[SOLVED] Problem making new SSD my boot drive!! Please help

[Dollop99]

I’m trying to install Windows 10 onto an SSD to use as my primary boot drive, but would like to keep my current HDD for storage. I am unable to clone the HDD to the SSD as the data on the HDD is greater than the total storage on the SSD.

So, I downloaded a windows media creation tool and set it up on my external hard drive. I then manage to install windows onto the SSD via booting through the external hard drive, but after than I am unable to boot the PC from the SDD. I have played around with almost every setting in the BIOS and retried installing windows 10 and the whole process countless times but it never works. I’ve tried using cmd and diskpart to make sure everything is formatted correctly but I can never boot to the SSD and it’s really making me frustrated!!

Any help would be much appreciated and if anyone has any questions I’d be glad to answer, thank you!!

 

[Karadjgne]

Is this a Sata SSD or NVMe SSD? Makes a huge difference when initializing and applying boot prerogatives.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I tried both an MBR version and GPT version, formatting the disk to each one and still not booting into windows. I can see what I open the files on the SSD that the windows files are installed but there is no windows boot manager in the BIOS and when I boot through the SSD it doesn’t load anything.

Did you disconnect HDD this time?
Did you turn off secure boot?
Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?

 

[Dean0919]

• Disconnect HDD completely (power cable + sata)
• Do clean install of Windows on SSD
• After Windows gets installed on SSD, plug your HDD to the motherboard and assign letter to it in disk manager.
• You should be fine now with both storages available in your computer.

 

[Dollop99]

Is this a Sata SSD or NVMe SSD? Makes a huge difference when initializing and applying boot prerogatives.

SATA

 

[Dollop99]

Did you disconnect HDD this time?

Yes, both connecting cables.

Did you turn off secure boot?

Unsure - I had 2 options for secure boot, Windows UEFI Boot or Other OS. I chose Other OS, assuming that may be 'off'?

Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?

And yes I will post a whole load of screenshots in a minute

 

[Dollop99]

Here is my Disk Management before anything was installed:

https://imgur.com/a/GLgj0EK

View: https://imgur.com/a/GLgj0EK



Here are my RUFUS settings for the GPT install:

https://imgur.com/a/3GwoDPK

View: https://imgur.com/a/3GwoDPK


This is what happened when I tried to boot from the SSD after installing Windows (GPT):

https://imgur.com/a/ODYBrVD

View: https://imgur.com/a/ODYBrVD


Here is my Disk Management after the GPT install:

https://imgur.com/a/6IBPTIG

View: https://imgur.com/a/6IBPTIG




Here are my RUFUS settings for the MBR install:

https://imgur.com/a/ppf9DFb

View: https://imgur.com/a/ppf9DFb


When I try to boot from SSD after the MBR install, it just flashes black and skips back to the Windows install page from the external hard drive.

Here is my Disk Management after the GPT install:

https://imgur.com/a/Qagh6y9

View: https://imgur.com/a/Qagh6y9



I have absolutely no idea why this is not working.
I have googled endlessly, tried every different combination of possible things I could try and still no luck whatsoever

 

[SkyNetRising]

Can you show BIOS screens:

boot priority settings ,​

HDD BBS settings,​

Secure boot settings?​

 

[Karadjgne]

Bios should be Windows UEFI, not Other OS.
Unless you have legacy stuff like an old sound card, then CSM should be disabled (that's a legacy compatibility module).

Use a USB stick, not a USB drive, with the windows media tool created boot.

Can't boot from M.2 NVMe SSD

I had a Samsung 850 SSD (SATA) with Windows 10 on it. I bought Samsung 970 SSD (M.2). Turned off the computer, plugged it in, inserted a bootable USB stick with Windows 10 on it. Went directly to BIOS and changed boot priority to boot from the stick. Then, I installed Windows 10 on the new drive...

forums.tomshardware.com

Follow those directions, should clear it up.

Unplug every drive except the ssd.

