Solved How to change the System Drive Disk Management Windows 8.1

Zigster

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I just bought a new SSD and did a fresh install of windows going from Windows 7 to 8.1.

I simply took out my old SSD and put in the new one, and installed windows 8.1 pro from a USB stick onto the new ssd.

2 existing HDDs were left on there, I'm also replacing them but I want to format them first to remove all data.

Disk 1 is the new SSD that windows was installed on. It is "Healthy (Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Drump, Primary Partition)"

Disk 2 is the drive I want to reformat and replace, it is "Health (System, Primary Partition)"

How do I make the C drive (Disk 1) the System disk?

I have backed up all the files I want to keep onto an external hdd.

Disk Manager.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
The easiest way is to disconnect the other drives then redo the install to the SSD. Once complete, re-connect the drives and format them.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaCenter K450
    CPU
    Intel Quad Core i7-4770 @ 3.4Ghz
    Motherboard
    Lenovo
    Memory
    16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Integrated HD Graphics
    Sound Card
    Realtek HD Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    HP h2207
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050@59Hz
    Hard Drives
    250GB Samsung EVO SATA-3 SSD;
    2TB Seagate ST2000DM001 SATA-2;
    1.5TB Seagate ST3150041AS SATA
    PSU
    500W
    Keyboard
    Wired USB
    Mouse
    Wired USB
    Internet Speed
    3GB Up, 30GB Down
    Browser
    SeaMonkey
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender; MBAM Pro
    Other Info
    UEFI/GPT
    PLDS DVD-RW DH16AERSH
Always best to remove all drives, before installing a OS.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
From what I saw, the installation was using MBR style. Normally, if you installed correctly then it should look like the screen shot 1 below with 350MB System reserved partition which contains the Recovery, BCD, and space for use with bitlocker and the Windows OS C:. If you don't use the bitlocker feature then you can install without the reserved partition.
In your case, since you installed Windows with Disk 2 set as Active at the time, the files/folders from the reserved partition are now sitting in Disk 2 so if you format Disk 2 now, your Windows will become unbootable. Folder & Files from the reserved partition are shown in screen 2

a.png

b.png

So, you have 2 choices:
  1. Reinstall Windows with only the SSD connected.
  2. Use:EasyBCD 2.2 - Neowin to move the Reserved Partition from Disk 2 to Disk 1 before reformating Disk 2.Use this post on how to move reserved partition: http://www.eightforums.com/installa...-partition-after-installation.html#post392105
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Disk 1 looks to me like a good system disk with a valid C partition. That partition was probably predefined and that's why there is no seperate 300MB system partition. If you are asking on how to boot from Disk 1, you will probably have to change the bootorder in the BIOS.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
If you run the command below, it will place the boot files in the C: partition. Since it is already active, if it is set to first priority in the bios it should boot. Use and Administrative Command Window.

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C:
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Great thanks guys, I unplugged the other drives and all devices and deleted the existing partition on the C drive and did a fresh install and it's all sorted.

Although something weird happened to my external HDD at some point during all this (didn't have it plugged in when doing the fresh install though) and it got converted to RAW somehow and now I'm running testdisk to fix its boot sector which is taking a super amazingly long time.

Disk Management.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
something weird happened to my external HDD at some point during all this (didn't have it plugged in when doing the fresh install though) and it got converted to RAW
This is a separate and coincident problem. Did you unplug the Elements without safely remove it ?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Yeah I think I must have, I had a lot of things plugged in and was switching them around a lot between the laptop and the desktop. Anyway I think I should be able to fix it with testdisk. Cheers!

EDIT: External HDD back to normal after rebuilding boot sector with testdisk.
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
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