Question Unplugged and replugged HDD, now system won't boot

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overbearingguilt

Aug 23, 2023
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I have a prebuilt Alienware Aurora R8 running Win11. In an attempt to get it to recognize an SSD I installed, I unplugged the HDD that came with the system, while the system was powered down. Upon turning it back on, the system now refuses to boot from the HDD.

I've tried a multitude of things, from doing system recoveries to "chkdsk C: /r", and a whole bunch of other solutions. Nothing has worked, and now the system is in an eternal loop of attempting to boot, taking several minutes, and then saying "Something didn't go as planned. No need to worry—undoing changes. Please keep your computer on." and then restarting.

I'm at a complete loss of what to do, and I would just like to be able to boot from my HDD again. Please help!
 
Did you at any time clone Windows from another drive on to the SSD or HDD whilst the hard disk was fitted. If so, you may have ended up with the boot partition for Windows on the other drive. Removing the hard disk or SSD would prevent Windows from booting.

An in-situ Windows install without wiping any programs might fix the problem.
https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-11-reinstall-without-deleting-apps/

If, however, your SSD was completely blank, none of the above applies.
 
Last edited:
Misgar said:
Did you at any time clone Windows from another drive on to the SSD whilst the hard disk was fitted. If so, you may have ended up with the boot partition for Windows on the hard drive. Removing the hard disk would prevent Windows from booting.

An in-situ Windows install without wiping any programs might fix the problem.
https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-11-reinstall-without-deleting-apps/
Click to expand...
I cloned my Windows install from my HDD to my SSD. My plan was to boot Windows from my SSD, and I attempted to get it to recognize by unplugging my HDD while the system was off so it would stop trying to boot into it. After it didn't boot into anything, I plugged my HDD back in and that led me to the problems I have been having now.

Unfortunately I can't do much with that link because I cannot even access File Explorer - I can only look at the BIOS and Boot Options.
 
A fact which isn't always made obvious by the instructions is you must disconnect your source drive after cloning has finished, before you boot up from the new cloned disk.

Failure to disconnect the old drive often results in the Windows boot partition for the new cloned disk ending up on the wrong drive. You remain blissfully ignorant of this fact until you remove the drive containing the misplaced boot sector. Then Windows stops booting.
 
SkyNetRising said:
Can you boot into safe mode?
Click to expand...
I seemingly can't even access WinRE anymore, so not that I know of. When I was able to, I did chkdsk and then tried to recover a backup from a day ago.

Misgar said:
A fact which isn't always made obvious by the instructions is you must disconnect your source drive after cloning has finished, before you boot up from the new cloned disk.

Failure to disconnect the old drive often results in the Windows boot partition ending up on the wrong drive. You remain blissfully ignorant of this fact until you remove the drive containing the misplaced boot sector. Then Windows stops booting.
Click to expand...
Well I haven't been able to boot up from the cloned drive (SSD) at all. How do I get around this?
 
Misgar said:
Failure to disconnect the old drive often results in the Windows boot partition for the new cloned disk ending up on the wrong drive.
Click to expand...
No.
You're mixing several different issues.

Bootloaders exist on both - clone source and target drives (if cloned properly).
Disconnection of old drive is necessary for proper drive letter assignment, when first booting from newly cloned drive.
If old drive is not disconnected, then
drive letter C: is assigned on old drive,​
new drive can't get it and gets another (wrong) drive letter assigned and​
you won't be able to load windows properly.​
Drive cloning has to be repeated after this.
 
Last edited:
SkyNetRising said:
No.
You're mixing several different issues.

Bootloaders exist on both - clone source and target drives (if cloned properly).
Disconnection of old drive is necessary for proper drive letter assignment, when first booting from newly cloned drive.
If old drive is not disconnected, then
drive letter C: is assigned on old drive,​
new drive can't get it and gets another drive letter assigned and​
you won't be able to load windows properly.​
Drive cloning has to be repeated after this.
Click to expand...
That makes sense, and is probably why I wasn’t able to boot from the SSD. However, my problem is now that I cannot boot from the HDD that I have plugged back in.
 
