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18998
December 16th, 2017 16:00
Boot Order
New Inspiron 5675. Just installed a Samsung SSD. Cloned and boots fine as long as the original drive is unplugged. Want to use original drive as storage and boot from the SSD. If I start with both drives it will boot from the normal drive. In the bios every option other than changing date/time is greyed out. Any ideas on how to access these settings to change boot order?
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vtoy116
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307 Posts
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December 16th, 2017 17:00
I believe your computer has a UEFI BIOS which means you cannot change the boot order. You need to hit F12 when you see the Dell logo at startup and select the SSD as the boot device and then re-initialize your HDD to use as a storage device.
blache13
3 Posts
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December 16th, 2017 18:00
Right, but I can't find any way to change the boot device. The only thing I see is the stuff that is greyed out, the options I would use on my older computer to change boot order. There are a couple of other menus that mention boot, but nowhere to choose a drive. Will check again, but I have gone through every possible thing I can click on and there just isn't any place I see to change it.
blache13
3 Posts
1
December 16th, 2017 18:00
Update: Found it finally. Apparently the PC turned the SSD offline when both drives were hooked up at the same time since they both have Windows and it could cause a conflict? Anyway, turning the SSD back online through Disk Management and restarting and then F12 worked. Guessing the BIOS could not see it since it was offline. Now it sees it and I get the option to change the boot device. Seems to be good now.
Another question though, can I just leave the old drive alone? Leave Windows on it and just use it as storage? Would come in handy if something ever happens to the SSD. Could just boot from the old drive without having to reinstall. Or should I format it to avoid any issues?
vtoy116
2 Intern
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307 Posts
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December 17th, 2017 06:00
I am glad you solved your problem.
With regard to your HDD, I would re-initialize it, not just format it (there is a difference). Windows on the HDD would not be updated unless you boot it up and any programs installed or changes made would not be made to the OS on the HDD. It would be difficult to keep it up to date, it would be simpler to use an imaging program like Macrium Reflect Free Edition to create a backup/restore image of your SSD on your HDD..
To re-initialize your HDD, Google search "how to re-initialize hard drive with diskpart". Here are the diskpart commands:
list disk
select disk 1
clean, convert gpt
create quick fs=ntfs
assign
exit
(MAKE SURE THE "select disk 1" COMMAND SELECTS THE HDD LISTED IN THE "list disk" COMMAND. BE CAREFUL MAKE SURE YOU ARE RE-INITIALIZING YOUR HDD.)