Question Windows partitions accidentally installed on another drive ?

[Arnie48]

Hi everyone!

When I built my current PC a couple of years ago, I installed (still no idea how that happened), Windows 10 on the C drive and both the Recovery and EFI System partitions on my F drive. Both are M.2 drives and now I want to upgrade the F drive with a newer and higher capacity SSD, but Windows won't boot without those additional partitions.
Is it possible to move those 2 Windows partitions to the C drive without losing any data on C?

Thanks in advance!

 

[TerryLaze]

Because the port on the mobo the F drive is installed in is the one the bios sees as the first one in line so any boot files got installed there.

You don't have to transfer the partitions, you can just create new ones.
The easiest method would be to create a windows installation media, disconnect all other drives except for the windows drive, boot with the installation media and go into the repair options, try running the automatic repair several times.

If the auto doesn't work you will have to use manual commands to create an mbr and an bcdstore.

 

[Viking2121]

Not a ton you can do to move it back to the C drive if its fresh and nothing really installed just reinstall windows, Most people that aren't as tech savy, I usually tell them to only have the drive plugged in that they want windows on, modern computers is smart enough to know what drive the windows boot manager is on so hardly have to play with boot option after that.

Another way is to go threw the process of booting and installing windows, find the drive in the list you want windows on, say its Drive 0, delete every partiton that says Drive 0, Now to prep Drive 0 for install, highlight it by clicking on it, then click New, and Ok and it will create the partition necessary for windows on Drive 0 (You do not touch the format for the drive you want windows on, it'll just confuse it), Don't click on anything else, click Next and proceed to install windows, It will only install the boot and recovery on Drive 0 rather that spreading partitions to other drives if you do it that way. Your Drive you want windows on might not be Drive 0, might be Drive 3 for example.

Its suprising that not many even IT guys know about that, but easiet way to make it less confusing, just unplug all the drives other than the drive you want windows on, can unplug either just the power or just the data, whatever is easier to get to, Have to unscrew and pull the other m.2, USB drives it wont matter, windows will not touch USB drives.

Good Luck!

 

[Grobe]

Its suprising that not many even IT guys know about that, but easiet way to make it less confusing, just unplug all the drives other than the drive you want windows on . . .

Agree. This step should be done first, no matter what OS you're installing - well, unless you want to have full control over the partition scheme while installing (i.e. probably not relevant for windows os).

Additional storage devices can be added later.

 

[Arnie48]

Thank you all for the tips! I will give it a try. Worst case scenario, I will just reinstall Windows on C, leaving all other drives unplugged.