Can I tailor a recovery drive so that it doesn't need 2 target drives?

ejohnh · 12 Dec 2016

Hi
For some reason, which I cannot determine, my W10 system seems to require two drives to boot up properly,

As far as I can see the 2nd disk contains nothing that I need , but it was used to do a mirror copy of the system disk some time ago.I used to free upgrade to go from W7 to W10 and I'm sure that my W7 didn't require the two drives to boot.
Is there any way that I can obtain a legal W10 setup DVD/USB by giving my recovery key etc?
Thanks

John

NavyLCDR · 12 Dec 2016

Yes. Please start by posting a screenshot of your disk management. Widen the columns so we can see all the data in them:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of - Windows 10 Tutorials

Here is how to get an ISO file of Windows 10:
Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Tutorials

From the ISO file, you can either burn a Windows 10 installation DVD or a USB flash drive:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Tutorials

RolandJS · 12 Dec 2016

Elsewhere, it was posted if one removes the 2nd HD and runs the Windows repair/startup repair -- that should separate the two HD's boot material. Then, one might have to delete the boot material from that 2nd HD.

ejohnh · 13 Dec 2016

Can I tailor a recovery drive so that it doesn't need 2 target drives?-capture.png

I hope you can read the screenshot.. Also I should have said that it's the G drive which is the 'second' drive required when recovering..

NavyLCDR said:

Yes. Please start by posting a screenshot of your disk management. Widen the columns so we can see all the data in them:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of - Windows 10 Tutorials

Here is how to get an ISO file of Windows 10:
Windows 10 ISO Download - Windows 10 Tutorials

From the ISO file, you can either burn a Windows 10 installation DVD or a USB flash drive:
USB Flash Drive - Create to Install Windows 10 - Windows 10 Tutorials

NavyLCDR · 13 Dec 2016

ejohnh said:

I hope you can read the screenshot.. Also I should have said that it's the G drive which is the 'second' drive required when recovering..

According to your screenshot, the computer is both booting from and loading Windows from drive 0. It is booting from L: drive (and you can remove that drive letter) and loading the OS from C: drive. Drives 1 and 2 have active partitions, but the computer is not booting from them. You can disable the active flags. You also have 113+ GB of unused space on drive 2.