Windows wont let me format old system SSD

[StarMoonCZ]

Hello,

so I just cloned my old SSD(2,5") to new samsung nvme but Windows wont let me format the old SSD even tho im running on the new drive and I have no idea what to do. Thanks for any help in advance.

[Needfuldoer]

Does your PC boot properly with the old SSD completely disconnected? It could still be using the bootloader on your old SSD for some reason.

[JogerJ]

You just cloned the SSD. I'm guessing Windows checked that the UUID of the old SSD against its current boot volume (on the NVME drive) and both has the same UUID so it spits out error. What program did you use to clone the SSD? If you use something like gparted live USB you should wipe the old drive once you verify the clone is successful. Anyhow you can wipe the old SSD by booting to another OS (like a linux live USB) to do the the wipe/reformat and then format again as NTFS once you're back in Windows if necessary. Best to not plug in the new NVME drive to avoid accidentally wiping the wrong drive.

[StarMoonCZ]

6 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

Does your PC boot properly with the old SSD completely disconnected? It could still be using the bootloader on your old SSD for some reason.

Yes it does loqad correctly. I even tried disconnecting the old SSD and booting without it. 

 

2 minutes ago, JogerJ said:

You just cloned the SSD. I'm guessing Windows checked that the UUID of the old SSD against its current boot volume and both has the same UUID so it spits out error. What program did you use to clone the SSD? If you use something like gparted live USB you should wipe the old drive once you verify the clone is successful. Anyhow you can wipe the old SSD by booting to another OS (like a linux live USB) to do the the wipe/reformat and then format again as NTFS once you're back in Windows if necessary. Best to not plug in the new NVME drive to avoid accidentally wiping the wrong drive.

I used Macrium effect. Is there any simple program to just wipe the drive? The process with USB seems too confusing for me.

[Needfuldoer]

4 minutes ago, StarMoonCZ said:

Yes it does loqad correctly. I even tried disconnecting the old SSD and booting without it. 

 

I used Macrium effect. Is there any simple program to just wipe the drive? The process with USB seems too confusing for me.

If the PC boots fine without it, get a USB adapter so you can plug that SSD in after the machine's up and running. Then you can wipe the drive with Diskpart. Just make sure you pick the right drive! Unlike GParted, there is no undo.

 

https://www.microcenter.com/tech_center/article/11058/how-to-use-diskpart-to-clean-and-format-a-drive-in-windows-10

[StarMoonCZ]

9 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

If the PC boots fine without it, get a USB adapter so you can plug that SSD in after the machine's up and running. Then you can wipe the drive with Diskpart. Just make sure you pick the right drive! Unlike GParted, there is no undo.

 

https://www.microcenter.com/tech_center/article/11058/how-to-use-diskpart-to-clean-and-format-a-drive-in-windows-10

That might be a little problem I only have SATA cable to connect it internally. I dont have any SATA to USB.

[JogerJ]

Ok see if this solves your issue
 

1. Open a command prompt as administrator (Windows+X, click the option)

2. Run diskpart

3. Enter "list disk" and then select the disk you want to reformat with "select disk [number]" (careful to not select the wrong disk)

4. Copy a UUID here: https://www.uuidgenerator.net/version4 and then run "uniqueid disk id=[UUID]" without brackets "uniqueid disk id=1290ABDE"

5. Then attempt reformat as usual

 

If it doesn't work you'll have to run it from a recovery mode. Run "shutdown /r /o /t 0" then F10, select Command Prompt.

For a safer approach you can do the same from a Windows Installer USB, since you don't boot from the drive and you don't need the new drive plugged in.

1. Booting from Windows USB installer, select repair your computer

2. Select command prompt

3. Run diskpart

4. "list disk" and "select disk [number]"

5. "list partition" and "select partition [number]"

6. "delete partition"

7. Repeat 5-6 until all partitions are deleted.

 

Honestly the live USB route would be faster than downloading the windows installer and do the job just fine, also has a GUI to go through.

On 5/24/2022 at 8:10 PM, Needfuldoer said:

If the PC boots fine without it, get a USB adapter so you can plug that SSD in after the machine's up and running.

Not necessary and would be the same effect as plugging in normally with SATA cables. Unless you're planning to plug it to a different machine

[TPA50]

29 minutes ago, StarMoonCZ said:

-snip-

I used Macrium effect. Is there any simple program to just wipe the drive? The process with USB seems too confusing for me.

