Question Installed Windows 10 with new SSD, Can't boot without old drive connected.

[aidanopitz]

Hello! Been having some issues with my new drive but got past pretty much all of them. Thought I was in the clear once I got the windows media creation tool to work. Shut down my pc, disconnected every drive except my new one and the usb stick with windows on it. Started to install it until it prompted me that i had to install windows while on my regular drive, (on the desktop while the pc was on, since i already had a version of windows i guess). Never seen that before with anyone, not sure if its new or not i dont do this often. anyways I installed it and the new ssd only has a windows Disc Image File thats like 4gb. Theres no boot partition or anything in disk management. should i just wipe the drive and try again? in my bios it just has the drive name, when i try to boot without the old c drive that has the other windows version, it goes into recovery mode. not too sure what i did wrong.

Hardware
--------------
New SSD: Samsung 870 EVO 2.5"
MB: Z270 PC Mate, BIOS Vers. 1.60 UEFI + Legacy
Old SSD: Kingston UV400 2.5"

 

[Cyberat_88]

You can't keep dual boot with an upgrade version.
Do a new install from boot, and when asked, keep both versions. That way you will run dual boot from the new windows at first. You can switch dual boot to another Win version later. If you install windows and disconnect the old drive, you'll have to swap which drive to boot from at post, every single time.
As always, backup your data, anything can go wrong from Win 8.1 and Up. Just in case things go south.

 

[Lafong]

You say "Started to install it until it prompted me that i had to install windows while on my regular drive"...........

Need all of the excruciating detail on that.

Do you mean "....i had to install Windows TO my regular drive"???

What exactly do you mean by "while on my regular drive"?

I assume your "regular drive" was NOT connected at that moment. Correct? Not correct?

What is the exact quote you saw on the screen?

Are you sure you were in fact booting from the USB stick?

Confusion unless you provide more details.

 

[TerryLaze]

and the new ssd only has a windows Disc Image File thats like 4gb.

You turned the ssd into an installation media...
You have to start over and make sure to do it right, look up a guide or something.

 

[Colif]

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[aidanopitz]

You say "Started to install it until it prompted me that i had to install windows while on my regular drive"...........

Need all of the excruciating detail on that.

Do you mean "....i had to install Windows TO my regular drive"???

What exactly do you mean by "while on my regular drive"?

I assume your "regular drive" was NOT connected at that moment. Correct? Not correct?

What is the exact quote you saw on the screen?

Are you sure you were in fact booting from the USB stick?

Confusion unless you provide more details.

I meant; after i restarted my pc in order to boot from the usb stick and install windows to the new drive, i was prompted with a message telling me that i needed to continue the installation while the pc was running. jsut on the regular desktop.


"while on my regular drive" just meant while im booted up from the drive that already has windows installed. my normal drive.

My regular drive was connected, because it required me to boot my pc back to the desktop and continue the installation there.

I dont remember the exact quote, should've written it down. tried searching for it and couldnt turn anything up.

im sure i was booting from the stick, i made sure to select it while installing

 

[aidanopitz]

You can't keep dual boot with an upgrade version.
Do a new install from boot, and when asked, keep both versions. That way you will run dual boot from the new windows at first. You can switch dual boot to another Win version later. If you install windows and disconnect the old drive, you'll have to swap which drive to boot from at post, every single time.
As always, backup your data, anything can go wrong from Win 8.1 and Up. Just in case things go south.

Not sure what this means. Im not super techy, i know a bit but not much, sorry. I dont think i was trying to keep dual boot. I just wanted to install it to the new drive and boot from the new drive. and i dont think i saw a message asking to keep both versions or anything. Im probably wrong/misunderstanding so sorry about that, just doesnt ring any bells

 

[Lafong]

My regular drive was connected, because it required me to boot my pc back to the desktop and continue the installation there.

Something wrong there.

Normal process would be:

1: Disconnect ALL drives except the one to receive Windows. So you'd begin with "regular drive" disconnected.

2: Boot from the stick

3: Watch the screen carefully. You should be shown the drive to receive Windows and any partitions on it.

4: If you see partitions on the only drive connected, delete them all. If the drive is new or has previously been "wiped", you should see " unallocated space".

5; follow the prompts to continue the installation.

If the above is NOT what happened, we need more of the excruciating detail of exactly what you saw on the screen, specifically about "because it required me to boot my pc back to the desktop".