Boot Issue on Pavilion Laptop with new SSD

[BigJohnny59]

UPDATE:  Problem solved.  Apparently I had set that HDD up as a MBR disk when I originally got it.  That was causing the conflict.  I went in and made it a GPT disk.  When I installed it again, the laptop saw it as a data disk and did not try to boot to it.  It booted straight to my SSD.  Everything is running great now. 

I can't tell you what a huge improvement in speed and efficiency a SDD makes for a boot disk.  What used to take me about 10 minutes to get the laptop up and running to where I could actually work on it, now takes about a minute.  I wish I had done this years ago!!!!

Thanks for your suggestions.

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ORIGINAL POST:  I have a Pavilion laptop that is no longer under warranty.  It has been getting slower and slower, so I decided to add a M2 SSD drive as my boot drive.  I installed it and cloned the operating system to it.  I then took out the old C: hard drive, and put an empty hard drive (HDD) in the SATA drive area as a data drive to store pictures and other files.

When it tried to boot, it kept trying to boot to the data drive HDD.  It recognized both drives, but the BIOS would not allow me to change the boot drive to the SSD.  I had to end up taking out the HDD, and then it booted to the SSD with no problems.

The BIOS was just updated about a week ago, so it is the newest BIOS.  Any suggestions how I can re-install the empty HDD and get it to still book to the SSD?  I use the laptop for picture editing on trips, and that extra disk space from the HDD would be a great thing to have to store pictures.

Thanks.

[WAWood]

@BigJohnny59 

What I would suggest is following the instructions below to create USB boot media that you can then use to repair the boot files on the drive.  Do this with the HDD connected, as well.

Once you do that, the PC should boot from the SSD without issue.

You need to follow the instructions below to create boot media from Macrium Reflect (MR) that can be used to rewrite/repair the boot media on your PC:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from this link on a working PC: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

That will create MR bootable media. Then, you can boot your PC into WinPE using that media.

Have patience, as that can take a while to start and bring up the screen.

Once the screen is there, select the option to Fix Windows boot problems. It will then search for the OSs installed and list them, Select the one you want to repair and click Next.

It will now do the repairs, listing the things it has done.

When finished, select the option to Restart the PC.

If this worked, the boot repair succeeded and you will have your PC back.

[BigJohnny59]

Thanks for the very detailed description of what to do.

However, I am curious before I do all that, since the laptop boots to the SSD with no problems as long as it is the only drive in the laptop (and boots very quickly I might add given the speed of SSD's), is there really a problem with the boot files on that SSD?

Honestly, it's almost like the BIOS is "hard wired" to always give priority to SATA drives over M2 drives, and won't let me change it.  I can live with one drive in the laptop (since it is a 1 TB SSD and I really only use it for surfing the web in hotel rooms, checking e-mail, and photo editing).  But it would be nice to have that second drive.

Thanks.

[WAWood]

@BigJohnny59 

What you claim about hard-wiring could very well be the case -- and if that is true, you would have to go into the UEFI/BIOS settings with both drives connected and change the drive order so that the SDD is first, the HDD second.

And if what you are saying IS the case, then of course, rewriting the boot files will have no effect.

[BigJohnny59 · Accepted solution]

Please see my updated original post.  I have solved the problem.