Migrating Drives Gone Wrong

[Spartan927]

I'm upgrading from a single HDD to an SSD as my main drive and the old HDD will be backup storage. I installed windows 7 on the SSD and tried formatting the HDD to clean it out, but it won't work. I get errors saying that the disk is still in use and it cancels the process. I've tried diskpart, disk management, moving the page file to the SSD, reinstalling windows on both drives, and booting without the HDD plugged in but then I get an error saying the system can't find hardware.

 

The SSD is already my main boot drive but it absolutely refuses to let me reformat the HDD. Please, someone help me.

[Enderman]

1) unplug the HDD

2) install windows on the SSD

3) plug the HDD back in and format it

 

 

your mistake was leaving both drives in while installing windows

now you cant boot without the HDD being plugged in

the only fix is a clean install, and this time with ONLY the SSD plugged in

[Spartan927]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

1) unplug the HDD

2) install windows on the SSD

3) plug the HDD back in and format it

 

 

your mistake was leaving both drives in while installing windows

now you cant boot without the HDD being plugged in

the only fix is a clean install, and this time with ONLY the SSD plugged in

I tried this. I unplugged the HDD, turned on the computer, loaded the disk, and the system started loading windows installer and crashed with an error message stating that the computer couldn't find the hardware it needed. I can't do anything without the HDD plugged in.

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Spartan927 said:

I tried this. I unplugged the HDD, turned on the computer, loaded the disk, and the system started loading windows installer and crashed with an error message stating that the computer couldn't find the hardware it needed. I can't do anything without the HDD plugged in.

where did it crash

did you get to this screen

[Spartan927]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

where did it crash

did you get to this screen

No, I couldn't get that far. It crashed here:

[Enderman]

1 hour ago, Spartan927 said:

No, I couldn't get that far. It crashed here:

have you tried making the installation media again?

maybe use a different USB drive?

theres a chance it got corrupted or something

 

you are using the microsoft tool right https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

[Spartan927]

2 hours ago, Enderman said:

have you tried making the installation media again?

maybe use a different USB drive?

theres a chance it got corrupted or something

 

you are using the microsoft tool right https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10

I'm using a windows 7 installation disk.

[Enderman]

16 minutes ago, Spartan927 said:

I'm using a windows 7 installation disk.

oh
why not windows 10?

[Spartan927]

14 minutes ago, Enderman said:

oh
why not windows 10?

I've tried 10 on my laptop and I prefer 7. That said, I've tried upgrading to 10 for a completely new OS and it failed. (Go figure.) I'm running out of options here.

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Spartan927 said:

I've tried 10 on my laptop and I prefer 7. That said, I've tried upgrading to 10 for a completely new OS and it failed. (Go figure.) I'm running out of options here.

thats because the windows update process is broken

it needs to be clean installed to work correctly

[Spartan927]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

thats because the windows update process is broken

it needs to be clean installed to work correctly

I've tried reinstalling Windows on both my SSD and HDD and nothing changed. Is there some way to force the drive to completely wipe itself?

[Enderman]

2 minutes ago, Spartan927 said:

I've tried reinstalling Windows on both my SSD and HDD and nothing changed. Is there some way to force the drive to completely wipe itself?

you can format the drive in the process of installing windows, at this screen