Computer will not find boot device without hard drive connected

[kingkvndrick]

I have a 250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD and a 10 year old 1TB Samsung 1TB 7200 RPM HDD in my system. When I want to boot my computer up with only the SSD alone, my BIOS says that I have to insert a proper boot device.

 

This is weird because I have my Windows 10 install on my SSD (as you might guess) and all my media saved on the 1TB drive, so why would my BIOS need that old drive to boot?

 

I have gone into the BIOS (ASrock Z97 Anniversary Vers. P1.90) and I tried to set it so that the 850 EVO is the first boot device yet this still hasn't solved the problem. I have tried moving the SSD to the SATA 0 port on my motherboard (I don't know if that makes any difference) and I took all my other drives off (1TB and DVD Drive) but it still wouldn't boot. Only when I had that 1TB drive connected would it boot into WIndows´10.

 

Also, the funny thing I noticed is that in my task manager, Windows says that Disk 0 is my media drive and that Disk 1 is my SSD. I am pretty sure that this should be the other way round.

 

Thanks so much for your help...

[rhyseyness]

Sounds like your OS is installed on your HDD not your SSD...

Although strange that your SSD is showing up as your C: drive as you'd expect...

Have you tried with only the HDD plugged in? No SSD.

[kingkvndrick]

1 minute ago, rhyseyness said:

Sounds like your OS is installed on your HDD not your SSD...

Although strange that your SSD is showing up as your C: drive as you'd expect...

Have you tried with only the HDD plugged in? No SSD.

No I haven't but I could try. I took this drive from an older system so there could be a possibility that there could be some old Windows files on there...

[rhyseyness]

Just now, kingkvndrick said:

No I haven't but I could try. I took this drive from an older system so there could be a possibility that there could be some old Windows files on there...

Give it a go and post the results here

It shouldn't boot, if windows is on your SSD.

[Naeaes]

Ghosts of the your past are back to haunt you. THis is why you should only plug in the drive you're installing onto. 

 

Way back when you installed the Windows, you had both these drives and maybe more drives plugged in and the HDD in question was plugged into the first sata port. A partition called Master Boot Record was created on that HDD and a piece of crucial info called Boot Sector was placed there. In a simple terms, the Boot Sector is a list of what OS is where and which to boot by default and so on. Now that you unplug the HDD, you lose the MBR and the boot sector on it. I'm sorry to say, other than reinstalling with only the SSD plugged in, I don't know of a sure-fire way of fixing this. After booting into your new OS, remember to go into the Disk Management and remove the MBR on the HDD.

 

To verify I'm right, you can go in the disk management and see that the HDD has a small, about 200MB partition in the very beginning called "system reserved" And the SSD does not have one. After reinstalling, they'll both have it and after removing the one on the HDD, you're left with the one on SSD and be able to boot from the SSD alone.

[Simon771]

Go to disk manager and check how those are set.

It could be, that system drive (that 500MB big one) is acctually on your HDD and not SSD.

It's just a wild guess.

[kingkvndrick]

21 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

Ghosts of the your past are back to haunt you. THis is why you should only plug in the drive you're installing onto. 

 

Way back when you installed the Windows, you had both these drives and maybe more drives plugged in and the HDD in question was plugged into the first sata port. A partition called Master Boot Record was created on that HDD and a piece of crucial info called Boot Sector was placed there. In a simple terms, the Boot Sector is a list of what OS is where and which to boot by default and so on. Now that you unplug the HDD, you lose the MBR and the boot sector on it. I'm sorry to say, other than reinstalling with only the SSD plugged in, I don't know of a sure-fire way of fixing this. After booting into your new OS, remember to go into the Disk Management and remove the MBR on the HDD.

 

To verify I'm right, you can go in the disk management and see that the HDD has a small, about 200MB partition in the very beginning called "system reserved" And the SSD does not have one. After reinstalling, they'll both have it and after removing the one on the HDD, you're left with the one on SSD and be able to boot from the SSD alone.

Hey there Naeaes,

 

This could be the likely cause as to why I can't boot into Windows. I checked Disk Management and there are no small partitions in my HDD (see picture). There are some small partitions in my SSD though, one of which is unallocated. If I wipe the SSD clean and then reinstall Windows, will the problem go away? If there is a way without reinstalling then that would be better.

 

Thanks a lot for the info!

[kingkvndrick]

1 hour ago, rhyseyness said:

Sounds like your OS is installed on your HDD not your SSD...

Although strange that your SSD is showing up as your C: drive as you'd expect...

Have you tried with only the HDD plugged in? No SSD.

I tried booting the system up with only the HDD and a BSOD came up with an error (0x000000e). It said that it couldn't find a file and therefore wouldn't boot. Turns out that there are some old files stuck on this drive. Any way to get rid of them? thanks.

[rhyseyness]

17 minutes ago, kingkvndrick said:

I tried booting the system up with only the HDD and a BSOD came up with an error (0x000000e). It said that it couldn't find a file and therefore wouldn't boot. Turns out that there are some old files stuck on this drive. Any way to get rid of them? thanks.

Format the drive?

Back anything you need up before you do it.