I have an MSI PRO B650-P WiFi motherboard with a 2TB m.2 SSD and a WD SATA hard drive. My Windows was booting from the hard drive, but I want to switch to the SSD. I removed the hard drive to make this change and planned to install a fresh copy of Windows directly onto the SSD. Now that the hard drive is out, I can't figure out how to boot from the SSD, and my computer just goes to the BIOS. I can see the SSD in the storage section of BIOS, but I'm stuck on how to proceed. Any advice would be appreciated!
3 Answers
If you didn't install Windows to the SSD yet, that’s your main issue. You can plug the HDD back in temporarily to grab the installation media. After making sure Windows is on the SSD, don’t forget to adjust the BIOS settings to boot from it first!
First, did you install Windows on the SSD before removing the HDD? You will need a bootable USB drive with the Windows installation to get this sorted. Once you have that ready, go into BIOS, set it to boot from the USB drive, and install Windows onto your SSD.
Make sure the SSD is properly connected to the M.2 slot. Then, in BIOS, you can set the boot order. If you have a USB or optical installation media ready, insert that first before rebooting. You should then be able to install Windows on your SSD.
So just to clarify, if I use a USB created from another computer, it should work fine, right? I don't need to use any specific drive?
You can create the bootable USB from another PC with the media creation tool. Just plug it in and make sure your BIOS boot order prioritizes the USB.