SSD and HDD problems

[Fyre]

So, I migrated all my files from my HDD to my new 500gb SSD, and now I boot from the SSD, and it's nice and fast and working. But, when I look in files, it does not recognize my older HDD. I went into Disk Management, and it says that that my HDD is offline, "The disk is offline because it has a signature collision with another disk that is online". At the moment, when I try to boot from my old drive, it gives me the "Select a proper boot drive". Help, how can I fix this and get the files on my old HDD back?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Do you have any other copies of the files or backups? Thats the easy way to fix it. Otherwise you can fix it in the registry, but that can be a pain. You can also try booting from a linux linux usb and copying the files when in there.

[homeap5]

If disk is offline, then make it online (RMB and choose proper option).

 

If it's really some conflict, then you can delete everything inside HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices - Windows rebuild it and you'll have no conflicts.

 

Made backup of this registry key before - just in case.

[Mira Yurizaki]

I'm guessing you cloned the HDD to the SSD. This is normal, because the cloning process in this case copied the data on the HDD to the SSD exactly, including a unique ID number Windows assigned to it.

 

You can access the HDD again by going to Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk Management, then right click on the HDD and select "Online". This will cause Windows to write a new unique ID number to the HDD. However, the cost is this may render booting on the other drive unstable since the Windows install on the HDD may be expecting those IDs. So if you're certain you don't care about booting from the HDD anymore, you can do this.

 

However if you don't care about the data on the HDD anymore anyway, I would suggest formatting it since it's much faster and cleaner than trying to clean the HDD of Windows and stuff if you want to start using it to store data.

[Fyre]

I don't really want to boot from the HDD, I just want to have it as bulk storage and backup drive. Would doing this make the files unstable or cause a problem?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, Apex_X said:

I don't really want to boot from the HDD, I just want to have it as bulk storage and backup drive. Would doing this make the files unstable or cause a problem?

 

You can store data by just formatting the drive and makeing a new file system. IS there any data you care about on the hdd? Do you have backups?

[Fyre]

My only current backup is my ssd, which is being used now

 

[Fyre]

I just set the hdd to online, I think its fine. I have 1 question though, if I take a shortcut from my HDD's desktop and put it onto mine, will it still call to the files on the hdd, so that I can uninstall those programs on the ssd to free up storage? Like ill put spotify's shortcut from the old drive and put it onto my desktop, will it use the files from the hard drive, so that I can uninstall spotify on the ssd?

[Electronics Wizardy]

8 minutes ago, Apex_X said:

I just set the hdd to online, I think its fine. I have 1 question though, if I take a shortcut from my HDD's desktop and put it onto mine, will it still call to the files on the hdd, so that I can uninstall those programs on the ssd to free up storage? Like ill put spotify's shortcut from the old drive and put it onto my desktop, will it use the files from the hard drive, so that I can uninstall spotify on the ssd?

Yes you can move programs to the hdd, but id wouldn't move programs to a ssd, as the programs will be much slower on the ssd. Id move other files first to the hdd.

[Fyre]

I know, I dont need for some programs to start up faster, and I want to maximize my space on my ssd, so it would use the files from the hard drive?

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Apex_X said:

I know, I dont need for some programs to start up faster, and I want to maximize my space on my ssd, so it would use the files from the hard drive?

 

Yes if you install programs on the hdd it will save space on the ssd.

[homeap5]

2 hours ago, Apex_X said:

I know, I dont need for some programs to start up faster, and I want to maximize my space on my ssd, so it would use the files from the hard drive?

 

Do you really paid for free space? No, you paid for ssd storage. Use it.

 

About drive conflict - I wrote about registry. It's not that cloning software clone drive identifier - that's not like it work. But it clone registry with identifiers that point your hdd as C drive. But your C is changed, so making hdd online changes that assignment and now everything is ok. You don't need to do anything else.

 

Keep your programs on ssd - that is what is made for. You may delete unwanted programs and folders from hdd if you want.