Problem when installing W10 in SSD

Hi.

I'm going to describe inch by inch every single detail of my problem. Thank you everyone for trying to help and please someone like me who is dying about this issue...

1) I have a 1TB HDD with Windows 10 and ALL my precious files.

2) I used to have Windows 7 in there. It was really slow. So then I updated to Windows 10.

3) "Marvelous, it's fast!". However, many devices (BlueTooth, gamepads, etc.) and Windows Update didn't work properly.

4) I contacted Microsoft service. After some research, they asked me to force an 'inplace update'. I did.

5) Now everything works fine. I have my BlueTooth connection, I can share files with my mobile, I can plug in every single USB thing I had here around...

6) ... except the Internet. It's gone. Simple as that. Ethernet into the motherboard doesn't work and neither an extra ehernet card, a WiFi card or a USB-to-Ethernet adaptor.

7) I asked again the Microsoft service and they just asked me to use an anti-malware tool which obviously said everything ruled fine.

8) I decided to do a clean installation of Windows 10, which I assume is what I had to do from the beginning.

9) Since I didn't want to loose all my files, I have bought an SSD.

10) The idea is: install W10 from scratch into the SSD and remain the old HDD as a slave. In other words: OS in SSD; personal files in HDD.

11) I downloaded Media Creation Tool from Microsoft website and created a bootable flash drive.

12) I plugged both the SSD and the USB flash drive and booted the latter. I also unplugged the old HDD.

13) I selected a "CUSTOM" install.

14) In the partition menu, I selected the SDD and pressed "NEXT".

15) Error message as following (Spanish):

Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition

16) Can't go any further.

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So, the issue is: What do I have to do in order to...

1) ... install Windows 10 in this new SSD from scratch (clean install)?

2) ... avoid losing files in HDD?

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Thank you VERY much!!!!!

Leave the SSD and HDD data cables unplugged. Boot the computer from Windows 10 install USB/DVD. Once you get the the first blue screen "install now" - carefully plug the SSD data cable in. Then continue. Sandisk recommends unplugging and plugging in the SSD power cable, might want to try that before plugging in the data cable.

NavyLCDR said:

Leave the SSD and HDD data cables unplugged. Boot the computer from Windows 10 install USB/DVD. Once you get the the first blue screen "install now" - carefully plug the SSD data cable in. Then continue. Sandisk recommends unplugging and plugging in the SSD power cable, might want to try that before plugging in the data cable.

Thank you very much! However, It didn't work .

Is W10 related to the motherboard in some way?

Night Hawk said:

Hello DiegoPonga Welcome to the Ten Forums!

The first thing needed would be to unplug the 1tb drive 7 was installed onto. Apparently the 10 installer may have already tried placing boot files as well as one or two temp installation folders onto the wrong drive. For a step by step clean install of 10 there are a pair of guides for seeing a Clean Install of 10 and a second for seeing a Clean Install of 10 without the Need to Upgrade First you can look over carefully.

The part of not seeing a clean install of 10 make an SSD bootable seems to be a recurring problem. You won't need to unplug the power plug but simply the data cable which will instantly make the drive totally invisible to the bios as well as everything else including the 10 installer! The 7 drive is however what needs to be removed from the equation as that can confuse the 10 installer at times. Seen more often however when having any non OS drives present that will do more to prevent a working install.

Thank you very much for your response.

My HDD is not W7. It used to have W7, but it is now W10. It has been W10 for about 4 months. Last week I made an inplace update that solved everything but ****ed up my Internet connection.

CountMike said:

Few questions:
Do you see SSD in BIOS ?
Is SATA set to AHCI mode ?
Is SSD plugged in first SATA port ?
When SATA is set to AHCI mode, SSD might not show up in usual place in BIOS but only in the place where you set which disk is first in the list to BOOT from.
You may also want to turn off Gigabyte logo screen at starting so it shows exactly what is going on during the POST.

Yes, I can see it. And yes, it is now in AHCI. Some people claimed IDE mode didn't work well with SSD for intalling W10, so I changed. Maybe I should turn back to IDE and then unplug-plug like NavyLCDR recommended?

Ok, I'll disable logo screen

This is my BIOS configuration screen. There are a couple of options related to IDE/AHCI. What would you recommend?

By the way, let's assume I buy a new motherboard. Would I be able to install W10 with the same product key?

CountMike said:

AHCI mode is essential for Trim to work and trim is needed to keep SSD from slowing down after a while so it's important.
That eSATA you can leave in IDE mode. "OnChip SATA Type" can be in AHCI mode too. That's native SATA on South Bridge while the other ones are probably Marvel chip.
If you still have OS on HDD, you may want to BOOT from it and initialize and format SSD in NTFS and set it as Active before trying to install windows on SSD again.

Thank you very much for your quick answer!!

It is somehow extrange, because the BIOS recognises perfectly the HDD and the SDD, while in Windows 10 (booted from HDD), it just recognises the former. The latter, however, is invisible in Windows. Maybe I need some cmd stuff?