[SOLVED] Windows partition on wrong drive?

[RacAtat007]

I recently purchased a Gen 4 M.2 SSD and did a fresh install of Windows 10 on it. After going through and changing the boot order in the BIOS it wouldn't boot from the M.2 alone. I would get the Windows repair screen. It seems like the recovery and EFI partitions ended up on a different drive and that drive had to be first in the boot order to work. I also get 2 options to boot into Windows, one on partition 2 and one on partition 10. My M.2 is the C: drive and has Windows installed but not the boot drive? Is this normal? I wanted to reformat the other SSD for storage but it seems like Windows won't start if I do that. Any ideas what I messed up to get to this point?

 

[USAFRet]

Please show us a screencap of your DIsk Management window.

 

[RacAtat007]

Please show us a screencap of your DIsk Management window.

https://imgur.com/a/DVOuNkP

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

 

[USAFRet]

What happened was that you had multiple drievs connected, when you installed the OS on the new M.2 drive.
There, the boot partition ends up on some other drive.
In this case, it would appear to be the 1TB Drive 2.

How long ago did you do this OS install?
Are you averse to redoing it?

 

[Grobe]

My guess is you installed W10 on your Gen 4 M.2 SSD - without disabling all other storage devices.

So in order to fix his drive letter "issue", you should re-install W10, but need to disable all other storage devices except the Gen 4 M.2 SSD. Then after W10 are installed, then you enable the other devices.

 

[RacAtat007]

What happened was that you had multiple drievs connected, when you installed the OS on the new M.2 drive.
There, the boot partition ends up on some other drive.
In this case, it would appear to be the 1TB Drive 2.

How long ago did you do this OS install?
Are you averse to redoing it?

You are correct I didn't disable all the other drives, I wasn't aware I should do that.
I just rebuilt my PC last weekend so I'm not totally against installing Windows again.....but I spent the past week getting Windows just how I like it and redownloading my steam library. If it's what needs to be done I'll do it but my ISP is going to hate me lol

 

[USAFRet]

You are correct I didn't disable all the other drives, I wasn't aware I should do that.
I just rebuilt my PC last weekend so I'm not totally against installing Windows again.....but I spent the past week getting Windows just how I like it and redownloading my steam library. If it's what needs to be done I'll do it but my ISP is going to hate me lol

Read this all the way through.
Then read it again, concentrating on the first part...

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

 

[RacAtat007]

What happened was that you had multiple drievs connected, when you installed the OS on the new M.2 drive.
There, the boot partition ends up on some other drive.
In this case, it would appear to be the 1TB Drive 2.

How long ago did you do this OS install?
Are you averse to redoing it?

Boot partition is on drive 2? What about the recovery partition and EFI on drive 0? Once I go through this process will I be able to remove those partitions on disk 2 and 0?

 

[USAFRet]

Boot partition is on drive 2? What about the recovery partition and EFI on drive 0? Once I go through this process will I be able to remove those partitions on disk 2 and 0?

So physically disconnect Disk 0, and see if it boots up.

 

[RacAtat007]

So physically disconnect Disk 0, and see if it boots up.

It goes to a repair screen. After the install on the m.2 I had only that drive selected in the boot order in my bios and it wouldn't load. After putting "drive 0" as the first in the boot menu it works.

 

[USAFRet]

It goes to a repair screen. After the install on the m.2 I had only that drive selected in the boot order in my bios and it wouldn't load. After putting "drive 0" as the first in the boot menu it works.

OK then....the boot partition is on Disk 0
The "fix" still stands.
Physically disconnect all other drives.
Reinstall on the M.2 Gen 4.

 

[RacAtat007]

OK then....the boot partition is on Disk 0
The "fix" still stands.
Physically disconnect all other drives.
Reinstall on the M.2 Gen 4.

Will do. Last question. Can the other partitions be removed after I reinstall?

 

[USAFRet]

Will do. Last question. Can the other partitions be removed after I reinstall?

As long as the system boots from ONLY the desired drive, you can delete whatever partitions you like from the other drives.

 

[RacAtat007]

Thank you very much for your time.

As long as the system boots from ONLY the desired drive, you can delete whatever partitions you like from the other drives.

Thank you for your time

 

[TerryLaze]

Will do. Last question. Can the other partitions be removed after I reinstall?

You don't need to reinstall, get the free version of easybcd on the BCD deployment tab you can write a bootblock (write mbr) and install a "boot menu" (BCD) doing these two things to the M2 should make the the M2 boot into windows.

You can do these commands from the recovery command prompt from your windows install media but easybcd is just easier.