Issues With Installing Windows 10 with 2 Storage Drives

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dchun29

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Mar 17, 2017
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I'll start by describing the problem I had in hopes that someone has a solution:

I built a system - https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2zztRG


I installed Windows 10 x64 while both my SSD and hybrid drive were installed and hooked up. Once I got all of the drivers installed, I went into the drive manager and I initialized the hybrid drive (I installed Windows 10 on the SSD). I initialized as MBR and then partitioned it for normal use. Meanwhile, I was installing Microsoft office onto my SSD. When the installation finished, it prompted me to restart the computer. When I did so, I got just past the BIOS screen before my computer screen went black and I had white letters reading: "REBOOT AND SELECT PROPER BOOT DEVICE OR INSERT BOOT MEDIA IN SELECTED BOOT DEVICE AND PRESS A KEY." I tried changing the boot order, repairing the OS, and even going through some cmd prompt fixes - but nothing worked. I finally just unplugged my hybrid drive and re-installed windows onto the SSD.

My friend mentioned something to me that kind of caught me off guard. He said that he's seen in the past where a user will have two drives hooked up while installing windows onto one of them and the computer uses the other drive to place some system files. Does anyone know if this is a known issue and I violated some rule of installing OS'?
 
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Yes, the solution above is the cleanest. Re-Install Windows on the SSD with NO other drive units connected to the system. When that is done, shut down and re-connect your other drive(s), then boot up again. IF you have already Installed any applications software, you probably will need to re-Install those because the new Win Install will have an "empty" Registry that knows nothing about app software.

For your info, here's some background. The problem comes from a Windows feature designed to solve a future problem for you easily and make life simpler, but it does cause the problem you have. When Windows is first Installed on a boot drive, it looks around the system for any other drives also present. IF it finds one, it places on that...
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Paul NZ

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Sep 15, 2014
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It is a known issue if more than 1 hdd is connected. The bootloader can end up on the other hdd

And if you format the other hdd, byebye bootloader, and byebye booting into windows

Reinstall windows again on the ssd unplug the other one. Connect it after windows has been reinstalled
 
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Paperdoc

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Oct 19, 2006
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Yes, the solution above is the cleanest. Re-Install Windows on the SSD with NO other drive units connected to the system. When that is done, shut down and re-connect your other drive(s), then boot up again. IF you have already Installed any applications software, you probably will need to re-Install those because the new Win Install will have an "empty" Registry that knows nothing about app software.

For your info, here's some background. The problem comes from a Windows feature designed to solve a future problem for you easily and make life simpler, but it does cause the problem you have. When Windows is first Installed on a boot drive, it looks around the system for any other drives also present. IF it finds one, it places on that other drive a set of backup files in a semi-hidden Partition, then continues with the installation. From then on, if ever the important files on your boot device appear to have been corrupted at boot time, Windows will simply go to the other drive with the backups, copy them over to replace the corrupted files, and boot cleanly. All this is done automatically for you so you do not have to worry at all.

HOWEVER, this means that at every boot-up Windows goes looking for those backup files on the other drive and it CANNOT boot without them! So, if you later remove that second drive or, as you did, wipe that drive clean by Initializing it, Windows can't boot! There are two ways to solve this, but re-doing the Install with NO second drive present is easy for a new system. In that case, with no second drive available, Windows will place the required backup files on the only drive present (your boot device) and they will always be available at boot time. To some extent this is not quite as good as having separate copies on a different drive, because whatever causes corruption of the "normal" files there might also cause trouble with the backups. But it's better than no automatic backups at all.
 
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