Why remove old hdd when installing a ssd?

jonneymendoza

jonneymendoza

jonneymendoza

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As title says, why? whats the major benifit? i just got my first ever ssd, a ocz ventex 2e 120gb and did not disconnect any of my 5 mechanical hdd's and windows installed well.

i also installed most of my other apps fine as well and so far so good. AHCI was enabled before i installed though so why do i keep hearing people suggest that you disconnect all other hdd's before installing the OS on a ssd?
 
The advice is not SSD specific, it applies to installing Windows in general. Windows will install the boot files on whichever drive is enumerated as disk0 by the BIOS, regardless of whether this is the one you selected windows to be installed on or not.

If you end up with the boot files on a different volume then you can't format that disk (Windows won't let you) or remove it from the PC (the system won't boot without it) unless you faff about moving the boot files to a different volume. If, on the other hand, you only have one disk connected when you install Windows then you can be 100% sure where all the files are.
 
It's suggested because 90% of people are stupid and have no clue about PC's and how operating systems install even though they think they're a computer wiz.

Removing all other devices ensures these retarded people have a successful install and reduces people posting about install errors.
 
rpstewart said:
The advice is not SSD specific, it applies to installing Windows in general. Windows will install the boot files on whichever drive is enumerated as disk0 by the BIOS, regardless of whether this is the one you selected windows to be installed on or not.

If you end up with the boot files on a different volume then you can't format that disk (Windows won't let you) or remove it from the PC (the system won't boot without it) unless you faff about moving the boot files to a different volume. If, on the other hand, you only have one disk connected when you install Windows then you can be 100% sure where all the files are.
Click to expand...
Indeed, it might place boot files on another disk if you leave others connected. You can put them back onto your SSD manually using EasyBCD though.
 
teh boot files are the ones that take up only liek 100mb? i notice how everytime i use to install an os on my mechanical drive it says how it needs to reserve space for addtional OS files?
 
yashiro said:
It's suggested because 90% of people are stupid and have no clue about PC's and how operating systems install even though they think they're a computer wiz.
Click to expand...

If you tell an OS to install itself on one partition, and it decides to put the boot files on a different partition, on a different hard disk, that's not user error. That's a bug, sorry, "feature" of our beloved microsoft windows.
 
Yes, as seems to be the case on all my PCs, if you have more than one or two hard disks, you might be spreading the drives across multiple controlers, and even when your BIOS shows you DISK 0 and then DISK 1 as the oens that you want in the right order, when you come to actually install Windows, you quite often see them showing up the wrong way round to what the BIOS sees them.

It can happen, that the drive you want C: to be on, is actually seem by the O/S as the second drive and so the Mobo tries to boot from the First drive, and You do indeed boot to the first drive but the OS installlation actually put it on that drive, but the boot files on the other one.

Its easily done and I have seen it many times and indeed I have done it myself I have to confess, but now, I take all other drives out just in case... Well,ok, I disconnect them. That way I only have one drive no matter what and EVERYHTING is on that one drive.

Its only a precaution nothing more.
 
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