SSD Not Booting?

[Supahh]

Hello everybody! I recently built a new PC with a 2TB Barracuda for storage and a 250GB Samsung 860 EVO for boot.

When I was setting up the pc, I made an error (I think), and I installed Windows on the 2TB Hard Drive.

 

Will this affect the boot speed? I checked my boot priority and the first one was my hard drive, then my ssd but if I change it to my ssd first in boot priority, when I try to run windows, it takes me to the black starting page which says "Press del to run setup"

 

I would like to get help on this as I'm pretty sure that my $100 SSD is not being utilized. 

[IdiotPenguin]

Just use your usb or whatever and reinstall windows on to the ssd (I believe there’s an option to format your hard drive when you’re in there so do that but if not then just format your hard drive once you get into windows on your ssd)

[tp95112]

Just reinstall windows to the SSD

[Supahh]

8 minutes ago, IdiotPenguin said:

Just use your usb or whatever and reinstall windows on to the ssd (I believe there’s an option to format your hard drive when you’re in there so do that but if not then just format your hard drive once you get into windows on your ssd)

When I set my ssd to my first boot priority and lets say I install it on the ssd, will I also need to redownload all of my games, files etc? That'd be a pain.

 

[IdiotPenguin]

9 minutes ago, randomname123 said:

When I set my ssd to my first boot priority and lets say I install it on the ssd, will I also need to redownload all of my games, files etc? That'd be a pain.

 

If you have another drive you could install windows on your ssd without formatting your hard drive and then just get any important files and put it on your extra drive (assuming you have one) then formatting your new hard drive then transferring it back. If you don’t have another drive laying around I don’t really know what to say because I haven’t really needed to do anything like what you’re attempting to do now so there might be a really simple solution I don’t know of. Anyways just look for a way to back up your data so you can format your hard drive without having to redownload much of anything

[Supahh]

1 minute ago, IdiotPenguin said:

If you have another drive you could install windows on your ssd without formatting your hard drive and then just get any important files and put it on your extra drive (assuming you have one) then formatting your new hard drive then transferring it back. If you don’t have another drive laying around I don’t really know what to say because I haven’t really needed to do anything like what you’re attempting to do now so there might be a really simple solution I don’t know of. Anyways just look for a way to back up your data. 

To be honest, would it work if I could just install windows on the ssd, format my hard drive then back up my files on a usb and then get my files on the hard drive via usb again?

[IdiotPenguin]

1 minute ago, randomname123 said:

To be honest, would it work if I could just install windows on the ssd, format my hard drive then back up my files on a usb and then get my files on the hard drive via usb again?

If you have a usb big enough to store all your important data sure. Btw formatting will delete everything off your hard drive if you don’t know that yet so backing up before formatting is the way to go.

 

Just put whatever you need on a usb and then put whatever you pulled out on your hard drive once everything’s sorted out

[Supahh]

2 minutes ago, IdiotPenguin said:

If you have a usb big enough to store all your important data sure. Btw formatting will delete everything off your hard drive if you don’t know that yet so backing up before formatting is the way to go.

 

Just put whatever you need on a usb and then put whatever you pulled out on your hard drive once everything’s sorted out

Will I also need to get another product key for windows or anything? Or will it be the same version of my windows and I won't need to buy anything again.

[IdiotPenguin]

Just now, randomname123 said:

Will I also need to get another product key for windows or anything? Or will it be the same version of my windows and I won't need to buy anything again.

If you bought a full version of windows and linked it to your Microsoft account it will be activated on whatever drive or machine you put it on once you sign into said account

[Alex Atkin UK]

One option to eliminate mistakes is to disconnect the HDD while installing Windows, that way you can be sure you are installing in the right place.

 

Once installed reconnect the HDD.

If you don't have enough space to backup everything off the HDD that you want to save (or move it to the SSD), you can always then shrink down the HDD partition, create a second partition, move everything you want to keep onto that one, delete the original partition and expand that second partition back to full size.  Its fiddly, but can be a god send if you don't have enough space to backup your games and don't fancy redownloading them all.  I am of course assuming you haven't used more than half your HDD capacity so far.

 

There is a tiny risk of something going wrong and losing the HDD contents but if you don't have the space to back it all up in the first place, its not like you are in a worse situation than you would be anyway and its VERY unlikely it will go wrong anyway.

