Windows 10 Installed on wrong hard drive

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HelterSkelter

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When I update to windows 10 I left for work and when i came back the installation was all done. when i booted up it was super slow compared to before, so i went and checked to see where the partition it was installed to was. it turns out instead of replacing windows 8.1 on the ssd it instead erased windows 8.1 off the ssd and then proceeded to install on the hdd instead.

i want the os to be installed on the ssd so it will boot faster, how do i get it to reinstall, but on the ssd?
 
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There are some installs that would use such as drive as dual purpose. Possibly why you only saw part of the drive.

Can a 32 GB SSD be used to install Windows 10? Physically yes, but I would not advise that unless you were going to use that OS to just play and not a primary install. Such an install would not be able to be upgraded since it would not have enough available space on the drive.

On my system, I replaced the 32 GB drive with a 250 GB and moved the OS install to that. Currently this install takes up 100 GB of the 250 GBs..
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I would guess the SSD is too small to hold the OS install and the archive it creates. Windows probably did what it felt it needed to do to complete the install.

If you don't feel that is the case, maybe you could attach a picture of your Disk Management windows showing the graphical partition information.
 
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No.. An SSD that small may be usable for the Intel Smart Response Technology which helps speed up the boot on large hard drives, but not to run an OS from...
 
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I think the minimum for Windows 8 is 20 GB. But someone else may have another idea in case there is some process to do a minimal install to a drive as small as 8 GB.

Let us know if you want to set up the Intel Smart Response again...
 
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There is one more thing I need to mention. There is a type of Hard Drive called a Hybrid drive with has a very small SSD physically built into the drive. If that is your situation, it does not use the Intel Utility but I believe is controlled internally.

I do not know if it takes a special driver but I did not think it did.
 
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Hi

That is too small a drive to put Windows 10 on.
If you are going to replace it I'd get at least a 100Gb drive.

The Windows 10 install isn't that large but unless you want to move your swap file to a slower drive along with other Windows components you'll probably need at least 30 gigabytes for your Windows installation.

I've had it make Windows.old files that were over 20Gb, and if these make the space too small the update fails.

I've pared down everything I can on my install and it's still taking 25Gb just for Windows alone.

Here is the breakdown on my install and I don't have the swapfile of any software installed except for a few things that don't want to be installed on another drive.

This is after removing all files that Windows created during the install as part of the process.

Link Removed

I'm actually going to put in a new 250Gb SSD for Windows 10 just so I don't have any issues with space in the future.

If you're a gamer a lot of games now place the save files in the Users folder which uses more space on the C:\ drive.

Mike
 
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System requirements for Windows 10 states 16GB
  • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster.
  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
  • Free hard disk space: 16 GB.
  • Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver.
  • A Microsoft account and Internet access.
Click to expand...
 
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Before we go through setting up the Intel Smart Technology, we need to confirm you do not have a Hybrid Hard Drive.

Do you by any chance have the model number of the drive?

If we were to determine it was not a Hybrid drive, you can use the Intel Icon in the Hidden icons by right clicking and starting the utility. There may be an option to accelerate the drive which can be used to set up the process. Once that is done, you would not be able to see separate drives in Disk Management. Perhaps you remember if they always showed up separately or not.
 
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Hi

The thing is that you don't know how much space Windows is really going to use.

16 Gigabytes may be enough for someone, but it sure wouldn't work for me, I've pared down everything that I can and my Windows Folder is still 25 Gigabytes.

That's with Recovery turned off, so I have no restore points, my swap file is on another drive and I don't have any of the fonts that I'd normally have installed.

When I move to my new 250 Gigabyte drive I'll be able to do all these things again, install my fonts, have restore points, and keep my swapfile on a fast drive.

I'd really like to have a restore point sometimes! LOL

Mike
 
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they have always shown up separately. how do i check the model number on the drive?
 
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OK, the large drive does not show with a model number in Device Manger such as you see below. If that is the case and you want to try to do the Intel Smart Response Technology, open the Intel utility by right clicking the icon in the Hidden Icons. I think it is in the Performance section but you may see an Acceleration option. Both drives should be listed and you should have the option to configure the small SSD as an acceleration or Cache drive.

Let us know what you see or attach an image.

 
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The drive does not seem to be a hybrid. The hidden icons are on the Taskbar with the small up arrow. Right click and select open application.

There are many places on line which explain how to set up the Intel Smart Response Technology, so you might check those for pictures.

 
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so i set it up and now my computer is unbelievably slow. videos take longer to load now than they did 10 years ago when i had dial up, but my internet is working fine. programs are taking 10-20 times as long to load. what happened?


EDIT: fixed the programs, but the computer still starts up slow as crap.
 
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The systems I have seen that use the ISRT have SSD of 32-64 GB. The 8 GB may be too small. The logical thing to do is disable the Acceleration and see if things speed up.

The 8 GB may have been used for some other purpose on that system. I would think that specification you have been identified in your paperwork which came with the system.
 
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