Installed m.2 SSD and Windows; Now: Choose OS

I purchased an Acer Aspire E-15 and, on the recommendation of a review, bought a 128GB ADATA SU800 m.2 2280 SSD. Before installing the SSD, I booted up the computer and got everything working. I then shut it down, installed the SSD, and booted to the USB stick to install Windows. Once done, I rebooted and had to choose which OS to use, which made sense since I had 2 installed. Upon rebooting to the SSD, I then did a complete format of the HDD hoping to wipe Windows (which it did). But, it still asks upon rebooting, "Choose an operating system." I tried a few things, including downloading MiniTool Partition Wizard, and trying to copy the "system partition" from the HDD (and may have made things more complicated).

**I also noted that although the SSD appears on some pages of my BIOS, it does not appear in the BOOT page as an option to boot from. That only shows "Windows Boot Manager."

I have included screenshots of the Disk Management and each page of my BIOS.

In a nut shell, the computer boots up and everything works great, but I need to get rid of the Choose Operating System option upon boot up.

Thanks for any help!!!

This is what I would do - if you don't have too many programs and data on the SSD, then unplug the data cable for the HDD, boot the computer from a Windows 10 USB flash drive. Select the custom install option. Delete every partition on the SSD until it is nothing but unallocated space. Highlight that and click next to let Windows 10 set up the SSD for booting, recovery, and install Windows 10 to it. Once it has finished and the computer is booting into Windows 10 with the HDD disconnected, then reconnect the HDD drive. Use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to delete the EFI System Partition and OEM partition on the HDD and expand the D: drive partition to fill all the empty space.

Right now your computer is booting from the HDD, and that is the only option showing in UEFI because that is the only FAT32 EFI System partition available to boot from. Also you have a lot of unallocated space on the 128 GB SSD.

Alternatively, you could move the EFI System Partition to the unallocated space on the SSD (and delete it from the HDD), but then your SSD would still have a lot of unallocated space on it that you could potentially be using in the C: drive partition.

You stated you did a "complete format" of the HDD - but you really did not. You only reformatted one partition on it.

Thanks Eagle51 and NavyLCDR for the quick responses. I did what you suggested NavyLCDR and it worked perfectly. The only question I have now is, How do I access the BIOS? Even after shutting down and powering on, I tap F2 but no BIOS. It goes right to Windows (and REALLY fast too!).

The laptop is a gift for my son and is back in the box to be wrapped. This question is more for future reference should I ever need to access the BIOS.

Thanks again!!!

jwinchell7 said:

Thanks Eagle51 and NavyLCDR for the quick responses. I did what you suggested NavyLCDR and it worked perfectly. The only question I have now is, How do I access the BIOS? Even after shutting down and powering on, I tap F2 but no BIOS. It goes right to Windows (and REALLY fast too!).

Hold down the shift key when you click shutdown. That will bypass Windows fast startup on the next power on and let you enter BIOS with F2.

You can try tapping Ctrl+Alt+Del, which will pause the startup process and allow you to then press the F2 key to access the setup menu.