Strange problem removing two drives.

BriT · 8 Apr 2017 at 19:26

Got a new 2TB hard drive to replace one 320gb drive and one 500gb drive. When I remove the two drives and with only my SSD plugged in which Wins10 is installed when i boot up it comes up with "cannot find boot drive". Any ideas?

Maundie · 8 Apr 2017 at 20:22

Go into BIOS and make sure the SSD is recognised,if so make sure it shows within boot manager, you may have to make it primary boot device.

ED209 · 8 Apr 2017 at 21:10

As mentioned make sure the SSD is the first boot device.

when you installed windows 10 did you have any of the HDDs connected? windows has a habit of storing part of windows on a second HDD\SSD so when they are removed it then removes the MBR and fails to boot

BriT · 8 Apr 2017 at 21:13

Checked in BIOS and the SSD is number one as the boot drive. Both drives were installed yes, when I did the install.

ED209 · 8 Apr 2017 at 21:55

Disconnect one of the HDDs and try and boot, if it fails connect the other HDD and disconnect the other then try again.

if it boots when the HDD is connected its most likely got the MBR stored on the HDD rather than the SSD

bledd · 8 Apr 2017 at 22:40

When installing Windows, airways disconnect all other drives.

Maundie · 9 Apr 2017 at 11:22

bledd said:
When installing Windows, airways disconnect all other drives.

This when I install windows I remove everything else and then add them 1 by 1 to make sure there isn't any issues (goes back to my installing Windows 3.11 days) it may seem a bit anal but trust me when you've come across issues it really is the simplest solution.

BriT · 9 Apr 2017 at 12:42

Thanks guys. Will have a tinker tonight. How do i fix the problem if i find a drive that works when the ssd is connected?

ED209 · 9 Apr 2017 at 18:16

If you find out its on another drive and disconnecting it is causing the issue you can run windows repair with just the SSD connected and it should fix the issue

errata · 9 Apr 2017 at 22:36

a windows recovery disc can fix the not booting ssd

FloppyPoppy · 10 Apr 2017 at 00:28

bledd said:
When installing Windows, airways disconnect all other drives.

^ This is needed. Otherwise it can install certain dependencies on other drives and will be unbootable when they are removed.

bledd · 10 Apr 2017 at 07:11

One great tool for fixing this, install Macrium reflect on a pc. Get it to create the bootable CD/usb stick, then boot from that with just your ssd connected.

In that is has a tool for fixing Windows startup problems, it's better than the built in Microsoft one.

BriT · 21 Apr 2017 at 18:52

Finally got round to installing this using Macrium reflect so thanks for the help. Do wonder though why they sell it as 2TB yet only get 1.81TB of space.

pepp77 · 21 Apr 2017 at 18:57

BriT said:
Finally got round to installing this using Macrium reflect so thanks for the help. Do wonder though why they sell it as 2TB yet only get 1.81TB of space.

its all to do with base 2

liveid · 21 Apr 2017 at 21:11

base 2,competitive pressue to quote the bigger number and finally your format takes up space for the data structures