[SOLVED] trying to upgrade a HDD with boot partition

[cynthetic]

Windows 10 is installed on my main SATA SSD, but when I remove my old 160GB HDD to replace it with a recently wiped and repartitioned 500GB HDD, no OS is found on any of my drives. I dont know how I can make it so that my SSD is recognized as a boot device, seeing that it looks like I can only boot windows when my old 160GB HDD is installed too. How do I fix this problem? I have a feeling that the Windows boot partition is stored on the old HDD, but I don't know much about windows to try and move that to my SSD or something else.

 

[USAFRet]

Your OS is currently on the 160GB HDD?
And you wish it to be on the 500GB SSD?

Probably doable.

What other drives are associated?
Desktop or laptop?
Please show us a screencap of the current Disk Management wind.

 

[Nemesia]

No the OP OS is on the SSD but when the HDD is removed the SSD OS does not boot anymore.

The issue is probably installing the OS on the SSD when the HDD was plugged in too. It has system files on it and removing it make the SSD OS unbootable.

 

[cynthetic]

No the OP OS is on the SSD but when the HDD is removed the SSD OS does not boot anymore.

The issue is probably installing the OS on the SSD when the HDD was plugged in too. It has system files on it and removing it make the SSD OS unbootable.

This seems to be what is going on, but IDK what it is actually doing. I am going to try and have both drives plugged in, but one will be sitting outside my case.

 

[USAFRet]

Ah yes, I read it wrong.

 

[cynthetic]

Your OS is currently on the 160GB HDD?
And you wish it to be on the 500GB SSD?

Probably doable.

What other drives are associated?
Desktop or laptop?
Please show us a screencap of the current Disk Management wind.

I cant currently boot into an OS, but I have roughly this setup;

128GB SSD SATA C:\ drive with Windows 10
1TB HDD SATA
Older 160GB HDD SATA (former os drive, but I wiped it clean (though ig not))
Older 200GB HDD SATA that had windows but isnt being a problem
512GB SSD M.2 NVMe drive used for games and video recordings etc
(I know its a mess, but I have kinda moved on from this computer and was considering making it into a big windows storage box for games and other stuff w/o changing too much from its current config.)

I was trying to swap out the 160GB HDD for a 500GB HDD I had laying around that I just wiped and reformated using a linux usb and thought it was responsible for my problems, but it seems like not having the 160GB HDD is actually responsible

 

[USAFRet]

Yes.
When you installed the OS on the 128GB(?) SSD, you also had one or more other drives connected.
Thus, Windows puts the small boot partition on that other drive.
Remove it, and no boot for you.

 

[cynthetic]

Yes.
When you installed the OS on the 128GB(?) SSD, you also had one or more other drives connected.
Thus, Windows puts the small boot partition on that other drive.
Remove it, and no boot for you.

WOW ok I did not know that was a feature. Is there a way to fix this? I still have full access to windows if I put it back into its previous configuration.

 

[USAFRet]

WOW ok I did not know that was a feature. Is there a way to fix this? I still have full access to windows if I put it back into its previous configuration.

Most of us call that a "fault", not a feature. I wish it would not do that.

How familiar are you with the windows commandline?

 

[cynthetic]

Most of us call that a "fault", not a feature. I wish it would not do that.

How familiar are you with the windows commandline?

I actually got it working with some frankenstein setup with my 160GB HDD in an old tower to get the sata power and a sata cable running between the two open cases, so now all drives are accessible, albeit terribly gross from a hardware standpoint. I isn't really usable in this state.

Somewhat familiar, but I would not know where to go from here at all and would need some sort of guide to deal with this if the command line is needed.

 

[USAFRet]

Why can't the 160GB HDD be included in the original system with the other 2 drives?

 

[cynthetic]

Why can't the 160GB HDD be included in the original system with the other 2 drives?

I am out of case space for HDD and SATA power plugs from my PSU.

 

[cynthetic]

Yes.
When you installed the OS on the 128GB(?) SSD, you also had one or more other drives connected.
Thus, Windows puts the small boot partition on that other drive.
Remove it, and no boot for you.

I found a thread explaining how to fix this now that I know that windows installs itself on some other partition on all HDD drives when installing your os. Thanks for the help.

The fix: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/windows-wont-boot-without-both-the-hdd-and-ssd.3091276/

 

[USAFRet]

Thus my asking about you and the commandline. I did not want to lead you down a path you weren't ready for.

And to prevet that in future, simply have one and only one drive connected when you do the install.