22i30j0i19j0i22i10i30i19j0i22i30i19j33i22i29i30j33i21j33i160.262Jh3cMDsI

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

I tried the link you sent but my secondary 250GB hard drive is set as an active primary partition, despite it not being the boot drive. This makes it unable to be detected as a hard disk avaliable to create a system image. How can i change this?

 

[USAFRet]

Is there anything on the 250GB drive?
If there is nothing on it you need to keep, wipe it completely...all partitions.
Use as desired.

But...a 250GB drive is unlikely to be large enough for a real backup of your current 1TB.

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

There isnt anything on it that i need. How would i be able to use it as additional storage if my 1TB drive fills up?

 

[USAFRet]

There isnt anything on it that i need. How would i be able to use it as additional storage if my 1TB drive fills up?

Reformat it an give it a drive letter.
Having multiple drives is quite common

You could install a few games on it, for instance.
Steam games location
In the steam client:
Steam
Settings
Downloads
Steam Library Folders
Add library folder

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

So to wipe the drive, should i select Delete Volume? When i select format it says, "Windows cannot format the system partition on this disk"

 

[USAFRet]

So to wipe the drive, should i select Delete Volume? When i select format it says, "Windows cannot format the system partition on this disk"

Test first.
Power OFF
Disconnect the 250GB drive
Power ON
Does the system boot correctly?

If so, then reconnect it and wipe that drive with the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-format-storage-drive-using-diskpart-windows-10

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

Just tested it. When i unplug the 250GB drive it will not boot to windows, i think i may have installed windows to the 250 GB drive by accident. How would i move it to the 1TB drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Just tested it. When i unplug the 250GB drive it will not boot to windows, i think i may have installed windows to the 250 GB drive by accident. How would i move it to the 1TB drive?

This is why we test before actually deleting anything.

Please post a screencap of your current Disk Management window.

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

There is the disk management window: https://imgur.com/a/gKG5eOV

I don't know any other way to post a pic on this forum.

 

[USAFRet]

There is the disk management window: https://imagur.com/a/gKG5eOV

I believe that you installed the OS on the 1TB, while you had the 250GB still connected.
This resulted in the boot data residing on the 250GB. And seeming consuming all of it.

Possible fix:
Assuming you have a Win 10 USB install handy
Power off, disconnect the 250GB
Boot up from the Win 10 USB, and run the Repair function.
See if that does it.

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

I have the windows 10 usb, and booted with it. It wont boot into windows, only give me the option to install windows 10. So i selected repair and am not sure which repair option would be the one to fix it. I already tried the startup repair, but it says it couldnt repair my pc. I have no system image on my pc to recover, and dont have a system restore on my pc.

P.S. When i try to boot without the usb, or the 250 GB hard drive it gives the error, please select boot device or insert bootable media and press a key.

 

[josephpelton4thewin]

I was also looking at upgrading my hard drive on my next build to a hybrid, 2TB drive. Should i buy a hybrid drive, and create a system image on it, and then restore the system image to copy my data onto the 2 TB drive? Then i could wipe both the 1TB and 250GB drives. Would this cause issues when i eventually swap the cpu, motherboard, and ram?

 

[USAFRet]

I was also looking at upgrading my hard drive on my next build to a hybrid, 2TB drive. Should i buy a hybrid drive, and create a system image on it, and then restore the system image to copy my data onto the 2 TB drive? Then i could wipe both the 1TB and 250GB drives. Would this cause issues when i eventually swap the cpu, motherboard, and ram?

For a motherboard/CPU swap, you'll likely need a clean OS install. An 'image' from the current system won't work.