Issue with installing software on two windows systems
Issue with installing software on two windows systems
I have two Windows setups on my PC — one on an old HDD running Windows 10 and another on a M.2 SSD running Windows 11. I originally used Windows 10 on the HDD, but after switching to Windows 11 on the SSD, I can't access it without using Windows 10. When I disconnect the HDD with Windows 10 installed, Windows 11 becomes unreachable; it enters an automatic repair screen but doesn’t fix anything. I’ve tried online tutorials, but so far I still have full access to everything. I want to format the HDD but don’t want to reinstall everything. Any suggestions on how to resolve this?
This indicates that after installing Windows 11, a boot partition was added to the other drive or was sourced from a Windows 10 HDD. The best solution would be identifying the correct partition and relocating it to the M.2 slot, or reinstalling Windows with only the M.2 included in the system. Windows behaves unpredictably by automatically setting up required partitions for booting on different drives without explicit input. Another option involves transferring the main partition from the M.2 to another storage device, reinstalling Windows on that drive, and then swapping back the newly created primary partition with the one you previously saved containing all your data. I've used this approach before for EFI conversions or when dealing with booted OS corruption—it's challenging to explain or perform without direct assistance. You'll also need specific software and sometimes specialized tools to carry it out.
Are there three storage options? You mentioned two. You should include the EFI Partition and the Recovery Partition. Now it's about determining which belong to Windows 10 and which to Windows 11. It’s a bit confusing.
disk 0 contains a hdd running win 10, disk 1 is an ssd from another pc that had windows but was formatted; the extra partitions stayed after the old installation. disk 2 is a m.2 drive with win 11—this situation is really chaotic and I just need to clean it up.