Complex partition puzzle

[night owl]

Hi I have had a complex situation managing a few partitions. I hope someone can help me out. I'll try to make things as simple as possible. So to explain my situation I'll just name my ssds first.

 

So I have:

 

SSD #1 512gb (old win10 now wiped out)

 

SSD #2 2tb (my main win11 partition with 57 GB of free space)

 

SSD #3 4tb (destined to be used as data, now contains a tempory fresh install of win 11 with system reserved partitions, a clone of my main win 11 and lots of unallocated space)

 

So earlier this year my situation was I had windows 10 installed on the SSD 1 and I bought SSD 2 to install windows 11 on it. I kept both installation to let me explore windows 11 and make sure I wanted to do this transition. After a few months I decided I was ok with windows 11 and was ready to delete my windows 10. Meanwhile I have bought SSD 3 because I have a lot of sound librairies and needed more space for them. So my plan was to wipe SSD 1 and replace it with SSD 3. So I wiped SSD 1 and installed SSD 3 just fine.

 

But then my windows didn't boot. This is where I realized by going into disc manager that somehow windows 11 had installed windows on SSD 2 but the hidden partitions that contains system reserved files with mbr and uefi bootloader and bcd and all that had installed seperately on SSD 1 without me knowing and so now they're wiped out. I just can't fathom how that happened seriously. So I have this partition that I absolutely cannot lose but it won't boot. Just to be safe I cloned it on SSD 3 because there's lots of space on it. And I installed a temporary windows 11 on SSD 3 also just to be able to access stuff.

 

So in my search for a solution I found this common solution that ask me to use a bootable usb with windows 11 install and reach command prompt and enter a few commands to rebuild MBR and BCD. They simply failed for a few reasons. First I needed unallocated space for that. Now thanks to AOMEI partition assistant I have been able to shrink the partition of SSD 2 so I can create unallocated space. And thanks to these commands I have now access to my main partition. However there is still no system reserved partition on the ssd so it seems the mbr and boot have been once again installed on a seperate ssd most likely the ssd 3. I have tried simply cloning the new hidden partitions from my temporary install on ssd 3 to ssd 2. It simply seems to confuse my computer and makes booting a nightmare of crashes. I think it's confused whether they are linked to the original one or to the clone or to the main partition. Or maybe it's because they're at the end of the partition, I don't know if that makes a difference. It also seems like my system has slowed down. So now i erased them. So this is where I am.

 

If I unplug SSD 3, I cannot boot my system at all so there is no doubt every boots are on SSD 3. I will need to wipe out SSD 3 at some point and so I need a clean way to have my main partition on SSD 2 with the system reserved, MBR, BCD, UEFI boot all clean and working together.

 

Is there a way I can achieve this without just reinstalling windows, it will seriously take me a month at least and I really want to avoid this nightmare.

 

So i guess there's a few hidden questions in there.

 

- is it possible to glue a Frankenstein windows install from a clone to disconnected system reserved partitions or the reverse to glue hidden system partitions to an already installed windows?

 

Can I avoid wiping my main ssd and just find a way to rebuild what's missing on the same ssd?

 

If I must wipe my main how can I best use my clone as to not lose anything?