Changed hard drive, but still residue of old Windows installation

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tor_brandt

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I just installed a new hard drive in my computer instead of the old one. I simply took out the old drive and put the new one in its place.

I installed Windows on the new drive, and it's working. However, whenever I boot my computer, it asks me to choose between two versions of Windows. If I choose the first one, it starts the version I just installed on my new drive. If I choose the second one, it shows a "Windows Boot Manager" screen, stating that the computer couldn't start because of a recent change.

I take it that the second one is some kind of residue from my old Windows installation, but I can't figure out how there could be any residue at all, since I physically removed the hard drive from my computer containing the old Windows installation.

I have another hard drive in my computer, that I keep for file storage. Could the residue be on that? Or is there some kind of mini storage on the motherboard, or what?

And how can I remove the residue?

Thanks!
 
Solution
USAFRet
Yes, it is that second HDD.

When you installed the OS originally, the boot partition ended up on that second drive. Yes, it often does this.
Now, when you removed the OS drive and put the new one in...you still left the secondary drive in there.
Same thing happened.
And now, it just added this new OS install to the boot info.

It can't actually boot off the other option, because that actual Windows is not there. But it thinks it is.
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Yes, it is that second HDD.

When you installed the OS originally, the boot partition ended up on that second drive. Yes, it often does this.
Now, when you removed the OS drive and put the new one in...you still left the secondary drive in there.
Same thing happened.
And now, it just added this new OS install to the boot info.

It can't actually boot off the other option, because that actual Windows is not there. But it thinks it is.
 
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Solution
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tor_brandt

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Dec 28, 2016
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Thanks! That explains it.
Do you know how I can remove that old boot thing?

 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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If this is a brand new OS install, I would personally redo it.
But this time, with only the one drive connected.

You could probably use bcdedit (built into windows) to edit, but that would still remain on the secondary drive.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/editing-boot-options

I'd redo it properly.
 
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Olle P

Olle P

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This might seem stupid, but... have you checked the content on your "storage" drive?
It might even be so that Windows was installed there originally, so you now have two complete installations of it.

When Windows is installed it will create a smallish "hidden" partition on the drive to store important files for recovery and such. It also makes some notes of your license in the BIOS.
There should be no "residue" files on any other drives.
 
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tor_brandt

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Dec 28, 2016
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@Olle P:
Thanks for your input, but the old Windows installation was on the removed drive :) However, it seems the actual boot partition wasn't.

@SkyNetRising:
Thanks! I actually managed to find that myself just now :)

@USAFRet:
Yes, I literally just made the install, so it's not too much trouble redoing it. So, I'll remove my storage drive, format my new boot drive, and make a clean installation on that.
I take it that the old boot information will still be on my storage drive somewhere. Will that simply be in some hidden folder, that I can then choose to show and delete manually?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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It would be on a hidden partition, not folder.
You'll have to go through some gyrations to remove it.

Delete the original boot partitions, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall

This delves into diskpart at the commandline, so be VERY careful.
 
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tor_brandt

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Dec 28, 2016
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Okay, thanks! :)
But if I remove the storage drive while making a clean install on the new boot drive, the old boot partition on the storage drive won't pose any problems, right? If not, I might just leave it there, to avoid the risks of the command line stuff.
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Right. Leaving it there won't affect anything.

Unless you have some other issue months from now, post a screencap of your Disk Management window, and someone says..."Hey...what's that?" :lol:
 
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tor_brandt

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Dec 28, 2016
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Cool, thank you for your time! It's been very helpful :)

Actually, I just looked in Disk Management, and my storage drive only has one partition (I deleted the boot entry in msconfig before I looked in disk management). Does that mean that the new Windows installation is actually installed properly with its boot partition on the correct drive (in which case there's no reason to redo the installation)? Or can a partition be hidden even from disk management?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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As a test, remove ALL drives except your current OS drive.
Does it boot up?
 
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