[Supahh]

1 minute ago, IdiotPenguin said:

If you bought a full version of windows and linked it to your Microsoft account it will be activated on whatever drive or machine you put it on once you sign into said account

I'm not really too sure, I bought it here https://www.kinguin.net/category/22175/windows-10-home-oem-key/?nosalesbooster=1&country_store=1&currency=AUD&r=26068&id=22175&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqPDaBRC6ARIsACAf4hBmnMjTxzsY3LVsiAbdWO24_6vA3-BgSSF8PCBqOSP1M6EqBGyNfB0aAieNEALw_wcB

[IdiotPenguin]

7 minutes ago, randomname123 said:

I'm not really too sure, I bought it here https://www.kinguin.net/category/22175/windows-10-home-oem-key/?nosalesbooster=1&country_store=1&currency=AUD&r=26068&id=22175&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqPDaBRC6ARIsACAf4hBmnMjTxzsY3LVsiAbdWO24_6vA3-BgSSF8PCBqOSP1M6EqBGyNfB0aAieNEALw_wcB

I think that’s the version that’s not transferable but I might be wrong so

[Alex Atkin UK]

Its not being transferred though, a transfer only usually kicks in when changing the motherboard, not just swapping the HDD/SSD.

[IdiotPenguin]

4 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

Its not being transferred though, a transfer only usually kicks in when changing the motherboard, not just swapping the HDD/SSD.

Oh wait you’re right

[Dryden]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/clean-install-of-windows-10-os-on-new-ssd-best/9186ae98-b2b4-4b7a-b3ff-0b053ce2d1c9

 

Windows 10 Installation Media to download the Media Creation Tool (Click on Download Tool Now)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

 

Once you have the bootable installation media created:

1. Shut down your system. remove the old HDD and install the SSD (there should be only the SSD attached to your system during the installation process)
2. Insert the Bootable Installation Media
3. Go into your BIOS and if SATA Mode is not set to AHCI, change it
4. Change the boot order so the Installation Media is top of the boot order
5. Save changes to BIOS and Reboot your system
6. The Installation should start
7. During the installation process skip the steps which ask for a product key and select the option 'I am Reinstalling Windows 10 on this PC', and activation will not be an issue, your PC will have a digital entitlement stored on the Microsoft Servers
8. During the installation process, your system will reboot, at that point, you may need to go into your BIOS and change the boot order so your system boots from your Hard Drive, otherwise the installation may start all over again - do not remove the installation media at this point
9. When Window 10 has finished installing and the desktop appears, shut your system down
10. If you have a second HDD bay install the old HDD into it and start your system
11. Make sure you can see both drives in Windows File Explorer, if not you may need to restart a couple of times for Windows to recognise both drives
12. Install any required drivers (can be obtained from the support page on the Website of the manufacturer of your system
13. When your system is up and running,

• copy your data (files, images, music . . . etc.) from the old HDD into a temporary folder in the SSD
• format the old HDD and name it Data Drive
• copy the files back onto the old HDD
• Delete the temporary folder from the SSD

Reinstalling games can be time-consuming, especially if you had many games installed, but it shouldn't be a big deal.  

If your SSD isn't large enough for all personal files, then you can try uploading the remainder to an online storage website and/or USB drives.  

If those options aren't feasible because you have too many personal files to move, then maybe buy a portable external hard drive.

good luck  

 

[Supahh]

3 hours ago, omegadoom said:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install-winpc/clean-install-of-windows-10-os-on-new-ssd-best/9186ae98-b2b4-4b7a-b3ff-0b053ce2d1c9

 

Windows 10 Installation Media to download the Media Creation Tool (Click on Download Tool Now)

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

 

Once you have the bootable installation media created:

1. Shut down your system. remove the old HDD and install the SSD (there should be only the SSD attached to your system during the installation process)
2. Insert the Bootable Installation Media
3. Go into your BIOS and if SATA Mode is not set to AHCI, change it
4. Change the boot order so the Installation Media is top of the boot order
5. Save changes to BIOS and Reboot your system
6. The Installation should start
7. During the installation process skip the steps which ask for a product key and select the option 'I am Reinstalling Windows 10 on this PC', and activation will not be an issue, your PC will have a digital entitlement stored on the Microsoft Servers
8. During the installation process, your system will reboot, at that point, you may need to go into your BIOS and change the boot order so your system boots from your Hard Drive, otherwise the installation may start all over again - do not remove the installation media at this point
9. When Window 10 has finished installing and the desktop appears, shut your system down
10. If you have a second HDD bay install the old HDD into it and start your system
11. Make sure you can see both drives in Windows File Explorer, if not you may need to restart a couple of times for Windows to recognise both drives
12. Install any required drivers (can be obtained from the support page on the Website of the manufacturer of your system
13. When your system is up and running,

• copy your data (files, images, music . . . etc.) from the old HDD into a temporary folder in the SSD
• format the old HDD and name it Data Drive
• copy the files back onto the old HDD
• Delete the temporary folder from the SSD

Reinstalling games can be time-consuming, especially if you had many games installed, but it shouldn't be a big deal.  

If your SSD isn't large enough for all personal files, then you can try uploading the remainder to an online storage website and/or USB drives.  

If those options aren't feasible because you have too many personal files to move, then maybe buy a portable external hard drive.

good luck  

 

Thanks for that but it's a tad confusing, is there maybe a video out there on it you could reference me to?