Windows 10: old empty M.2 drive is still the boot drive

Discus and support old empty M.2 drive is still the boot drive in Windows 10 Gaming to solve the problem; I have an old m.2 drive that was my boot drive with windows installed on it. It's now empty and windows was installed on another drive SSD. But somehow... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Gaming' started by MikeE1067, Jun 30, 2023.

  1. MIKEE1067
    MikeE1067 Win User

    old empty M.2 drive is still the boot drive


    I have an old m.2 drive that was my boot drive with windows installed on it. It's now empty and windows was installed on another drive SSD. But somehow the original m.2 is considered the boot drive. I cannot select the SSD in the BIOS as the new boot drive. I want to physically remove the M.2 drive from my PC, but it breaks windows if I remove it. Is there a way to make the SSD the boot drive without reformatting? Thank you

    :)
     
    MikeE1067, Jun 30, 2023
    #1
  2. STONECHERUB
    stonecherub Win User

    Replacing a M.2 SSD boot drive card

    Thanks for the suggestion. This "old" thing is getting to be a problem. I dimly remember having an external boot utility on a thumb drive but I can't remember the name. If I can boot the box off a USB chip, then I can get into the drive list and change letters.
     
    stonecherub, Jun 30, 2023
    #2
  3. MANSON - MSFT
    Manson - MSFT Win User
    M.2 DRIVE PROBLEMS

    Hi Phenyo Botsi，

    Welcome to Microsoft Community.

    Please make sure that your M.2 drive can be read in the BIOS.

    In the case of current Windows 10/11, I recommend checking the boot Settings in the BIOS. There are usually EFI/Legacy or mixed boot options. I recommend you try EFI boot and then restart the computer to see if the drive is recognized.

    If you can't see the drive information in the BIOS either, or if the boot change option is invalid, it means that the M.2 drive may lack a driver and not boot (sometimes because the M.2 driver is newer and the motherboard driver is older). You can install the operating system with another booted drive first.

    Thank you for your understanding and patience!

    Kind regards,

    Manson | Microsoft Community Support Specialist
     
    Manson - MSFT, Jun 30, 2023
    #3
  4. AVALEN
    avalen Win User

    old empty M.2 drive is still the boot drive

    "old" M.2 System drive is MBR, cannot convert to GPT for W11 Upgrade

    Steve108... it seemed to convert, but on restart, after setting boot mode to uefi, the m.2 drive is not in the boot list, it is not in any boot list under under csm mode either. However, my computer system information lists the drive. So, no i can't load windows at all on this drive. this is greatly distressing.

    - - - Updated - - -

    darn it Navy... i was hoping you'd find this sooner and help me before i did something as stupid as i think i did by using Steve's suggestion. i had tried the mbr2gpt with a partition boost of up to 1gb and i still had the same errors. i reset the partition and rebooted and tried again and that is when i posted the above log file. Same errors both ways.

    any other suggestion at this point?
     
    avalen, Jun 30, 2023
    #4
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old empty M.2 drive is still the boot drive

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