Windows 10: Cannot activate Windows 11 after installing on wrong drive then reinstalling onto correct drive

I recently purchased a new NVME SSD and installed it into my system. My system before upgrade consisted of a SATA SSD was the boot drive and a HDD.I then unfortunately installed windows 11 and successfully activated it on my empty hard drive instead of my new NVME SSD. Not my best moment!I have subsequently removed the hard drive from the system I intend to wipe it and sell it so it's currently in my cupboard as well as the SATA SSD also in the cupboard but as a backup that the original Windows 11 install was on. I then installed Windows 11 onto the correct drive but now it refuses to ac

:)

 

Windows 7 booting off wrong drive?!?!?

Please move if this is in the wrong place.

I have two hard drives, a 1.5TB drive, and a 160GB drive. Windows is installed on the 1.5TB drive, as are all my files and programs. The 160GB drive has a bunch of old files, and apparently the bootmgr and boot folder. Nothing else is on the 160GB drive, other than media files etc.

If I remove the 160GB drive from the machine, windows refuses to boot, plug it back in, it works fine. The setup with two hard drives I have now is temporary, as the 160GB drive will go into another machine.

My question is, can someone give me a step by step on how to make windows force to boot off the 1.5TB drive, ignoring the 160GB drive in the boot process completely?
I don't know how to do this in Windows 7, on XP I would just run the /fixmbr command and its related ones.

Any help would be appreciated.

Note: I would really really rather not have to wipe and reinstall, I know it can be done without one as I've had this issue with XP before.

 

Hard drive/ OS issue

a guy suggested :

• shutdown
• unhooked HDD
• restarted
• yay !!
• reconnected HDD
• restarted
• yay !!

also , try method 3
Drive Where Windows is Installed is Locked: How to Unlock It

 

Can I still upgrade to Windows 11 if I change the storage drive, CPU, and motherboard?

Thanks for the quick reply.

If I understood you correctly I'll have to follow the following steps:

1. Install the new hardware with Windows 10 still on the old drive.
   
2. Re-activate Windows 10 (probably requiring Microsoft Support).
   
3. Move the activated Windows 10 to the new drive.
   
4. Upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11.
   

Is that correct?