SSD used to boot Windows 10 but still has all Windows files

Ranz120

Commendable
Jun 29, 2016
6
0
1,510
Let me run you through how this problem happened.

I bought new hardware (mobo, cpu, storage, vga, ram, psu) and built it in my old pc's case. Boots Windows 10 fine and used it for a couple of months.

I decide to buy a new case. I moved all the new hardware into this case, but had never booted it up because I was fixing issues with the liquid cpu cooler. Meanwhile I put all the old hardware into the old case, got an old HDD and installed Windows 10 on it and it boots fine. I should note that I did not put a cd key because I was using this pc as a temporary solution; I also logged in using my Live account. "Not genuine" watermark shows up on the lower right as expected.

Finally finish issues installing my water cooler and decide to boot the new pc up. After BIOS, I get a black screen with the message "Reboot using a proper boot device and press any key to retry". Could the sdd have become corrupt? So I try to troubleshoot: I put the HDD with windows from my old pc into the new one and boot it using the ssd as slave drive. Runs fine, and all the files on my ssd are right there. I can't tell if windows is fine just by looking at the files, so I reinstall windows.

Now I try to boot up using my ssd and the same message shows up. I have tried putting only the ssd in the sata ports, putting the sata cable in every port, changing sata cables, but with no resolution. My thoughts? Could it have to do with me running Windows on the HDD on the old pc and using my Live account? I haven't tinkered with the SDD since I had it in the old case (when it was working) till I put it in the new case.

I don't have any more ideas. What do you think? Please let me know.
 
Solution
I assume the answer to my first question is "Yes"...is that right?

At this stage it's probably prudent to fresh-install the Win 10 OS and go on from there.

Since the HDD from your old system (I assume) is a viable, bootable, functional drive without problems you could attempt a disk-cloning operation from the HDD to the SSD assuming the disk-space capacity of the SSD is sufficient to contain the data contents of the HDD. But all-in-all a reinstall of the OS is probably best.

And in the meantime check out the health of the SSD with a diagnostic tool - preferably a program from the disk's manufacturer - just on the off-chance something's amiss with the disk.
I assume when you install your HDD in the new PC it
boots & functions OK WITH OR WITHOUT the SSD connected as a secondary drive, right?

If that's so, doesn't it appear the obvious solution (assuming you're not dealing with a defective SSD) is to reinstall the OS onto the SSD?

(Didn't see your last post, so obviously the SSD is non-defective. But what about a reinstall of the OS for your new PC?)
 


I have already reinstalled OS, but kept the old files. Should I try reinstalling again? Should I remove the old windows files as a precaution?
 
I assume the answer to my first question is "Yes"...is that right?

At this stage it's probably prudent to fresh-install the Win 10 OS and go on from there.

Since the HDD from your old system (I assume) is a viable, bootable, functional drive without problems you could attempt a disk-cloning operation from the HDD to the SSD assuming the disk-space capacity of the SSD is sufficient to contain the data contents of the HDD. But all-in-all a reinstall of the OS is probably best.

And in the meantime check out the health of the SSD with a diagnostic tool - preferably a program from the disk's manufacturer - just on the off-chance something's amiss with the disk.
 
Solution


Well it worked. First I scanned the SSD with HD tune, and it was healthy. Then I reinstalled Windows 10, but this time I didn't install the drivers and programs that came with the mobo cd, though I don't know if that contributed to anything. Anyway thanks for helping me out in this.

 
Glad to hear you got it working.
It's odd that installing the drivers from the motherboard's drivers installation CD would have caused the problem you ran into. It's a rare occurrence but it does happen because of some unusual conflict.

We do generally recommend that at least initially when a new MB has been installed in the system and either a fresh-install of the OS has been made or a cloned drive containing the OS has been initially installed, that the user determine whether Windows (MS) has been able to install whatever drivers are necessary without user intervention. It's surprising that this occurs quite frequently with the more modern OSs, i.e., Win 7, 8, & 10.

Anyway, glad you got it sorted out.