How do I set up this SSD as my boot disk on my PC?

November 25, 2022 2:49 PM

I have a laptop that now has two hard drives, a larger 1TB HDD and a 250GB SSD. The SSD is new. I would like to set up the PC to boot from the SSD but I can't quite work it out as the SSD and HDD don't show up in the BIOS (but do in Windows!). Any help gratefully received.

Usually I do fine with techy questions but I can't seem to ask Google the right question on this one.

I have a 2018 HP Omen 17-an012na. It's getting a bit long in the tooth and I think an SSD to boot up would speed it up and give it a few more years.

I installed the new SSD, whicn my Dad had put Windows 11 onto, and rebooted to get to the BIOS. There was no mention of either of my hard drives in the 'Boot order sequence' section of the BIOS. I hunted around but couldn't find it. The drive is recognised in Windows and I can see the files on it, but for some reason I can't boot from it. Should I wipe it and restart with a clean SSD? If so, what should I put on it?

Secondly, once I have it booting from the SSD, how do I manage storing apps/pictures and music on the HDD and a few on the SSD? Any pitfalls?

Thanks!

posted by NoiselessPenguin to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

the way i would handle this is open the laptop, pull the HDD out, put the SSD in, delete every partition on the SSD & do a fresh installation of Windows 10, get it all set up and happy with drivers etc, then put the HDD back in there, back up everything you want to keep off the HDD (by moving it to external locations), format the HDD, and then you have a Omen running Windows 10, booting from the SSD, and a blank 1TB spinner to fill up with whatever you like.

by following that procedure your original system is safe and living on the HDD until you're certain the SSD install is working properly, so if something goes bad you can always just put the HDD back in there and continue like it was before while you research the problems.

> how do I manage storing apps/pictures and music on the HDD and a few on the SSD

i would just store all that on the HDD and not worry about trying to set up some hybrid storage system. the default physical location for the Windows 10 libraries is on the boot drive but you can move them to a secondary drive pretty easily by following instructions like this: How to Move Your Music Folder Location in Windows 10 [tenforums.com]
posted by glonous keming at 3:44 PM on November 25, 2022

This will be a bit difficult, as you need to set up your SSD as a boot drive. You can format it as bootable, but as noted by @glonous keming you should start with a "fresh" copy of Win10 (or Win11 if you want to go that way), then use a migration tool to copy only the MOST ESSENTIAL stuff off the HD to the SSD. The idea is you now will have SSD as C: and your HD is D:, whereas before you only have C: for everything.

You MAY want to consider just buying a 1TB SSD, which had really came down in price recently. Then you can simply clone the entire partition from the HD to the SSD. THEN you can do a direct swap, making the SSD your boot drive in BIOS. When you are certain the SSD is functioning properly, either keep the HD as a backup, or erase it and use it as a blank data drive.
posted by kschang at 1:03 AM on November 26, 2022