Upgraded to SSD, EFI partition still seems to be located on HDD

[SamSegal]

Hi,

I've upgraded my desktop PC from HDD to SSD a few years back. Then, I've added another, faster SSD in which the OS is currently installed in.
The problem: If I disconnect my HDD, the system won't boot - I'm reaching the "reboot and select proper boot device " message (The SSD does show up in BIOS, and in its the same one that also has a BOOT partition).

I would like to solve this issue so I may keep my new SSD one day and boot without having the old HDD connected.
Attaching a picture of partition manager:

My suspicion is that the SSD has BOOT, but not EFI? Could it be legacy? Or does it just indicate where Windows is installed?...
Anyhow, I'd like to move the EFI partition to the SSD and perhaps add a recovery partition on the SSD - without formatting any drive.
Or at least without formatting the SSD drive.

I'm also not sure what the other partition are in the HDD, but I've used a Windows command line command to verify they are not "required".

 

[Assimilator]

Yeah, you probably cloned only the Windows partition to the SDD instead of cloning the entire HDD i.e. all partitions.

Follow the steps given here and you should be good to go.

 

[SamSegal]

Oh wow, it's that easy!

I'll try this when I get back home and update.
If it works, I'll attempt to boot with the HDD disconnected, and if that works then I'll remove the EFI, and the rest of the unused partitions in the HDD.

Thanks for the quick reply! Will update soon.

Update: that worked, thanks for the help again.

 

[SamSegal]

@Assimilator , I got an update:
I followed the steps in the guide you sent and managed to move the EFI partition to my SSD.
I've been using Windows 11 normally as I would and so I removed the EFI partition from my HDD (totally gone).
Now I've noticed a problem (which I might not verified existed before): I cannot boot into BIOS.

Whenever I start the PC, it boots directly to Windows, even when spamming DEL which used to work in the past.
Even using Windows custom UEFI boot management option in advanced startup - it just goes back to Windows.

I think boot process attempts to find the EFI partition back in my old HDD - and eventually gives up because it's not there anymore.
I'm gonna need to access the BIOS as soon I'll be replacing my CPU which in it's own could be problematic if I cannot access the BIOS.

Could it be related to the CMOS battery? will clearing it might help? I'm worried that if I'll clear it I won't be able to boot to Windows, either.

This is how Disk Managment looks like now:

You can see the 150 MB EFI partition on Disk 3. It is also the 2nd one (which means it's offset) - could that be an issue? I think the EFI partition on my older, Disk 0 drive was the first in order.

 

[Marcus L]

You can choose restart to bios from Windows power button menu then disable fast start

 

[SamSegal]

You can choose restart to bios from Windows power button menu then disable fast start

I tried with this option too:

I doubt this is the issue, the computer delays for at least 5 seconds before moving on to boot windows -I know how to attempt to boot into BIOS.

btw- reference picture, I'm not using a laptop for this.

 

[DaemonForce]

If physical access to the power button is difficult or something, there's this:

 

[SamSegal]

1. The command didn't work.

2. The power button is accessible, as it was not stated otherwise. In fact, there it is:

3. The issue is not triggering BOOT to BIOS, it is likely the actual BOOT to BIOS.

 

[DaemonForce]

Wow, double screwed. What is causing this? Is this thing structured like NAS firmware?
Do you have some old BIOS that refuses entry until every disk is disconnected? Good luck with that.

 

[eidairaman1]

Thats the problem with windows, always install the os with 1 drive attached only then hook up the rest and format those

 

[Assimilator]

@Assimilator , I got an update:
I followed the steps in the guide you sent and managed to move the EFI partition to my SSD.
I've been using Windows 11 normally as I would and so I removed the EFI partition from my HDD (totally gone).
Now I've noticed a problem (which I might not verified existed before): I cannot boot into BIOS.

Whenever I start the PC, it boots directly to Windows, even when spamming DEL which used to work in the past.
Even using Windows custom UEFI boot management option in advanced startup - it just goes back to Windows.

I think boot process attempts to find the EFI partition back in my old HDD - and eventually gives up because it's not there anymore.
I'm gonna need to access the BIOS as soon I'll be replacing my CPU which in it's own could be problematic if I cannot access the BIOS.

Could it be related to the CMOS battery? will clearing it might help? I'm worried that if I'll clear it I won't be able to boot to Windows, either.

This is how Disk Managment looks like now:
View attachment 388543
You can see the 150 MB EFI partition on Disk 3. It is also the 2nd one (which means it's offset) - could that be an issue? I think the EFI partition on my older, Disk 0 drive was the first in order.

If the BIOS/UEFI was unable to access the EFI partition then you wouldn't get any boot at all. So likely the issue is that your UEFI is setup to not delay at all before boot.

Are you using a Dell/HP/similar prebuilt? If so then DEL simply might not be the "enter UEFI" key, have you tried F2 or F12?

 

[SamSegal]

If the BIOS/UEFI was unable to access the EFI partition then you wouldn't get any boot at all. So likely the issue is that your UEFI is setup to not delay at all before boot.

Are you using a Dell/HP/similar prebuilt? If so then DEL simply might not be the "enter UEFI" key, have you tried F2 or F12?

I used to be able to boot into BIOS by spamming DEL, it worked on this motherboard.
The PC is custom built by me: Ryzen 5 2600, Asus B450.

If I disabled CSM, could this cause the issue? I think i've put it to auto last time I was there.
How can I increase the UEFI delay? don't I need to boot into BIOS or UEFI in order to change that?

 

[SamSegal]

Update: The no drives to boot from simply resulted in black screen.
The fix was to reset the CMOS battery. Gave it a couple minutes, managed to boot to UEFI on 1st attempt.

 

[Zach_01]

Nothing to contribute to the thread in terms of fixing OP’s issue as I lack knowledge…

But I have to say this:

No1 rule when installing OS on a system with multiple drives
1. Always disconnect every other drive except the one that you want to install OS. It’s the only way to ensure that all other/secondary drives do not affect OS upon disconnecting them after OS installation.

 

[SamSegal]

Nothing to contribute to the thread in terms of fixing OP’s issue as I lack knowledge…

But I have to say this:

No1 rule when installing OS on a system with multiple drives
1. Always disconnect every other drive except the one that you want to install OS. It’s the only way to ensure that all other/secondary drives do not affect OS upon disconnecting them after OS installation.

Hi Zach, as I mentioned - the issue was already fixed by removing the CMOS battery and putting it back again.