Question My HDD won’t boot without my SSD connected and made priority boot, but HDD is still my boot system

[Murkypompano]

Like the title says, through 3 separate people trying to do something I have now ended up in a situation where my original HDD won’t start up without my new SSD being connected and made its primary boot.

The original plan was to clone my HDD to my new SSD to make it the boot device, and then clean out the HDD later. This didn’t work as my computer never recognized my SSD as a boot device. We figured this was a windows issue. Now I’m assuming this is where it went wrong: my bf tried installing a new windows directly on my SSD while it was running windows on my HDD (instead of doing a USB boot for my SSD). It sorta ran the installation program, and after reset it gave me a screen saying the installation didn’t work, and it “put everything back the way it was”. Now this can’t be the case as when I tried disconnecting my SSD and running my PC it would simply not work. I tried a bunch of things, but until I reconnected my SSD nothing worked. In a desperate attempt I set my SSD as primary boot in BIOS, and that seemed to work? It still gave me a long “checking for updates” screen, but it eventually started up.

Now every time I start it up this happens. My HDD is still the boot drive (even though the SSD was the primary one in BIOS) but it won’t start up at all unless my SSD is connected.
Is it possible that essential windows files are now on my SSD? And that that’s why my HDD won’t work without it being connected?

All I wanted was to set my windows up to boot from my new SSD, instead I’ve somehow ruined my old HDD as well…. I’m very tired and absolutely NOT an expert at any of this, does anyone have any ideas?

My original plan was to empty my SSD completely again and do a clean install of windows,and go from there. But I don’t dare to wipe my SSD now since it’s clearly needed somehow for startup..

 

[USAFRet]

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
(upload your pic to imgur.com, post the link here)

My original plan was to empty my SSD completely again and do a clean install of windows,and go from there. But I don’t dare to wipe my SSD now since it’s clearly needed somehow for startup..

This is almost certainly doable.
And given that multiple people have messed with this, and screwed it up...preferable.

 

[Murkypompano]

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
(upload your pic to imgur.com, post the link here)


This is almost certainly doable.
And given that multiple people have messed with this, and screwed it up...preferable.

Hey thanks for the reply, here is the screenshot (it won't let me put it in as picture) I wonder if just redoing the windows install on my C: (HDD) would work somehow? Or do you figure there's a better way to fix this?

 

[USAFRet]

Hey thanks for the reply, here is the screenshot (it won't let me put it in as picture) I wonder if just redoing the windows install on my C: (HDD) would work somehow? Or do you figure there's a better way to fix this?

Which is the SSD?

Basically, you just want to do a full wipe and reinstall on the SSD.

Create a Win 10 USB to install with.
Physically disconnect ALL drives except the SSD.
Boot from your USB, and install. (deleting all existing partitions in the process).

Here:

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

 

[Murkypompano]

Which is the SSD?

Basically, you just want to do a full wipe and reinstall on the SSD.

Create a Win 10 USB to install with.
Physically disconnect ALL drives except the SSD.
Boot from your USB, and install. (deleting all existing partitions in the process).

Here:

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

Oh sorry! Disk 1 is the SSD! I'll try to do the clean windows install yeah, I just hope that won't prevent me from accessing mt HDD afterwards.. But we'll see! Thank you!

 

[USAFRet]

Oh sorry! Disk 1 is the SSD! I'll try to do the clean windows install yeah, I just hope that won't prevent me from accessing mt HDD afterwards.. But we'll see! Thank you!

Again, have ONLY the SSD connected when you do this install.
Reconnect the HDD later.