New and Very Confused... Switching between Hard Drives

[tkoo02]

Hello All,

I just built my first Computer and for the most part, things are going smoothly, but there is a few issues that still need to be resolved. The most urgent is the fact that I can't seem to switch between my SSD and and a standard Hard Drive. I went into BIOS (ASUS) and tried to set the boot priority to the standard Hard Drive, but it does not show up. The only things that show up are the SSD and the DVD-ROM.

I was told to put windows on the SSD, so I did. Could this be the problem? Sorry I don't know what else to ask as I am not totally sure what I am doing. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Tom

 

[hang-the-9]

Bit confused what you are trying to do. If you installed Windows on the SSD, why are you trying to switch the boot to the drive without Windows? If you have two cars and fill one with gas, would you try to drive the other one?

Does the regular drive show up in the system normally when you are in Windows? If not, make sure it's hooked up correctly.

 

[Cons29]

is there still windows installed to the mechanical drive? if you installed to the ssd, that should boot, unless you now have 2 of them somehow

 

[tkoo02]

Hey all,

Thanks for all your input. As you can see, I am a bit confused with what I want because I am not totally sure of how all my hardware works together.

It was my (mistaken) understanding that I could use my SSD as a primary drive for all the memory intensive programs and that I could use the normal hard drive for all the things that I don't need so much.

I only have windows 7 installed on my SSD (not on the mechanical drive), so therefore that is the only one I am using at the moment.

But from what you all are saying, I am getting the understanding that I can now only use my SSD (because that is the one my OS is running on). But if that's true, what is the point of having multiple hard drives?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[tkoo02]

Hey all,

Thanks for all your input. As you can see, I am a bit confused with what I want because I am not totally sure of how all my hardware works together.

It was my (mistaken) understanding that I could use my SSD as a primary drive for all the memory intensive programs and that I could use the normal hard drive for all the things that I don't need so much.

I only have windows 7 installed on my SSD (not on the mechanical drive), so therefore that is the only one I am using at the moment.

But from what you all are saying, I am getting the understanding that I can now only use my SSD (because that is the one my OS is running on). But if that's true, what is the point of having multiple hard drives?

Thanks,
Tom

 

[hang-the-9]

Hey all,

Thanks for all your input. As you can see, I am a bit confused with what I want because I am not totally sure of how all my hardware works together.

It was my (mistaken) understanding that I could use my SSD as a primary drive for all the memory intensive programs and that I could use the normal hard drive for all the things that I don't need so much.

I only have windows 7 installed on my SSD (not on the mechanical drive), so therefore that is the only one I am using at the moment.

But from what you all are saying, I am getting the understanding that I can now only use my SSD (because that is the one my OS is running on). But if that's true, what is the point of having multiple hard drives?

Thanks,
Tom

You can use both drives, you just can't swap the boot order between them. Boot off whatever drive has Windows installed on it, and use the other for storage, you can even install programs to the second drive, just change the location during setup.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Make sure the bios sees the hard drive. Since this is a new build, I'm assuming the hard drive is new also. For this drive to be visible in windows, you need to go into disk management and initialize (partition/format/assign drive letter) the new drive before it will be visible in windows and usable.