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Both OS Drive & HDD storage occupy Local Disk C

Anonymous
2020-11-12T09:29:19+00:00

This is my first PC build, I built it with some advice from a friend & I've been using it for a few years now. I used a Samsung 850 EVO 250GB as the OS drive & a HDD with 2TB for storage.

The PC itself works fine, but I've always thought the boot speeds were a bit slow, given I'm booting from an SSD, but I didn't think too much of it & just accepted it for what it was, everything has been working fine after all.

However I've been doing some more research into PC building & of delving back in to do a few upgrades. Though I have seen reports of others booting into their desktop in less than a minute using similar setups, whereas I can easily wait around 3 minutes.

After watching a few build videos online, I've noticed that the boot drive is typically Local disk C and the storage drive is a separate drive altogether. Whereas both my SSD & HDD seem to be occupying Local disk C & that has me wondering if that is causing my boot to be limited by the HDD speeds in some way?

When I go into disk management, it seems like my SSD on Disc 1 isn't being used at all & isn't initialised, though I know that the OS is installed on there, whereas Disk 0 which is my HDD seems to be taking on all the work. I've seen a video on Linus tech tips going over a similar issue, however it was his HDD that was unallocated, not his SSD boot drive. 

The video in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMo8krAJd5Q&ab\_channel=NCIXTechTips 

I'm struggling to find answers for my specific problem and don't won't to risk tinkering around too much in case I mess up the whole system somewhere, so thought I would try asking here to see if anyone might know a solution to this or if this is how the setup should be?

Thanks for the help

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Neil D 32,835 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2020-11-13T09:09:48+00:00

    As windows created 3 partitions on the HDD during the install you will need to use Disk Management to delete the partitions and then create a new simple volume followed by a format.

    If you just formatted the HDD in File Explorer then you wouldn't completely clear the drive.

    Glad it all worked out for you.

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  1. Neil D 32,835 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2020-11-12T09:48:03+00:00

    When you installed Windows 10 booting from USB install media did you have bother drives fitted.

    The SSD isn't being used at all and windows and all data are running from the HDD.

    Create the latest USB boot media from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and when you are sure you can boot from it then disconnect the HDD and have just the SSD connected, you only need to remove the SATA cable to do this.

    Boot from the USB and see if you can install windows to the SSD, as it's the only drive it should just go ahead and create the necessary partitions on the SSD. Follow the prompted to complete the install.

    See what the boot time is now.

    Leave the HDD disconnected for now and post back the result.

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  1. DaveM121 872.1K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2020-11-12T09:42:11+00:00

    Hi Proxy_92

    I am Dave, an Independent Advisor, I will help you with this . . .

    From your screenshot of Disk Management, you have installed Windows 10 on the wrong drive, you are booting from the 2TB HDD

    Everything is on the 2TB HDD, and the SSD is unused, ideally, you operating system and installed applications should be on the SSD and your data and games stored on the HDD, this is the most efficient storage method for a PC with an SSD and HDD, because the SSD is so much faster than the HDD

    Honestly, to fix this, the best option is to completely re-install the whole system, but I see you have a lot of data on that 2TB drive

    The best method is to copy your personal files to an external drive

    Disconnect the HDD

    Then clean install Windows 10 onto the SSD

    When the installation completes, shut down the PC and re-connect the HDD

    Then open Disk Management and delete all partitions on that HDD

    When that HDD is just one Unallocated Space, right click that and choose New - Simple Volume and accept the defaults

    You will then need to re-install your software and copy your data back onto the HDD

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-13T08:38:34+00:00

    Hey, sorry for the late reply, I spent most of the day trying to backup all my files to an external drive.

    I've done as you suggested & now my PC boots up in seconds, so again I want to thank you both so much for the help 😁

    I take it now I can just reconnect my HDD & format it after booting into Windows?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-11-12T09:58:34+00:00

    Thanks for the quick responses guys, honestly I was afraid I may have done that, but at the time was certain it went onto the SSD 😅 

    I did have both drives installed at the time, yes... So I'm confident you're both correct

    I'll give your solutions a try & let you know how it goes

    Thanks again for the help

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