Windows 10: If I add an SSD and make it boot drive can I keep my HDD as is and still use it as storage...

Just a quick noob question.


I have a Win 10 PC with a 1TB HDD installed and a couple empty drive bays. I just ordered an SSD that will be here in a week and I will clone the HDD drive onto the SSD and make the SSD the boot drive.

I would then like to use the 1TB HDD as a storage drive but I would also like to keep the Windows installation on the original drive so I can boot from it just in case the SSD ever fails. Does this make sense or will this cause any issues using that drive as storage even though it also has Win 10 installed on it? Seems a little odd to me but maybe I'm worrying about nothing here? Should I maybe just wipe the HDD clean and then use as storage?

:)

 

SSD Drive as Boot Drive and HDD Drive as Storage, how do I do it?

Remove the HDD. Install Windows on SSD. Then insert the HDD. Now SSD should be your boot drive with HDD as a storage drive.

If Windows doesn't boot,

1) Check Boot priority in BIOS and set your SSD on top of the list.

2) If still doesn't work, then create a 200MB Fat32 partition on the HDD(call it whatever you want) then boot into the windows 10 installer via a usb, launch command prompt with SHIFT + F10 and run the following:

bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-en /s B: /f UEFI

where B: is the drive letter for the 200MB partition (it could be any other drive letter for you).

Note: the drive letter with windows could be different, so either poke around command prompt to find out or launch DISKPART and run show volumes to find the partition.

The only downside to this solution is that if the HDD fails you lose boot capabilities. To get around this you could create a ISO of the 200mb boot drive and upload it for safe keeping and burn it to a usb flash disk in case of emergencies.

Source: ENVY 15t-j000 mSATA SSD + HDD fresh install, with mSATA as boot
drive

 

SSD Drive as Boot Drive and HDD Drive as Storage, how do I do it?

Recently, I have discovered an old Kingston 120gb SSD Drive in my drawers. I own a Lenovo laptop with a HDD Caddy with a 1 Tb hard drive in the bay and the SSD installed internally inside the computer. My computer runs with Windows 10 Pro 64 bit.

My question is; How would I configure my SSD so that it will be the boot drive, and the HDD in the Caddy as the Storage drive? Since 120gb of space in the SSD ain't exactly 'much'.

 

SSD drive as primary drive(250gb) and HDD as storage hard drive(500gb), but system does not boot.

Does the system boot with just the SSD connected?

Yes, the system boots only with SSD connected.