[SOLVED] Transfer Boot info of SSD partition from HDD toSSD

[arpitjjw]

I had windows on my Hard drive (1 TB size ) with two partitions C and D . I installed new SSD and also installed windows on it without removing HDD while installing . Now I have dual boot Windows . By default I have set to boot windows on the SSD and it works fine . I opened the disk management and saw that there is no reserved parition for Disk 1 (SSD) while Disk 0 (HDD ) has 100 mb reserved partition . Also Disk 0 has some other partitions of about 100 gb for ubuntu which I am also able to boot to . The screenshot of my disk management screen can be found on this URL . I guess that this means that the boot info of the SSD is on Disk 0 and I will not be able to boot after I remove HDD ? If this is true how do I transfer the reserved partition to the SSD while also keeping the reserved partition of the HDD or may be not I will format the HDD ?
I dont want to reinstall windows by removing the HDD.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You don't. What you DO do, is remove the second hard drive, and all other drives EXCEPT for the drive you are installing windows ON and the drive you are using to INSTALL windows FROM (USB or optical disk), and then reinstall. All drives except those two should ALWAYS be disconnected from the system EVERY and ANY time you install Windows to avoid problems with the hidden and boot partitions.

Exact instructions can be found here and it would be wise to follow them.

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

 

[arpitjjw]

You don't. What you DO do, is remove the second hard drive, and all other drives EXCEPT for the drive you are installing windows ON and the drive you are using to INSTALL windows FROM (USB or optical disk), and then reinstall. All drives except those two should ALWAYS be disconnected from the system EVERY and ANY time you install Windows to avoid problems with the hidden and boot partitions.

Exact instructions can be found here and it would be wise to follow them.

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

I said in the last line that I dont want to reinstall windows or remove the hdd , I was hoping for some other solution

 

[arpitjjw]

I have recently installed windows on my SDD with windows preinstalled on HDD also . Disk 0 is hdd while disk 1 is hdd which has some partitions for ubuntu also and D drive . The current disk management looks like

https://imgur.com/A8vsVjF

View: https://imgur.com/A8vsVjF
. There is no EFI partition on ssd and there is dual boot of windows now . If I keep the disk as it is now will it affect windows on the SSD anyhow or give any error in the future (I will not remove the HDD or format it ). Is there a way to create new EFI partition on the SSD like in the link https://www.disk-partition.com/windows-10/missing-efi-partition-windows-10.html

 

[CountMike]

You're BOOTing from disk 0 and windows are on disk 1 and to fix that you need to boot from disk 1 which is going to be impossible without disk 0.
In theory it could be done by repartitioning disk1 with same size partitions as in disk 0 and copy partitions needed for booting using Mini disk partition wizard or a program that can copy partitions but than you'd be loosing everything on disk1 so you might as well reinstall windows from scratch while only disk 1 is connected and active.

 

[USAFRet]

That's what happens where there are 2 physical drives installed when you do the OS install.
And especially if the other drive already has an OS..you get a dual boot situation.

If you remove that HDD, no boot for you.

Since this is a brand new install, just redo it.
Disconnect the HDD and do a new clean install on the SSD.

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]

You said, you can not open the laptop and remove hdd.
Then why would you be worried about hdd being removed?
Just leave it alone. Everything is fine there.

 

[USAFRet]

Duplicate threads merged.

 

[arpitjjw]

You said, you can not open the laptop and remove hdd.
Then why would you be worried about hdd being removed?
Just leave it alone. Everything is fine there.

Seriously will everything be fine if I dont create partition on ssd . I read somewhere that it might cause errors in the future

 

[USAFRet]

Seriously will everything be fine if I dont create partition on ssd . I read somewhere that it might cause errors in the future

It will continue to boot (as long as the HDD does not die).
You'll still have this dualboot thing with Windows going on.
It will make future troubleshooting weird.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Seriously will everything be fine if I dont create partition on ssd .

Yes. It's fine (as long as HDD remains there and doesn't die).

 

[Darkbreeze]

"Works" and "Fine" or "Right" are not necessarily the same thing. Yes, if it works and you can live with it, then it's "fine", but if that other drive ever dies, you are going to have to reinstall and it might not be at a very convenient time PLUS you will likely then have to do a LOT more work, with reinstalling applications and configuring settings all over again.

If you do it NOW, you should only have to do it one time. If you are not ok with any of the potential problems from the OS being dependent on the HDD, going forward, then you should do it now to avoid a major potential nightmare later.

It's up to you. I told you in the beginning what needed to be done and these others have verified that. I wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal if you've already done it once recently since you haven't gone very far with this new OS installation anyhow.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Anyway ... you can recreate bootloader partition on SSD this way
(this will allow to boot windows on SSD only).
(if you get any errors, then stop immediately, do not continue with those commands)

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(make sure 232GB disk is selected)​

list partition​

select partition X​

(make sure 232GB partition is selected, X is either 1 or 2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

 

[arpitjjw]

Anyway ... you can recreate bootloader partition on SSD this way
(this will allow to boot windows on SSD only).
(if you get any errors, then stop immediately, do not continue with those commands)

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(make sure 232GB disk is selected)​

list partition​

select partition X​

(make sure 232GB partition is selected, X is either 1 or 2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

Should I do it in regular command Prompt ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Elevated command prompt is required.
https://winaero.com/blog/how-to-open-elevated-command-prompt-in-windows-10/

 

[arpitjjw]

Anyway ... you can recreate bootloader partition on SSD this way
(this will allow to boot windows on SSD only).
(if you get any errors, then stop immediately, do not continue with those commands)

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(make sure 232GB disk is selected)​

list partition​

select partition X​

(make sure 232GB partition is selected, X is either 1 or 2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

When I selected disk 1 and typed list partition it showed me 2 partitions :
partition 1 reserves 16 mb offset : 1024kb
and partition 2 primary 232 gb offser 17 mb
While in the disk management screen it does not show any partition of disk 1, you can see it yourself in the link I posted in the post
does that mean efi is already there

 

[SkyNetRising]

That 16MB partition is called protective mbr.
It's there for compatibility reasons only - so gpt unaware partition management tools mistakenly do not treat the drive as empty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table

You have to select 232GB partition for shrinking.

 

[arpitjjw]

Anyway ... you can recreate bootloader partition on SSD this way
(this will allow to boot windows on SSD only).
(if you get any errors, then stop immediately, do not continue with those commands)

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 1​

(make sure 232GB disk is selected)​

list partition​

select partition X​

(make sure 232GB partition is selected, X is either 1 or 2)​

shrink desired=500​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

I think it worked , Now I have got a healthy efi partition of 500 mb on the ssd. Can I format the HDD now ?

 

[SkyNetRising]

If you have backed up your user data from HDD and don't need ubuntu anymore, then yes.