Windows 10: Windows booting from wrong drive

Discus and support Windows booting from wrong drive in Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade to solve the problem; When I re-built my PC in 2021, I installed an M.2 drive and a fresh version of windows 10 but I also left the original C: drive in the PC and have... Discussion in 'Windows 10 Installation and Upgrade' started by Rob_028, Apr 22, 2024.

  1. ROB_028
    Rob_028 Win User

    Windows booting from wrong drive


    When I re-built my PC in 2021, I installed an M.2 drive and a fresh version of windows 10 but I also left the original C: drive in the PC and have never bothered to format it an oversight I know. For the last 3 years, I've had no issues with windows running off the new M2 drive but last week, a windows update happened and for some reason I can't boot from the M2 drive. It will only boot from the original C: Drive which is obviously outdated. I can't select the M2 drive in the boot options in BIOS.I've tried the repair option on a bootable windows drive but nothing will work.I've tried to use

    :)
     
    Rob_028, Apr 22, 2024
    #1
  2. SPEEDY11131
    speedy11131 Win User

    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, Apr 22, 2024
    #2
  3. NEWTEKIE1
    newtekie1 Win User
    Windows 7 booting off wrong drive?!?!?

    No, it is entirely a Windows boot issue. Windows is stupid when it installs, and often will write the boot manager to the wrong drive, so when you remove that drive it will fail to boot. I see it a lot.
     
    newtekie1, Apr 22, 2024
    #3
  4. LITTLE CAT
    little cat Win User

    Windows booting from wrong drive

    little cat, Apr 22, 2024
    #4
Thema:

Windows booting from wrong drive

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