At this point, salvaging a Windows install makes little sense. Make sure the HDD is completely out of the PC, install the SSD, and install Windows from install media on a small USB flash drive, doing a full wipe and install. Also make sure in BIOS that the flash drive is at the top in the boot order.
 
DSzymborski said:
At this point, salvaging a Windows install makes little sense. Make sure the HDD is completely out of the PC, install the SSD, and install Windows from install media on a small USB flash drive, doing a full wipe and install. Also make sure in BIOS that the flash drive is at the top in the boot order.
Click to expand...
I would like to salvage what I can as I have years of work files and programs littered about. I will attempt to use a flash drive here in a bit.
 
DSzymborski said:
They're still on your HDD, right? It's kinda shocking that you started this without backups.
Click to expand...
Mistakes were made. At worst, I was just expecting the SSD to not boot and then I could switch back to the HDD by plugging it back in. I have all of my files on my HDD and there are recovery partitions as well.
 
overbearingguilt said:
Mistakes were made. At worst, I was just expecting the SSD to not boot and then I could switch back to the HDD by plugging it back in. I have all of my files on my HDD and there are recovery partitions as well.
Click to expand...
But what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? If the files are on your HDD, you don't have to have a working install of Windows *on* the HDD to access them. Install Windows properly on the SSD, then when Windows is up and working properly, install the HDD and unless you've physically damaged the drive, all your files ought to still be there.
 
DSzymborski said:
But what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? If the files are on your HDD, you don't have to have a working install of Windows *on* the HDD to access them. Install Windows properly on the SSD, then when Windows is up and working properly, install the HDD and unless you've physically damaged the drive, all your files ought to still be there.
Click to expand...
Is cloning a drive not a proper way to install Windows onto an SSD? Would a fresh install with a USB flash drive work better?
 
overbearingguilt said:
Is cloning a drive not a proper way to install Windows onto an SSD? Would a fresh install with a USB flash drive work better?
Click to expand...

Cloning a drive is simply a time saver, not the default method. A normal install is going to be the cleanest option, especially as you cannot boot into the HDD now to try to make the clone again. In most cases, a clean install is going to run a lot better and have a lot less crap than a Windows install that has been running for a while, especially one from a prebuilt. Now, you'll have to install programs, but your data should be just fine on the HDD. Continually tinkering with the HDD in order to try and revive the Windows install is going to make it *more* likely you lose data on the HDD.
 
DSzymborski said:
Cloning a drive is simply a time saver, not the default method. A normal install is going to be the cleanest option, especially as you cannot boot into the HDD now to try to make the clone again. In most cases, a clean install is going to run a lot better and have a lot less crap than a Windows install that has been running for a while, especially one from a prebuilt. Now, you'll have to install programs, but your data should be just fine on the HDD. Continually tinkering with the HDD in order to try and revive the Windows install is going to make it *more* likely you lose data on the HDD.
Click to expand...
I see. Thank you. I’m asking just to make sure, but a custom install like Ghostspectre would work, right?
 
DSzymborski said:
Unfortunately, I cannot comment on that. Windows OS is not open-source software, so a modded distribution like this is something we just aren't allowed to assist on, per site policy.
Click to expand...
Apologies, my mistake. Fortunately, it looks like the manufacturer provided diagnosis program did its thing and is fixing the C: drive at the moment. As soon as that's done, I'll attempt to boot from a USB flash drive. However, the last time I attempted that it wasn’t getting recognized in the BIOS.
 
I am able to boot from my HDD just as I was before! Now that I can access a PC again, I'll take a while to get my bearings and hopefully do a fresh install of windows on my SSD.

To be clear: It's best practice to disconnect the HDD when trying to set up the SSD to be bootable, right?

Thank you all for your input and help along the way. :)
 
overbearingguilt said:
Is cloning a drive not a proper way to install Windows onto an SSD? Would a fresh install with a USB flash drive work better?
Click to expand...
Cloning can be a way of switching drives. Say from HDD to SSD.

But it must be done properly.

Miss a step or two, and things can go wrong.
And once it starts to go wrong, trying to "fix" the clone often makes things worse.
 
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