XPS 8700, change boot sequence, multiple UEFI drive

I would update the bios for starters and then get back to us.

Sounds like a cloning gone bad.

That's why I like to Image to file instead. When you (bare metal) restore with only the SSD installed, there is no question which drive the Boot Manger is truly using.

Swapping the SATA cables will not fix the problem. The problem is that you have two boot drives and there is no way in the BIOS to select which has priority. Since you cloned the HDD to the SSD you should disconnect the HDD. If everything works with the SSD you can re-initialize the HDD and use it for additional storage. There is no reason to keep the HDD as a bootable drive, since software and OS updates on both drives will be out of sync if you switch back and forth. If the OSs on the SSD and the HDD are different then you have to use F12 to boot.

I have been using computers for 30 years but haven't been doing much of this sort of thing with a system that UEFI before.  Before this you could just go in and pick boot order of devices.  So you would say check the SSD 1st and if that didn't boot try the next thing and so on... The problem I see is that uefi gives you that as ONE option and you can't pick what UEFI drive you want... Very stupid.

Switching data cables will do nothing, you need to start over from square one. I would start with a fresh OS install on a SSD as the boot drive with no other drives in the computer, remove what you need off the spinner drive, reformat it, and then reinstall your data so you won't have conflicts between your drives. All fresh except for your saved data on a flash or exterior drive. 

I must have not communicated something correct... The new SSD is working fine I can boot off it just fine.  So I don't have to start over again because that is done.  I assume if I now unplugged the old drive it would boot off the new one 100% of the time. 

But for now (until I open the system again) I just go F12 and pick the new drive to boot.  I am just shocked that the DELL bios is so poor it will not allow you to select the UEFI drive you wish to boot off of.  I assumed it was an option I am not seeing.

But when you go F12 all the UEIF drives show up in order of the SATA ports and it looks like it is always picking the one in the LOWEST SATA port first.  

So I assume swapping the order will fix that problem... but if it will not I can remove and then re-format that drive I guess... It just seems silly that I would have to do that and DELL didn't give you the option to have two UEFI drives so you could have two different UEIF operating systems installed and then pick via bios what one you want to boot from.

I expected better from DELL.

I wouldn't expect Dell to give you options like that, it sound like you are expecting too much. You might have to reinstall everything to get back to square one.

Not true, the Dell BIOS does not have the option to change the boot order..

F12 changes boot order one time.  F2 should change it for all future boots.

If you use F12 during boot, do you see two options for a Windows Boot Manager?

The fact you cloned it might mean they look the same to the system.  If you had just installed Win 10 on the second drive with the other one present, the boot files would have been placed in the already present EFI system partition on the old drive.

I always remove a Parallel boot drive so I will have a self sufficient EFI system partition on the new drive, which will show two instances from which to pick after reinstalling the old drive.

You might try removing the old drive to see what happens.

Same system, same issue, same recommendation from Dell regarding "Hard Disk Drivers" here in another Dell forum thread.

F2 into BIOS.  "Boot" tab.  Select "Hard Disk Drivers".  Likely you'll have 2 "[Windows Boot Manager]" entries corresponding to each bootable disk.  Try switching the order of:

        1st Boot Device    [Windows Boot Manager]

        2nd Boot Device    [Windows Boot Manager]

I believe it looks like this.