Using SSD drive as boot drive.

[rrbond07]

I currently have Windows 8.1 with an HDD. I installed an SSD drive with the intention of using it as a boot drive. BIOS sees the new SSD drive, but when I go to Windows Explorer the new SSD drive was not assigned a letter ID. What am I missing?

 

[PsyKhiqZero]

Whenever you install a new drive into a machine with a running copy of windows on it the drive must first be initialized.
1. Right click the start icon and to go to disk management
2. Find the drive in the graph below it should be maked unallocated, right click and format.

If your going to use it as boot you'll have to reinstall windows either with the CD or through a backup.

 

[jitpublisher]

You have to format, partition, and assign a drive letter under disk administration before the drive will show in explorer. However, if you are going to use this drive to install, or image your current drive to, you don't need to mess with it. The imagining software, or the installation software if you are doing an fresh install will take care of it. Read the instructions.

 

[geofelt]

You need to make the ssd known to windows.
In control panel/administrative tools/computer management/storage/disk manager
you should see your ssd. There will be some options to format and make it a bootable device.

If your ssd will hold the contents of your hard drive, you can probably clone your hard drive to the ssd and save yourself some work. Samsung and Intel have free clone utilities for their products; others might too.
Or, acronis true image has a clone utility.
There are some free utilities that may or may not work. It can't6 hurt to try.

 

[rrbond07]

Whenever you install a new drive into a machine with a running copy of windows on it the drive must first be initialized.
1. Right click the start icon and to go to disk management
2. Find the drive in the graph below it should be maked unallocated, right click and format.

If your going to use it as boot you'll have to reinstall windows either with the CD or through a backup.

 

[rrbond07]

Thanks for the information. I will be loading Windows 7 Professional replacing Windows 8.1. on the new SSD. It has been a long time since I built a p.c. and the technology has changed dramatically. I don't have any of my own software on the p.c. yet as it is a new system.