Question Problem when I remove formatted HDD

[Shade_M16]

Hello all. So I have my OS which is windows 10 installed on my Samsung 860 1TB evo ssd. I also have an old WD HDD 320gb which is formatted and nothing on it in my computer that I haven't used in ages. I decided I wanted to remove it so I did. When I try to boot back up I get this "reboot and select proper boot device" message. So I go into my BIOS and make sure my SSD with my OS installed on it is the first in the boot order which it was. But i still kept getting the same message. I so plugged my old HDD back in and windows boots back up normally. What should I do for this? Thanks for any help.

 

[white.a.drew]

Hello all. So I have my OS which is windows 10 installed on my Samsung 860 1TB evo ssd. I also have an old WD HDD 320gb which is formatted and nothing on it in my computer that I haven't used in ages. I decided I wanted to remove it so I did. When I try to boot back up I get this "reboot and select proper boot device" message. So I go into my BIOS and make sure my SSD with my OS installed on it is the first in the boot order which it was. But i still kept getting the same message. I so plugged my old HDD back in and windows boots back up normally. What should I do for this? Thanks for any help.

you will need to make a boot able usb, then with the hdd removed boot into the usb and instead of clicking install. In the bottom left corner there should be a repair option repair your os on the ssd to have boot sectors. when you first install windows 10 with the hdd plugged in windows decided for some acceptable reason instead of installing boot to ssd hey use the hdd.

 

[Shade_M16]

you will need to make a boot able usb, then with the hdd removed boot into the usb and instead of clicking install. In the bottom left corner there should be a repair option repair your os on the ssd to have boot sectors. when you first install windows 10 with the hdd plugged in windows decided for some acceptable reason instead of installing boot to ssd hey use the hdd.

Thanks for the reply. I have a usb I can use and I can see it detected in the BIOS. What exactly do I have to do to make it a "boot able usb"?

 

[white.a.drew]

Thanks for the reply. I have a usb I can use and I can see it detected in the BIOS. What exactly do I have to do to make it a "boot able usb"?

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
with this you can a make a bootable cd/usb, or download a ios file

 

[geofelt]

Likely, the hdd was present when you installed windows on the ssd.
Windows put a hidden recovery partition on the HDD and will not boot without it present.

If this is a new windows install, the easiest thing to do is to simply reinstall without the HDD present.
Otherwise, there is, I think a procedure available to fix this. Google should find it for you.

OTOH, if the situation was that your os and apps were on in the HDD, you could use the samsung ssd migration app to move your C drive from the HDD to the ssd.

 

[Shade_M16]

Thanks for the link this should be just what I need. I will follow white.a.drew's instruction and look for the repair button in the left hand corner when I have it up on the install screen. As far as boot sectors goes i'm not really sure what that means I am hoping I can figure it out when I get there. Would there be any further instruction I should know when I get to that point that wouldn't be self explanatory?

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the link this should be just what I need. I will follow white.a.drew's instruction and look for the repair button in the left hand corner when I have it up on the install screen. As far as boot sectors goes i'm not really sure what that means I am hoping I can figure it out when I get there. Would there be any further instruction I should know when I get to that point that wouldn't be self explanatory?

With the system running, please post a screencap of your Disk Management window.

From there, we can tell what physical drive the boot partition is on.
Almost certainly the HDD you wish to remove.

 

[Shade_M16]

With the system running, please post a screencap of your Disk Management window.

From there, we can tell what physical drive the boot partition is on.
Almost certainly the HDD you wish to remove.

https://imgur.com/a/0gwmyNo

View: https://imgur.com/a/0gwmyNo

 

[USAFRet]

Yep.
Disk 2 is the one you wish to remove?

Disconnect ALL dries except Disk 0 and Disk 2
Possibly try this:
-----------------------

diskpart

list disk

select disk 0

list partition

select partition 2

shrink desired=500

create partition primary

format fs=ntfs quick

active

assign letter=H

exit

bcdboot c:\windows /s H:

 

[Shade_M16]

The Old Hdd is the one I wish to remove

 

[white.a.drew]

https://imgur.com/a/0gwmyNo

View: https://imgur.com/a/0gwmyNo

@geofelt
you are correct it's the recovery partition that's blocking him from the removal of the hdd. you wiill need to use something like partition wizard you can clone the section that says Healthy (Recovery Portion) to your back-up hdd and then should in theory be able to pull the hdd. "HOWEVER" you will need to make a clean partition for the clone to the recovery partition to install on it looks like it needs to be about 470MB.