SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

Alan, when you do a new install on a system with several physical disks, the installer may install the bootmgr on the disk with the lowest port number. That may not be the disk on which you install the system. And since it is not desirable to have the bootmgr on one disk and the system on another disk, we recommend to disconnect all disks except the one on which you install the OS.

Should that ever happen to you, you can move the bootmgr to C:. Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD But many people do not know how to do that.

Btw: There is not such a thing like MBR partition. The MBR resides on the first 512 bytes of any disk. That is a fixed area, but not a partition.

whs said:

Alan, when you do a new install on a system with several physical disks, the installer may install the bootmgr on the disk with the lowest port number. That may not be the disk on which you install the system. And since it is not desirable to have the bootmgr on one disk and the system on another disk, we recommend to disconnect all disks except the one on which you install the OS.

Should that ever happen to you, you can move the bootmgr to C:. Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD But many people do not know how to do that.

Btw: There is not such a thing like MBR partition. The MBR resides on the first 512 bytes of any disk. That is a fixed area, but not a partition.

Thanks Wolfgang that last bit - it makes sense to me now - as you know I am not one for the intricacies and vagaries of the file system/s

John, the thing is so easy. The BIOS looks for the MBR on the disk that you put first in the BIOS boot sequence. And since the MBR is in a fixed location, it always knows where to look.

Then the MBR looks for THE active partition because that contains the bootmgr. That is why there can only be 1 active partition per disk.

The bootmgr looks at it's collection of BCDs. If there is only one, it will load the OS from the partition to which this BCD points. If there are several BCDs (e.g. in a double or triple boot), it throws up a screen from which you can choose the OS you want to load. It then picks that BCD and goes to the partition where that OS resides and loads it.

As you can imagine, there are more details to it. But that is the general scheme of the booting flow.

whs said:

John, the thing is so easy. The BIOS looks for the MBR on the disk that you put first in the BIOS boot sequence. And since the MBR is in a fixed location, it always knows where to look.

Then the MBR looks for THE active partition because that contains the bootmgr. That is why there can only be 1 active partition per disk.

The bootmgr looks at it's collection of BCDs. If there is only one, it will load the OS from the partition to which this BCD points. If there are several BCDs (e.g. in a double or triple boot), it throws up a screen from which you can choose the OS you want to load. It then picks that BCD and goes to the partition where that OS resides and loads it.

As you can imagine, there are more details to it. But that is the general scheme of the booting flow.

Thanks my friend things are beginning to fall into place a bit at last - I really do appreciate yours and the others patience with me as I know I can be rather trying at times.

Just as a matter of interest Wolfgang could it be possible to delete the MBR from the HDD with out having to erase / format the whole second drive (HDD)?

That would eliminate the probability of the machine ever booting form that drive.

Or would it be just better to save all the data one needed to another drive and then wipe the HDD?

ICit2lol said:

Just as a matter of interest Wolfgang could it be possible to delete the MBR from the HDD with out having to erase / format the whole second drive (HDD)?

That would eliminate the probability of the machine ever booting form that drive.

Or would it be just better to save all the data one needed to another drive and then wipe the HDD?

The MBR gets put there when you in initialize (not format) the disk. There is no easy way to erase it and why would you want to do that anyhow.

To avoid the booting problem you just have to make sure that there are no active partitions on the disk.

You can erase the MBR by wiping the first 512 bytes with a Hex editor like HxD if you feel you have some need to.
>clean
...Inserts MBR boot code and the MBR end bytes 55AA as well as providing the quick clean operation.
>create partition primary
... Inserts MBR partition table information
>active
... will set the active status flag to 08 for the selected partition
> format fs=ntfs quick
... will set the MBR partition type byte to 07. Also generates the file system.

But just to confuse you if you insert a USB flash drive with the MBR wiped Windows will give you a messaging saying that the drive is unformatted and ask if you want it formatted. It will then insert an MBR as well.

Yeah I was just wondering if the HDD had interfered with the original set up of the SSD and it was/is causing my Load problem with the dots, and would just reinforce it if I connect it again hence remove the MBR form it.

I had thought it may be the RAM was slow to release the OS but memtest came up clean.

I might just try taking some out and boot with just one stick in (4GB) to see what happens as it is truly got me beat for an answer - unless the BIOS or mobo has called it quits