Windows 10: Allowing Computer to boot without secondary drive

All right, so I have an SSD and an HDD. Windows is installed to the SSD, but apparently Windows likes to create a boot partition on every drive that's connected when you install, which led to me not being able to boot without the secondary drive. This is usually not a problem (and, in fact, I didn't know until today), but now my secondary drive is giving out so I can only boot some of the time. How do I fix it so that my computer can boot without my secondary drive, letting me disconnect it until I get a replacement?

:)

 

Can Windows be installed on drive D:

During setup you can select to install Windows on any detected drive or partition but it will still need the "C" drive to work. Multiboot environments allow Windows to be installed on secondary drives.

After self test the BIOS steps through the boot sequence looking for the device to boot from and passes control to the boot sector on the drive. So although Windows can be on the second drive the boot code has to be on 1st. It depends on why you want it
to load Windows on D:

 

I have an old HDD and a NEW SSD. trying to wipe my old hdd for mass storage and keep ssd for os.

If you are booting from Windows installed on the SSD now and the HDD has become your secondary data drive, you can wipe the latter from Disk Management. Windows will of course not allow you to format the Windows partition that the system has been booted
from.

 

I have 2 extra drives attached to this system and neither of them have a boot partition ? They were all running when I installed Windows 10 Pro on this machine.

Can you provide a screen print of your Disk Management display ?

 

https://i.imgur.com/puGxUAW.png There's the Disk Management. I'm thinking it's that System Reserved partition there. Even if it's not that, the fact remains that I can't boot without my secondary drive connected, even though Windows is installed to my primary drive. I'm 100% sure of this, I've checked the boot options in the BIOS, and yet it seems to need the secondary drive. If I could do some kind of reinstall that preserves my files and whatnot that would be the best option, I think, I would just reinstall to the SSD without the HDD attached so I'm sure it won't need it to boot.

 

Did you upgrade from Win 7 installed on HDD? I think the problem arises when Win10 update is installed to an SSD and there is a HD with boot partition installed. I recommend unplugging the HD and doing a clean install when adding a new SSD at the same time as the Win10 update.

 

I see a few issues

1. The 450 MB hidden partition - can't see the attributes, probably Recovery

2. C: is extremely full (9% free) - it will take a long time to do anything with it.
Disk Cleanup - Open and Use in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums
Hibernation, restore points, and Windows.old consume a lot - but if you need either, leave them.
3) paging is on D:
Set it to 1536 MB on C:
remove it from D:
The easiest thing might be to just make C: the boot code depository.

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

 

I did this, and it looks like it worked. To elaborate, I fixed the problems you stated and moved the BCD to C:. Then I tried rebooting and it still wouldn't boot without the hard drive. Then I left for a couple hours, and when I got back I tried to boot and it worked? So I don't know, I guess it worked. Hopefully I don't run into any more problems; I'm gonna do a fresh reinstall of Windows next week so I won't have to worry about it.

 

Glad you're over the hump ...

Read through this tutorial and ask any questions - if you prepare and follow the instructions, a Clean install makes Windows 10 behave better.
Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums
Make sure you have a raw or unallocated drive to receive the install and disconnect everything (Keybd, Mouse, and Monitor are the exceptions). Having other drives connected causes issues like the one you just solved.

Check to see if a new firmware (BIOS / UEFI) is available before the install - if you want advice, post the version you have now and a link to the newer firmware.

Windows Update (WU) provides the best drivers - only look on a vendor site if there are any missing drivers or the supplied driver presents problems. I had to run a few WU to get a Realtek card reader - don't know why.

Install your favorite programs using current versions downloaded from the vendor site.

All of the above is covered in the tutorial, I just highlight the ones some people miss *Wink

If you have, or can afford, a spare drive, it is really easy. The old drive becomes your backup, the new/spare drive (connected on SATA port 0 (or 1 ... depending on how your machine enumerates the ports) becomes your new operating system drive.

Bill