Replacing hdd with ssd and keeping the hdd

ElPelado

New Member
Hi everyone
So i have several hdd on my pc. One of them has 2 partitions, C: with win10 and another partition with software and stuff.
I got an ssd
I used macroum to clone the C: to the ssd.

What should i do kmow so that the ssd is "transformed" to C: and becomes my primary drive?
As i said, in the end i still need the old hhd to remain in the pc for general storage
Thanks
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
Boot to old HDD,
Go to Disk Management and CHange the value of the SSD drive letter to C.

Shutdown.

Disconnect the power on the old HDD
Boot Windows installation USB.
Choose Repair > command prompt >

type

bootrec /rebuildbcd.

Restart and boot into new HDD.
 

ElPelado

New Member
Boot to old HDD,
Go to Disk Management and CHange the value of the SSD drive letter to C.

Shutdown.

Disconnect the power on the old HDD
Boot Windows installation USB.
Choose Repair > command prompt >

type

bootrec /rebuildbcd.

Restart and boot into new HDD.
Hi
Thanks
I tryed this but:
1. Windows didnt let me change the new ssd to c: while windows was runing
2. When i turned off the pc, disconnected all hdds and left only the ssd, did the bootrec command, chose the ssd, the i get error: the requested system device cannot be found, and nothing else happens....

What did i do wrong?
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
The OS boot hard drive will always be C drive. Not sure why you are having issues.
 

Codeguru

Member
Alternatively, you could just reinstall windows with a flash drive after you take out the old one out and leave only the SSD attached. I was stuck with my new M.2 NVMe drive blocking access to whatever SATA port my main drive was on last night. So I just made an install thumb drive, used ProduKey to steal my own windows keycode from the old drive after hooking it up as a USB drive with a laptop using one of those regular HDD to USB 3.0 cables, then reinstalled windows on the only drive that was left for it to recognize.

May be more of a hassle than you want to do, but my old drive is basically a giant 500GB flash drive now with all my old files if I care to get them. I'd suggest getting the local machine keycode before you disconnect anything. Or, then you you probably just put the old drive back in as a secondary drive since the new install doesn't know any better.
 

johnb35

Administrator
Staff member
Alternatively, you could just reinstall windows with a flash drive after you take out the old one out and leave only the SSD attached. I was stuck with my new M.2 NVMe drive blocking access to whatever SATA port my main drive was on last night. So I just made an install thumb drive, used ProduKey to steal my own windows keycode from the old drive after hooking it up as a USB drive with a laptop using one of those regular HDD to USB 3.0 cables, then reinstalled windows on the only drive that was left for it to recognize.

May be more of a hassle than you want to do, but my old drive is basically a giant 500GB flash drive now with all my old files if I care to get them. I'd suggest getting the local machine keycode before you disconnect anything. Or, then you you probably just put the old drive back in as a secondary drive since the new install doesn't know any better.
If the system already has windows 8 or above then the activation key is already stored on MS servers. Once the system is reinstalled and at the desktop and if it has internet access, it will auto activate in just a minute or so.
 

Codeguru

Member
Oh, well I guess I just like doing things the insanely contrived way that takes forever. I'll probably work it into a Rube Goldberg machine on my next attempt.
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
Hi
Thanks
I tryed this but:
1. Windows didnt let me change the new ssd to c: while windows was runing
2. When i turned off the pc, disconnected all hdds and left only the ssd, did the bootrec command, chose the ssd, the i get error: the requested system device cannot be found, and nothing else happens....

What did i do wrong?
You need to do what I said, but make sure the BIOS is set to boot to the windows disk.
 

ElPelado

New Member
So quick update: i think the problem was that the ssd was gpt and my bios is too old. So i converted it to mbr, then tryed again and now it works.
Thank you all for the help
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
What platform? Many UEFI builds contain a BIOS "CSM" compatibility module that also boots MBR volumes.

UEFI has been a thing for over a decade, even sandy bridge based setups could leverage EFI.
 

Okedokey

Well-Known Member
In this case, boot into a legacy install, but before installing, go to repair computer and use diskpart to convert to GPT before installing the OS.
 
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