Question Please help me fix my Windows install ?

[julienruc]

Hello, I've recently upgraded my NVMe SSD from an Adata 500GB to a WD 2TB. Whilst I was still using my PC with Win11 on the 500GB Adata drive (Drive A), I popped the 2TB WD drive (Drive B) into my second M.2 slot and proceeded to install Win11 on the new drive.

I then booted onto Drive B and proceeded to move everything there and when I was done I formatted Drive A. I then took Drive A out of the motherboard but to my surprise I couldn't boot onto Drive B.

I now need to have the Window-less Drive A to be installed in order to Boot onto Drive B.

Please see screenshot. I have noticed that the Drive B doesn't have an EFI System Partition and that according to my motherboard it also does not have a Windows Boot Manager.

Where did I go wrong here? And how do I fix this? Do I have to perform a clean reinstall here?

 

[USAFRet]

I then booted onto Drive B and proceeded to move everything there and

Define 'everything'. What, exactly, was moved?
And how did you do this move?

 

[USAFRet]

A much better solution would have been a simple clone from the 500GB to the 2TB.
The way you have it now, multiple things are/will be broken.


But since you've already formatted that drive, that option is gone.

 

[Lutfij]

Looks like part of your Windows OS install made it's way onto the older OS drive. Since it looks like your motherboard support 2x NVMe drives, I'd have left the original OS drive intact, added the second SSD to the system, powered up the platform, then initialized the new drive selecting GPT as the partition style.

If you really did need a larger drive for the OPS, then you should've baked up all mission critical data off the original OS drive, then used the bootable USB installer to delete all partitions showing on the 500GB drive, power down, pop the new drive into the first M.2 slot, then install the OS in offline mode.

To me, it looks like you managed to get a lot of things wrong in your attempt at adding the drive.

 

[julienruc]

Yeah I defo did! Noted on the correct sequence for future installs tho - thanks for that.

And by everything, I meant manually copy/pasting documents/pcitures/folders onto the new Drive B.

I guess I'll just transfer everything to an external drive for the time being and perform a clean reinstall. Just sucks as I gotta buy a new OEM key. Was trying to avoid that but oh well.

So to fully clean the 500GB Adata drive, I need to do so using the bootable Windows USB?

 

[USAFRet]

Yeah I defo did! Noted on the correct sequence for future installs tho - thanks for that.

And by everything, I meant manually copy/pasting documents/pcitures/folders onto the new Drive B.

I guess I'll just transfer everything to an external drive for the time being and perform a clean reinstall. Just sucks as I gotta buy a new OEM key. Was trying to avoid that but oh well.

So to fully clean the 500GB Adata drive, I need to do so using the bootable Windows USB?

No, you do NOT need a new OS license.
A reinstall on this same PC incurs no licensing issues.

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[JeffreyP55]

Hello, I've recently upgraded my NVMe from an Adata 500GB to a WD 2TB. Whilst I was still using my PC with Win11 on the 500GB Adata drive (Drive A), I popped the 2TB WD drive (Drive B) onto my second M.2 slot and proceeded to install Win11 on the new drive.

I then booted onto Drive B and proceeded to move everything there and when I was done I formatted Drive A. I then took Drive A out of the motherboard but to my surprise I couldn't boot onto Drive B.

I now need to have the window-less Drive A to be installed in order to Boot onto Drive B.

Please see screenshot. I have noticed that the Drive B doesn't have an EFI System Partition and that according to my motherboard it also does not have a Windows Boot Manager.

Where did I go wrong here? And how do I fix this? Do I have to perform a clean reinstall here?

When I change out drives even though they my different capacities... Just as long as the new drive equals or exceeds the capacity of the drive to be cloned. Clone it!

 

[USAFRet]

When I change out drives even though they my different capacities... Just as long as the new drive equals or exceeds the capacity of the drive to be cloned. Clone it!

Doesn't even have to be the physical size of the drive. Just the data space consumed.

A 2TB HDD with 400GB data on it will clone into a 500GB SSD no problem.

 

[julienruc]

Yeah gotcha guys. Thanks a lot for the tips! I'm planning on doing the whole thing this WE!