OS on Hard drive and SSD

[Stormblessed]

I recently got a computer that already had the OS installed on it. I bought a SSD and want to put the OS on that instead. I installed the OS on the SSD and it is also on the hard drive. When I go into the BIOS I am having trouble getting the computer to boot off of the SSD instead of the hard drive. The hard drive is a 2 TB toshiba, and the SSD is a 240 GB kingston. Question is; is it possible to have the OS on both drives and just select one to boot from, and if so how do i get it to boot off of the SSD?

Thank you for all your help.

 

[JDB Computing]

Yes, it is entirely possible to have an operating system on two physical hard disk drives or solid state drives.

Usually it is quite simple to set the boot order in BIOS; the order you will most likely want is as follows:

1. 240GB KINGSTON
2. 2TB TOSHIBA
3. PHYSICAL DISK DRIVE

If in future you need to boot from a DVD or a USB device, you can just change the boot order again so the device comes before the 240GB SSD.

 

[Stormblessed]

Yes, it is entirely possible to have an operating system on two physical hard disk drives or solid state drives.

Usually it is quite simple to set the boot order in BIOS; the order you will most likely want is as follows:

1. 240GB KINGSTON
2. 2TB TOSHIBA
3. PHYSICAL DISK DRIVE

If in future you need to boot from a DVD or a USB device, you can just change the boot order again so the device comes before the 240GB SSD.

I tried doing that, but the SSD wont move up to the number 1 spot.

 

[JDB Computing]

Yes, it is entirely possible to have an operating system on two physical hard disk drives or solid state drives.

Usually it is quite simple to set the boot order in BIOS; the order you will most likely want is as follows:

1. 240GB KINGSTON
2. 2TB TOSHIBA
3. PHYSICAL DISK DRIVE

If in future you need to boot from a DVD or a USB device, you can just change the boot order again so the device comes before the 240GB SSD.

I tried doing that, but the SSD wont move up to the number 1 spot.

Thats odd. Can you move the HDD down to the last spot and then try to move the SSD up?

 

[Stormblessed]

Yes, it is entirely possible to have an operating system on two physical hard disk drives or solid state drives.

Usually it is quite simple to set the boot order in BIOS; the order you will most likely want is as follows:

1. 240GB KINGSTON
2. 2TB TOSHIBA
3. PHYSICAL DISK DRIVE

If in future you need to boot from a DVD or a USB device, you can just change the boot order again so the device comes before the 240GB SSD.

I tried doing that, but the SSD wont move up to the number 1 spot.

Thats odd. Can you move the HDD down to the last spot and then try to move the SSD up?

Ill try that, this might be a dumb question, but does it matter where the SSD is plugged into, as far as SATA 1,2,3 or 4?

 

[Stormblessed]

Yes, it is entirely possible to have an operating system on two physical hard disk drives or solid state drives.

Usually it is quite simple to set the boot order in BIOS; the order you will most likely want is as follows:

1. 240GB KINGSTON
2. 2TB TOSHIBA
3. PHYSICAL DISK DRIVE

If in future you need to boot from a DVD or a USB device, you can just change the boot order again so the device comes before the 240GB SSD.

I tried doing that, but the SSD wont move up to the number 1 spot.

Thats odd. Can you move the HDD down to the last spot and then try to move the SSD up?

So this morning it lets me put it into Boot 1 however its still clocking in at 22 seconds boot up like it did with hard drive. Is there something else i have to do so it knows to boot from the SSD?

 

[Vic 40]

How fast does it boot with only the ssd attached to the motherboard? Just take the sata cable of the hdd out of the motherboard.

You can try putting the ssd to connector 1 (possibly even 0) and the hdd to 2 and so on.

 

[JDB Computing]

Yes, it is entirely possible to have an operating system on two physical hard disk drives or solid state drives.

Usually it is quite simple to set the boot order in BIOS; the order you will most likely want is as follows:

1. 240GB KINGSTON
2. 2TB TOSHIBA
3. PHYSICAL DISK DRIVE

If in future you need to boot from a DVD or a USB device, you can just change the boot order again so the device comes before the 240GB SSD.

I tried doing that, but the SSD wont move up to the number 1 spot.

Thats odd. Can you move the HDD down to the last spot and then try to move the SSD up?

Ill try that, this might be a dumb question, but does it matter where the SSD is plugged into, as far as SATA 1,2,3 or 4?

It shouldn't, but could be worth a try. My HDDs are in SATA1/2 and the SSD is in SATA3, but every motherboard is different.

 

[Stormblessed]

How fast does it boot with only the ssd attached to the motherboard? Just take the sata cable of the hdd out of the motherboard.

You can try putting the ssd to connector 1 (possibly even 0) and the hdd to 2 and so on.

I havent tried it this morning, but when we tried to boot with just the SSD it wasnt booting. And the SSD is in the first SATA and the HD in the second. Should i mention its a prebuild PC that came with the OS installed already? Dont know if that has anything to do with it.

 

[Vic 40]

Try to reinstall again wit just the ssd attached,should be no problem since it's not working anyway.Or did you already?

 

[Stormblessed]

Try to reinstall again wit just the ssd attached,should be no problem since it's not working anyway.Or did you already?

Yeah when we installed the OS on the SSD we did it with the HD unhooked. Maybe we did something wrong when we installed it?

 

[Vic 40]

Maybe ...

The ssd is recognized in the bios?

 

[Stormblessed]

Maybe ...

The ssd is recognized in the bios?

Yep. And its in boot 1. But if we boot with just the SSD attached it has an error and whats to keep restarting the PC

 

[Vic 40]

Can't offer more advice than try installing again and see if it helps.Maybe make sure it's formatted and that the firmware is up to date before doing so.For a firmware upgrade,the "how to",check the website of the maker of the ssd.

 

[Stormblessed]

Can't offer more advice than try installing again and see if it helps.Maybe make sure it's formatted and that the firmware is up to date before doing so.For a firmware upgrade,the "how to",check the website of the maker of the ssd.

Got it too work, but now im running into a different problem. To fix the previous problem I had to reinstall in the SSD and create a partition just for the OS. The new problem now is that when I go to the desktop and look at the SSD it only shows the 30GB partition, it wont let me access the other 200GB.

 

[Vic 40]

There are partitioning tools that maybe can make a partition of the rest of the drive and give it a letter.You could try the windows tool,but you also could try this one,
http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/
there are more to find.