[SOLVED] SSD not booting windows

[Dreaming Dragons]

So far: installed new motherboard, have hard drive and ssd (both have windows)

priority set to ssd but still boots hard drive, ssd is fine and is recognized so no data loss

removed hard drive to only boot from ssd, its recognised by bios, has windows, worked fine on previous motherboard but when i solo boot ssd, it says "insert boot device to continue"

any clue? Do i need to fix the boot records? if so how can I do that without a windows repair disc?

 

[Dean0919]

Seems like your boot loader is on hard drive and not on your SSD, that's why it happens. If both of them were connected when installing Windows, it usually keeps boot loader on hard drive for some stupid reason. You need to disconnect your HDD, have connected only your SSD and install Windows again. After installation you can connect your HDD too and use it.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
2. Was the OS already existing on the SSD before this motherboard swap? If so, what are the old and new motherboards?

 

[Dreaming Dragons]

1. Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.
2. Was the OS already existing on the SSD before this motherboard swap? If so, what are the old and new motherboards?

1) The SSD is recognized and accessible, it does show up as a drive with its healthy partitions

2) Yes the OS was present before motherboard swap and the motherboard is the same H81 but a newer model

 

[USAFRet]

1) The SSD is recognized and accessible, it does show up as a drive with its healthy partitions

2) Yes the OS was present before motherboard swap and the motherboard is the same H81 but a newer model

1. A screencap of your Disk Management window would show us out here exactly what you're working with.

2. I mean actual make/model. Following a motherboard change, a fresh OS install is often needed. Both being H81 lowers that need, but it is still a possibility.

But we DO need that screencap.

 

[Dreaming Dragons]

1. A screencap of your Disk Management window would show us out here exactly what you're working with.

2. I mean actual make/model. Following a motherboard change, a fresh OS install is often needed. Both being H81 lowers that need, but it is still a possibility.

But we DO need that screencap.

https://ibb.co/QM1xvC4
disk 0 is the ssd

 

[USAFRet]

https://ibb.co/QM1xvC4
disk 0 is the ssd

The 100MB boot partition (EFI) exsts on the 240GB SSD, Disk 0.
Windows itself exists on the 1TB HDD, Disk 1.

But you're saying "Windows exists on both". Meaning the G partition on the 240GB Disk 0 also contains a Windows install?

This is one of the MANY reasons why having multiple OS installs is a bad idea.
Things get too confused.

Personally, I would start over completely. Especially in the consideration of a whole new motherboard.

 

[Dreaming Dragons]

The 100MB boot partition (EFI) exsts on the 240GB SSD, Disk 0.
Windows itself exists on the 1TB HDD, Disk 1.

But you're saying "Windows exists on both". Meaning the G partition on the 240GB Disk 0 also contains a Windows install?

This is one of the MANY reasons why having multiple OS installs is a bad idea.
Things get too confused.

Personally, I would start over completely. Especially in the consideration of a whole new motherboard.

I feel as if theres a way to update the boot partition without having to reinstall windows but ig reinstalling windows is the last resort

 

[USAFRet]

I feel as if theres a way to update the boot partition without having to reinstall windows but ig reinstalling windows is the last resort

Open msconfig.
Select the Boot tab.

What does it show?


This is a case of multiple issues.
2 OS's, new motherboard, etc.
What else might be wrong?

If my favorite grandson came to me with his system like this, I'd suggest the exact same thing. No matter how much he didn't want to.
Start over, with a clean install on the desired drive.
One and only one OS.

 

[Dreaming Dragons]

Open msconfig.
Select the Boot tab.

What does it show?


This is a case of multiple issues.
2 OS's, new motherboard, etc.
What else might be wrong?

If my favorite grandson came to me with his system like this, I'd suggest the exact same thing. No matter how much he didn't want to.
Start over, with a clean install on the desired drive.
One and only one OS.

it shows one boot, the C drive (the os on the HDD)

 

[Dreaming Dragons]

Tried formatting the EFI partition and re adding the boot files and still nope, Ig that was the last shot thanks for the help

 

[USAFRet]

it shows one boot, the C drive (the os on the HDD)

Another point to "just start over".

What is in all the partitions on the 1TB HDD? The E and F?

Personally, I would find ALL my personal data and whatnot.
Copy that to some other drive completely. An external or something.

Clean install on the SSD.
Delete ALL partitions on the HDD, leaving one blank space.

Start over.

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

 

[SkyNetRising]

Tried formatting the EFI partition and re adding the boot files and still nope, Ig that was the last shot thanks for the help

Windows on 250GB drive is installed in UEFI mode.
Windows on 1TB drive is installed in legacy mode.

If you formatted EFI system partition (not a very good idea BTW), then 250GB drive is no longer bootable at all.

 

[SkyNetRising]

To add another boot entry to legacy bootloader on 1TB drive, execute following (from elevated command prompt):
bcdboot G:\windows /s D:

Note - windows has to be the same version on both drives.