Any tricks for booting SSD in optical drive caddy?

GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian

I've got an old Dell laptop that still has a semi-decent i5 and discrete Radeon 6600 graphics, but the thing has a dog of an HDD in it. I want to upgrade to SSD, but the way the thing is designed requires complete disassembly in order to replace the hard drive.

I have an optical drive caddy and I'm trying to install Windows to the SSD in the optical drive caddy. It installs fine, but won't boot from it no matter what I do. I can't find that drive in the boot options list, although it appears in BIOS.

Every Google search result turns up people recommending installing Windows to the SSD with the HDD disconnected, but that puts me right back to square one with a complete tear down and rebuild of the laptop. I don't want to waste that kind of time on a machine that's four years old at this point.

Any tips? Or is what I want to do just not gonna happen?

Comments

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian

    You can't find it in the boot options? Very odd.

    What about F11. F8, F12.. whatever invokes the "boot menu" as the machine POSTs? Surely a bootable drive should be in that list.

  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited June 2015

    @Ryder said:
    You can't find it in the boot options? Very odd.

    What about F11. F8, F12.. whatever invokes the "boot menu" as the machine POSTs? Surely a bootable drive should be in that list.

    Exactly! I don't see this drive named in the BIOS boot menu nor the F12 boot menu, even after Windows is installed to it. When I look at the drive from within the instance of Windows on the original HDD, it shows a full Windows install on the SSD. Did the boot sector not get installed perhaps?

  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian

    Did you ensure, when you installed it, that it created the system-protected area (the ~100MB one) on the SSD? It might have just latched onto the existing MBR if it could.

  • Check your ide cable and put the jumper on primary. I helped.

    GHoosdum
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited June 2015

    @Snarkasm said:
    Did you ensure, when you installed it, that it created the system-protected area (the ~100MB one) on the SSD? It might have just latched onto the existing MBR if it could.

    I'll check the disk partitions. Good call.

    //edit: It does have the "System Reserved" 100MB partition.

  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian

    Screw it, I tore the thing apart and put the SSD in the primary bay. Now I have to put it back together...

    primesuspectBobbyDigidrasnor
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian

    It's back together, and after a reinstall, Windows is updating.

    The worst part were those tiny little ribbon cables snaking throughout the thing.

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