MBR is master boot record, and it's ancient. Still works fine, but has a 2Tb limit. It keeps all the records for the entire drive in one small spot. Best for 1Tb and under drives. GPT is newer, doesn't have the 2Tb limit, so preferred for larger drives. Does the same thing as MBR, just goes about it differently.

 

[Unolocogringo]

You are still trying to install windows from an external hard drive.
So the windows boot loader partition is still getting placed on the external hard drive.
You need a USB flash drive NOT USB hard drive.

 

[Dollop99]

Bios should be Windows UEFI, not Other OS.
Unless you have legacy stuff like an old sound card, then CSM should be disabled (that's a legacy compatibility module).

Use a USB stick, not a USB drive, with the windows media tool created boot.

Can't boot from M.2 NVMe SSD

I had a Samsung 850 SSD (SATA) with Windows 10 on it. I bought Samsung 970 SSD (M.2). Turned off the computer, plugged it in, inserted a bootable USB stick with Windows 10 on it. Went directly to BIOS and changed boot priority to boot from the stick. Then, I installed Windows 10 on the new drive...

forums.tomshardware.com

Follow those directions, should clear it up.

Unplug every drive except the ssd.

MBR is master boot record, and it's ancient. Still works fine, but has a 2Tb limit. It keeps all the records for the entire drive in one small spot. Best for 1Tb and under drives. GPT is newer, doesn't have the 2Tb limit, so preferred for larger drives. Does the same thing as MBR, just goes about it differently.

You are still trying to install windows from an external hard drive.
So the windows boot loader partition is still getting placed on the external hard drive.
You need a USB flash drive NOT USB hard drive.

I’ve just bought a 32gb usb flash drive off of Amazon and should arrive later today, I’ll give it a go and let you know how it goes

 

[mamasan2000]

Think of Rufus and the like programs as if you were burning the ISO to a DVD. Which is why many say to 'burn an ISO to a USB stick'.
What you are really doing is extracting the ISO. It will be bootable.

That said, I REALLY like Ventoy. Similar to Rufus. Has a neat feature. When you let Ventoy format your USB stick (the 32 gig stick), you can then drop an ISO of any Windows or Linux distro on the stick. Don't have to extract or anything. Just copy/paste the ISO to USB stick. During boot of your machine from USB stick, you will then get a list (alphabetized) of every ISO on that stick and boot from them. I haven't come across a single ISO that didn't work. Ventoy says it works on 90-99% of ISOs. I like to testdrive Linux distros so I have probably tried 10 in the past few months. They've all worked.
Plus, you can still use the USB stick as a normal data drive. I've wanted something like this software for 10 years.

I always install OS from USB stick and it was just a couple months ago I had to install Win10 from scratch. No problems. Used Ventoy, of course.

 

[Dollop99]

Attempted to use the usb stick today am still no luck.
I installed the windows media creation tool onto it and tried to them install windows to the SSD.
Then when I try to boot from the SSD after installing windows to it, it just says ‘Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key’

 

[Dean0919]

Attempted to use the usb stick today am still no luck.
I installed the windows media creation tool onto it and tried to them install windows to the SSD.
Then when I try to boot from the SSD after installing windows to it, it just says ‘Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key’

You're doing something wrong...

 

[Dollop99]

You're doing something wrong...

Most likely, and probably something really stupid but I’ve been through the whole process hundreds of times now and I have no idea what to try differently, I’ve messed with every BIOS setting, formatted the SSD in every possible way, changed the method of media creation in many ways, not really sure what else to try

 

[Unolocogringo]

Go here.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Scroll down the page a little and download the creation tool on a windows computer.
Run the creation tool.
Select to download for a different computer.
Select your USB drive.
Wait for it to finish.
Install drive in new computer. boot to bios . Check to make sure UEFI boot is enabled.
Select USB as first boot device .
Make sure you USB is not emulated as a hard drive or the boot manager will end up on the USB drive.
And all other drives are not connected.
Save and exit.
This should boot to the USB to install windows.