Windows 10: How to clean install Windows on a second drive to turn it into the boot drive?

Discus and support How to clean install Windows on a second drive to turn it into the boot drive? in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; I just installed an m.2 NVME drive in my computer to try and lower boot times, as the hybrid drive I cloned my original hard drive to, including the... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by Essaim, May 5, 2021.

  1. Essaim Win User

    How to clean install Windows on a second drive to turn it into the boot drive?


    I just installed an m.2 NVME drive in my computer to try and lower boot times, as the hybrid drive I cloned my original hard drive to, including the original install of windows, tends to take around 15-30 minutes to fully boot up and get my computer completely operational. I don't need to backup files or anything, and I know how to tweak the bios to boot from a different drive, I just can't figure out how to perform a clean install of windows on the new drive.

    :)
     
    Essaim, May 5, 2021
    #1

  2. 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.
     
    speedy11131, May 5, 2021
    #2
  3. Clean Install Workaround for Vista

    You may remember this news story on techPowerUp! a couple of days ago relating to the lack of clean installs when using the Upgrade Editions of Vista, which required an old OS to be installed. However, Paul Thurrott has managed to find a workaround for this issue, which ironically lets users do a clean install Vista without any previous version of Windows, albeit a little tedious. Here are the steps:
    • Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD as normal
    • When prompted for a product code, leave this blank
    • Select the version of Vista you have purchased and let Vista install
    • When you boot to your desktop for the first time, run the Vista setup from Windows
    • This time enter your product key
    • When asked whether you want to do an Upgrade of Custom install, select custom and choose a clean install
    • Windows will now install for a second time and you should be able to activate it
    Remember, these steps are only advised for use in order to achieve a clean install of Vista, it is only legal to use the upgrade editions if you have previously purchased the appropriate version of Windows.

    Source: DailyTech
     
    Jimmy 2004, May 5, 2021
    #3
  4. AsRock Win User

    How to clean install Windows on a second drive to turn it into the boot drive?

    Wondering about a second hard drive and installing Vista on it and also a ..

    Annoying having to go into the bios each time though. And for me not a option unless i run 2 arrays.
     
    AsRock, May 5, 2021
    #4
Thema:

How to clean install Windows on a second drive to turn it into the boot drive?

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