New PC - OS not installed on SSD?

[Knight1664]

Hello all,
I've collected my PC today and it's running very smoothly. Overall I'm very happy with the build and have no complaints.

Upon inspection, it seems that PCS have installed Windows onto my storage drive and not the M.2 SSD. Drive (C: ) is clearly listed as Windows and is definitely the 1TB drive. Any advice on how I should proceed with this?

Cheers

Case
CORSAIR 275R AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X Eight Core CPU (3.9GHz-4.5GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070 SUPER - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
NOT REQUIRED
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i RGB PLATINUM Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

 

[SpyderTracks]

When you built it in the configurator it asks which drive you want to install windows to, if you mistakenly selected the Seagate that's the only way I could see that happening other than a flat out mistake.

Nevertheless, to get it resolved, the easiest way would probably be to clone the drive across to the SSD, you can use Macrium Reflect for that:

Macrium Reflect Free Trials

Macrium Reflect - Incredibly powerful software that allows you to create and schedule effective backups

www.macrium.com

 

[Knight1664]

Thank you. I've never carry out such a task, is it relatively straight forward?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you. I've never carry out such a task, is it relatively straight forward?

It's just a point and click, you want to select clone, then which originating drive and which drive you're moving it to, that's it.

 

[debiruman665]

It's just a point and click, you want to select clone, then which originating drive and which drive you're moving it to, that's it.

Depending on how anal you want to be about it, you'll also want to open up the command line tool for disk part and remove the recovery and boot partitions that will remain on the storage drive and reclaim the lost space there. If these remain sometimes the bios will still try and boot from those and will enter recovery mode when it can't find the OS isn't there anymore so you will need to change the boot order in the BIOS too.

 

[Knight1664]

It's just a point and click, you want to select clone, then which originating drive and which drive you're moving it to, that's it.

That's brilliant, I'll get it done when I'm back at my desk. So I'm just cloning the entire Seagate contents onto the SSD? Are there any follow-up actions such as removing Windows manually from the Seagate? Cheers for the assistance.

 

[SpyderTracks]

So I'm just cloning the entire Seagate contents onto the SSD?

Yes, exactly.

Are there any follow-up actions such as removing Windows manually from the Seagate? Cheers for the assistance.

You could do it @debiruman665 way, but it’s not really necessary. When you’ve finished the clone, boot into the BIOS, change the boot order so the ssd is the primary boot, load into windows, open disk manager, and delete all partitions on the HDD. Then it’s blank ready for normal use.

 

[debiruman665]

That's brilliant, I'll get it done when I'm back at my desk. So I'm just cloning the entire Seagate contents onto the SSD? Are there any follow-up actions such as removing Windows manually from the Seagate? Cheers for the assistance.

You might want to see about removing all the partitions from the HDD including the un deletable system and recovery ones and recreating the partition so you can get the full space out of the drive.

How to Delete a Windows Recovery Partition

You can safely remove the Windows recovery partition if you've backed it up. Recovery partitions are protected, so the process differs from deleting a normal partition.

www.lifewire.com

 

[SpyderTracks]

You might want to see about removing all the partitions from the HDD including the un deletable system and recovery ones and recreating the partition so you can get the full space out of the drive.

How to Delete a Windows Recovery Partition

You can safely remove the Windows recovery partition if you've backed it up. Recovery partitions are protected, so the process differs from deleting a normal partition.

www.lifewire.com

That's only if it's the primary drive though? If it's a secondary drive, none of the partitions are protected?

 

[debiruman665]

That's only if it's the primary drive though? If it's a secondary drive, none of the partitions are protected?

The disk management tool GUI in windows won't let you remove any partition like that without having to go into the CLI.

I can confirm this to be true because I had to do it yesterday after my format of all my drives so I took the opportunity to reclaim the space as all my disks we 100% empty and I could resize them to claim the space at the beginning of the disk .

 

[SpyderTracks]

The disk management tool GUI in windows won't let you remove any partition like that without having to go into the CLI.

I can confirm this to be true because I had to do it yesterday after my format of all my drives so I took the opportunity to reclaim the space as all my disks we 100% empty and I could resize them to claim the space at the beginning of the disk .

Didn't realise that, I knew that was the case on a primary drive, but not if the drive was secondary.

 

[Knight1664]

Cheers for the input @SpyderTracks & @debiruman665. Problem solved. Very much appreciated.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Cheers for the input @SpyderTracks & @debiruman665. Problem solved. Very much appreciated.

How did you delete the HDD partitions out of interest? Did you have to do it through powershell or cmd?

 

[Knight1664]

My PC is now failing to boot properly after running a Windows update. I'm getting Error 0xc0000225. I imagine the cloning process has caused problems for the PC.

"A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed."

Less than ideal for a first attempt at using the PC. Nevermind. If anyone with more experience could give me some assistance I'd appreciate it.

 

[debiruman665]

My PC is now failing to boot properly after running a Windows update. I'm getting Error 0xc0000225. I imagine the cloning process has caused problems for the PC.

"A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed."

Less than ideal for a first attempt at using the PC. Nevermind. If anyone with more experience could give me some assistance I'd appreciate it.

Go back into the bios and ensure that only the ssd is in the list of bootable devices. I suspect it's trying to boot off the wrong drive, same thing happened to me before, except it would boot into the recovery mode for the drive I had removed the windows from. The fact that there is no recovery mode you are seeing suggests its the wrong drive.

 

[Knight1664]

Go back into the bios and ensure that only the ssd is in the list of bootable devices. I suspect it's trying to boot off the wrong drive, same thing happened to me before, except it would boot into the recovery mode for the drive I had removed the windows from. The fact that there is no recovery mode you are seeing suggests its the wrong drive.

I've ensured that the SSD is the only option in the boot priorities. The boot override is also the SSD. The problem persists.

The only other two options are the IPE4 & IPE6 PCIes. The HDD is not listed as an option. Any other ideas?

 

[ubuysa]

I've ensured that the SSD is the only option in the boot priorities. The boot override is also the SSD. The problem persists.

The only other two options are the IPE4 & IPE6 PCIes. The HDD is not listed as an option. Any other ideas?

Your 0xc0000225 error indicates corrupted boot files, possibly due to a glitch in the clone. TBH I'm not a big fan of cloning HDDs to SSDs in any case, the geometry is completely different and you're relying on the SSD controller to properly locate files on the SSD.

The only reliable way to recover from an 0xc0000225 error is to reinstall Windows from bootable media. Since its a new PC with littele additional software that's not too onerous.

Choose a custom install and delete all partitions on both the SSD and HDD.

 

[Tony1044]

I came to this thread a bit late but I agree with Ubuysa - for the effort it takes to get the cloning software up and running on a brand new build, I'd have suggested just installing Windows from scratch on the SSD.

 

[Knight1664]

I'm currently performing the fresh install of Windows. I've attached a screenshot of the current partitions. Before I create any more snags for myself, could someone be kind enough to take a look and give me a quick steer? Cheers.

https://imgur.com/a/omdVnhL

Am I right in thinking that I'm simply to select Drive 1 Partition 1 for the install?

 

[SpyderTracks]

I'm currently performing the fresh install of Windows. I've attached a screenshot of the current partitions. Before I create any more snags for myself, could someone be kind enough to take a look and give me a quick steer? Cheers.

https://imgur.com/a/omdVnhL

Am I right in thinking that I'm simply to select Drive 1 Partition 1 for the install?

In drive one you need to delete both partitions, then install to the space.

It looks like it only cloned the c drive rather than the whole disk which is why it wouldn't boot.