Macrium Reflect has an option for creating rescue media for CD/DVD and USB, which is a lot simpler than gparted live usb. You can read more about it here:

https://blog.macrium.com/the-macrium-rescue-environment-cca57a4ebc61

[Needfuldoer]

2 hours ago, JogerJ said:

Not necessary and would be the same effect as plugging in normally with SATA cables. Unless you're planning to plug it to a different machine

True, I just went for the low-effort, scorched-earth way to be certain Windows isn't latching onto the old drive during the boot process for any stupid reason. (Besides, USB to SATA adapters are always handy to have around.)

[StarMoonCZ]

20 hours ago, JogerJ said:

Ok see if this solves your issue
 

1. Open a command prompt as administrator (Windows+X, click the option)

2. Run diskpart

3. Enter "list disk" and then select the disk you want to reformat with "select disk [number]" (careful to not select the wrong disk)

4. Copy a UUID here: https://www.uuidgenerator.net/version4 and then run "uniqueid disk id=[UUID]" without brackets

5. Then attempt reformat as usual

 

If it doesn't work you'll have to run it from a recovery mode. Run "shutdown /r /o /t 0" then F10, select Command Prompt.

For a safer approach you can do the same from a Windows Installer USB, since you don't boot from the drive and you don't need the new drive plugged in.

1. Booting from Windows USB installer, select repair your computer

2. Select command prompt

3. Run diskpart

4. "list disk" and "select disk [number]"

5. "list partition" and "select partition [number]"

6. "delete partition"

7. Repeat 5-6 until all partitions are deleted.

 

Honestly the live USB route would be faster than downloading the windows installer and do the job just fine, also has a GUI to go through.

Not necessary and would be the same effect as plugging in normally with SATA cables. Unless you're planning to plug it to a different machine

Hey, I just tried the manual you send and it just gives me this error.

[StarMoonCZ]

Can I just mark everything on the disk in File Explorer and delete them?

[JogerJ]

Whoops wrong format, try as suggested in this https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disk-signature-collision-problem

10 hours ago, StarMoonCZ said:

Can I just mark everything on the disk in File Explorer and delete them?

No, the issue is with the partition (metadata) itself, not the data inside it. I guarantee it will come back and haunt you in the future in case you need to properly reformat the drive but you've written stuff on it so you need to backup the whole drive to another drive before you can do it and it becomes more complicated than it needs be. It is best to deal with it now, like properly.

Tbh I've never done this using proprietary tools or windows tools, so I'm just trying to guide you through documentations of the tools you have in hand. I can really only recommend the windows recovery route or the live USB route. The main idea is you need to boot off some other media and delete the partition without mounting it.

 

Just need a spare USB drive, Rufus and Gparted

[StarMoonCZ]

15 hours ago, JogerJ said:

Whoops wrong format, try as suggested in this https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disk-signature-collision-problem

No, the issue is with the partition (metadata) itself, not the data inside it. I guarantee it will come back and haunt you in the future in case you need to properly reformat the drive but you've written stuff on it so you need to backup the whole drive to another drive before you can do it and it becomes more complicated than it needs be. It is best to deal with it now, like properly.

Tbh I've never done this using proprietary tools or windows tools, so I'm just trying to guide you through documentations of the tools you have in hand. I can really only recommend the windows recovery route or the live USB route. The main idea is you need to boot off some other media and delete the partition without mounting it.

 

Just need a spare USB drive, Rufus and Gparted

Hey, this is kind of akward but I just realised that when system boots on another drive it auto changes it co "C:". The whole time I was trying to delete the new NVME drive. I just formated the old drive normally using the "Format" option in windows but for some reason one of its partision named "Reserved by system D:" is separated and I have no idea how to put it together into one + its separated into 3 partisions unlike my harddrive. Im not sure if this is because of it being system drive before or its just how SSDs are.

[StarMoonCZ]

7 minutes ago, StarMoonCZ said:

Hey, this is kind of akward but I just realised that when system boots on another drive it auto changes it co "C:". The whole time I was trying to delete the new NVME drive. I just formated the old drive normally using the "Format" option in windows but for some reason one of its partision named "Reserved by system D:" is separated and I have no idea how to put it together into one + its separated into 3 partisions unlike my harddrive. Im not sure if this is because of it being system drive before or its just how SSDs are.

I managed to remove the "D:" partition from being visible but I still dont know if I should merge/wipe the partitions from the old SSD.

[JogerJ]

As I've explained, since you cloned the drive, all the partitions share the same Universally Unique Identifier (UUID). So much for being unique... Windows assumes the first drive it sees with the matching UUID it is told to look for is the correct drive. That is why we're trying to go out of our way to boot off a different media like a live USB so we don't have to deal with Windows making this mistake. We could theoretically change this UUID but I have no idea why this isn't working with diskpart. I usually use dd or tune2fs but I doubt those work for NTFS.