SSD Problem?

[alexma]

I have recently installed a SSD 240gb. First I 'cloned' c drive with the included s/ware. This did not work out well as the PC booted to the old HDD. I removed the old drive and did a clean install on the SSD and transferred files back from the old HDD, then removed it. Now at boot, Windows Boot Manager page comes up with a choice of two OS both Win 7. There is physically only one drive in the PC. There is no sign of a Windows.old on the system. I have cleared CMOS etc. I would like for it to boot straight away as that is why I bought an SSD!  Any ideas please.

[Salmon Trout]

I removed the old drive and did a clean install on the SSD and transferred files back from the old HDD

What files did you transfer?

[patio]

See Here...

[DaveLembke]

Also to add to this... with both SSD and HDD originally connected in the clone attempt, Windows installation may have detected the other Windows installation on the other drive and installed to the SSD as a dual OS installation which gives you a choice at boot for one or the other. Then removing the HDD and having the SSD remaining the boot manager isnt smart enough to test for this HDD and so it boots off of the SSD and gives option for the HDD which is no longer connected. If this is the case then its a simple fix as shared in Patio's link.

However if you had the cloned copy of Windows onto the SSD and then decided that that wasnt working out so well and decided to then perform a clean installation, Windows on installation searches drives for Windows installations. It is possible to breeze past an important option to not have the other Windows installation remain, and so you can have 2 installations of Windows on the same drive, one that is functional and the other that is not, or you can have 2 installations of the same OS both functional. The problem here is that each installation takes up drive space and so if this is what happened then you will have to determine which Windows install is the one that you do not want and manually delete it to get say 20GB back which is otherwise wasted with the initial install that you really want gone from the drive, but otherwise remained through the process of the 2nd installation.

[alexma]

First of all Thank you Patio, your solution did the trick. Secondly, DaveLembke, how would I know if there are two OS's on the drive simultaneously running or otherwise?

[DaveLembke]

DaveLembke, how would I know if there are two OS's on the drive simultaneously running or otherwise?

They wouldnt be running simultaneously, only 1 runs at a time unless you create and use virtual machines with VMware etc. If the install wasnt 100% clean in which the SSD was not completely formatted before the OS was installed to it, it could be possible for Windows to detect a prior copy of Windows already installed to that drive, and for Windows to install a fresh copy alongside the old install.


Its more common when upgrading Windows that it creates a Windows.Old folder. Pretty much if you look at C: and dont see any duplicate folders with the Windows name, then your good, but if you found one that is like Windows.Old, then its wasted space and could be removed. More info on this at the link below.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/delete-remove-windows-old-folder