Windows 10: Boot from an old M.2 SSD Windows 11 drive

I had a Dell XPS 8940 with a 512GB M.2 SSD and my boot drive and a 1TB data drive. The Dell 8940 XPS became inoperable after a power blackout. I bought a new Dell 8960 XPS with a 1TB M.2 SSD and my boot drive and a 1TB data drive. I moved the old 512GB M.2 SSD and my boot drive and old 1TB data drive to the new Dell 8960 XPS. I'd like to access my software from the old 512GB M.2 SSD but do not have the activation/product key for some of the software. I tried boot off the old 512GB M.2 SSD so I can use my old software but I get BSOD Inaccessible Drive. How can I boot off the old 512GB M.2 SSD u

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Boot from an old M.2 SSD Windows 11 drive

I had a Dell XPS 8940 with a 512GB M.2 SSD and my boot drive and a 1TB data drive. The Dell 8940 XPS became inoperable after a power blackout. I bought a new Dell 8960 XPS with a 1TB M.2 SSD and my boot drive and a 1TB data drive. I moved the old 512GB M.2 SSD and my boot drive and old 1TB data drive to the new Dell 8960 XPS. I'd like to access my software from the old 512GB M.2 SSD but do not have the activation/product key for some of the software. I tried boot off the old 512GB M.2 SSD so I can use my old software but I get BSOD Inaccessible Drive. How can I boot off the old 512GB M.2 SSD using the new Dell 8960 XPS? Both M.2 SSD are installed in the Dell 8960 XPS.

 

System Refusing to Boot from M.2 after plugging in old SSD boot drive.

So I've been troubleshooting this for the past two hours now and nothing is working.

I needed more space on my computer so I remembered the old SSD that used to be the original boot drive for my PC that was just sitting in there unused. I upgraded to the Samsung 960 Evo years ago and used the Samsung Data Migration to move things over.

I plugged in the old drive and my computer booted to it instead of the M.2 (Samsung 960 EVO) that I've been using for the past 5-6 years. I restarted and booted to BIOS to change the boot priority, but my M.2 was not listed. I turned the system off, unplugged the old SSD and then turned the computer back on, but it still refused to boot to the M.2.

Eventually, after re-connecting the old SSD, I was able to get it to recognize the M.2 as a boot option, but even after disabling the old SSD as a boot option and making the M.2 #1 in the boot priority, it still will only boot to the old SSD. Also, it still refuses to boot to the M.2 even with the old SSD unplugged. It will try to start up a few times then will say "Preparing Automatic Repair."

My goal is to simply wipe and reformat the old SSD to use as some extra space on my computer, but now I'm all sorts of messed up.
If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears! Thank you!

 

Unable to Boot to SSD drive, goes to M.2

I bought a new to me desktop PC. I replaced the HDD it had with my old computer's SSD, which has my expected windows 10 image.

The PC was wiped clean before I bought it and I guess is booting to a Windows 11 M.2. So it boots to Win11 via the M.2. I can see my SSD as D: drive.

I went to startup options and don't see my SSD as an option to boot to.

I don't need this M.2 to boot to, only want it to boot to my SSD.

Can this be accomplished and if so, how? Thank you!