[SOLVED] New windows installation in NVME SSD stops working when I remove my old Windows drive.

[Flawnex]

Hello!

I recently bought a new NVME SSD, and installed Windows 10 on it with my USB installation drive. Everything seemed to work just fine and I moved some files I wanted to keep over from my old SSD, which has Windows 10 installed on it as well. I played some games from the new SSD and have some project files on it as well.

However, I want to remove the old drive to use in another computer, but when I do, my computer boots straight into BIOS, and does not recognize the new SSDs Windows installation. The computer does recognize the drive, and when I inserted the USB installation drive, I could have chosen to wipe and install Windows on the NVME SSD. I plugged the old SSD back in, and once again the new SSDs Windows installation works again.

So, how do I get the NVME installation working without losing the files I have already got on the new drive?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Reinstall Windows with only the new SSD connected. This will force the installer to write the necessary boot info to the SSD. If you leave another drive connected the boot info will be written there instead.

 

[Hellfire13]

Backup your data and do a fresh installation, this time only with the NVME installed and all other drives detached.
Windows has this nasty habit of unloading to a separate drive if it detects one before installation.

 

[SkyNetRising]

So, how do I get the NVME installation working without losing the files I have already got on the new drive?

Normally - you install windows with only single drive connected.

If you didn't do that, then bootloader doesn't get created on the drive, you install windows on.
This is because there's already existing bootloader on one of your old drives.

Now - you have to create bootloader partition on new drive manually.
Instructions to do this are not overly complicated. A bit tricky though.

Show screenshot from Disk Management (upload to imgur.com and post link).

 

[Flawnex]

Normally - you install windows with only single drive connected.

If you didn't do that, then bootloader doesn't get created on the drive, you install windows on.
This is because there's already existing bootloader on one of your old drives.

Now - you have to create bootloader partition on new drive manually.
Instructions to do this are not overly complicated. A bit tricky though.

Show screenshot from Disk Management (upload to imgur.com and post link).

This seems like the best response so far.

Here's the screenshot

https://imgur.com/a/eEm1lrY

Forgot to add that F drive is old SSD, C is new SSD and G and E are storage drives.
View: https://imgur.com/a/eEm1lrY

 

[SkyNetRising]

Here's the screenshot

Execute following from elevated command prompt. Regular command prompt will give error on last step.
If you get any errors, then stop immediately.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 2​

(select disk, where windows is installed)​

list partition​

select partition X​

(select 465GB partition, X=1 or X=2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi size=500​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

​

(take a screenshot of command output and show it, if something doesn't work)

Now shutdown.
Disconnect all other drives (USB drives too).
Verify boot priority in BIOS - Windows boot manages should be first in boot order.
Boot into windows.

How to Open the Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows 10

Much of the time, opening the Command Prompt as a regular user is all you need. Sometimes, though, you’ll need to open the Command Prompt as an administrator so that you can run commands that require administrative privileges.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[Flawnex]

Execute following from elevated command prompt. Regular command prompt will give error on last step.
If you get any errors, then stop immediately.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 2​

(select disk, where windows is installed)​

list partition​

select partition X​

(select 465GB partition, X=1 or X=2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi size=500​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

​

(take a screenshot of command output and show it, if something doesn't work)

Now shutdown.
Disconnect all other drives (USB drives too).
Verify boot priority in BIOS - Windows boot manages should be first in boot order.
Boot into windows.

How to Open the Command Prompt as Administrator in Windows 10

Much of the time, opening the Command Prompt as a regular user is all you need. Sometimes, though, you’ll need to open the Command Prompt as an administrator so that you can run commands that require administrative privileges.

www.howtogeek.com

Thank you!

Followed the steps, and everything worked flawlessly.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Great. 👍