[SOLVED] (Win 10) Boot partition seems to be on HDD not SSD - unsure how this could happen and what to do now

[lee1127]

Hi everyone,

A year ago I bought a 500GB Samsung evo SSD for my OS and main games. I managed to install Windows 10 onto this SSD and boot from it in BIOS by changing some settings, and then I reconnected my Hitachi 1TB HDD. However, now that I am also upgrading my HDD to a newer HDD I have realised something. It seems that my 100 MB system reserved partition (active, primary partition) is actually on the old HDD (drive F: ). Yet when I open explorer the Windows icon is clearly on the SSD (drive C: ), and the Windows folder is also in C: drive. (See image).

https://imgur.com/a/vnxcQxo

View: https://imgur.com/a/vnxcQxo


I am confused how this happened and what I should do now. Is windows booting from my HDD somehow? Should I just try unplugging the old HDD and seeing what happens, or do I risk messing things up again?

Thanks in advance!

Setup:
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 Motherboard.
CPU: AMD Phenom II Black Edition X4 980 Processor 3.70 GHz (With Noctua NH D-14 fan/heatsink).
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 6GB Graphics Card.
Memory: 8 GB of RAM (4x2 GB Modules - Corsair XMS3 DDR3 TW3X4G1333C9A 1333 MHz).
Operating system: Windows 10 Professional, OEM, 64-bit.
Storage: 500 GB Solid state drive Samsung 860 EVO.
Storage: 1 TB Hard disk drive (Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 SCSI Disk Device).
Storage: 1 TB Hard disk drive (Western Digital WD10EZEX).
PSU: Corsair Enthusiast TX750 V2 Power Supply (750W).
Disc reader: LG GH24NS90.AUAA50B 24x SATA Bare Internal DVD Rewriter.

 

[jimmysmitty]

After looking and re-reading your post I assume your old 1TB HDD was your original OS boot drive?

If so then it makes sense it would have a 100MB partition.

 

[lee1127]

After looking and re-reading your post I assume your old 1TB HDD was your original OS boot drive?

If so then it makes sense it would have a 100MB partition.

Yep, it was for when I had Windows 7 a year ago, before the SSD. However with Windows 10 now, what's confusing me is that disk management is marking only the 100MB partition on the old HDD as "active" partition.

So I'm wondering if I should go ahead and unplug the power from that HDD and see if I can boot.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Considering your SSD does show a EFI partition I think you would be safe to disconnect the old HDD and it should still boot. Not sure why the old one is showing as active as if you installed Windows without it plugged in it should be the partition on the SSD, not the old HDD.

 

[USAFRet]

So I'm wondering if I should go ahead and unplug the power from that HDD and see if I can boot.

Yes. Before deleting anything, test.

Power OFF
Disconnect all drievs except the 500GB Disk 0.
Power UP

Does it boot correctly? Probably yes.

 

[lee1127]

Yup, it booted! Not sure why disk management saw only that partition as "active" even though that was clearly an old boot partition from a completely different version of Windows...
Anyways, problem solved, thanks guys!