Boot Optiplex 5070 MFF from internal 2.5 SSD

Question

How do I boot optiplex 5070 MFF from an internal 2.5 SSD disk?

2.5-inch SSD is only available as secondary storage, does that mean bios will not use them for booting?

This page says - "

2.5 Inch Solid State Drives are only available as a secondary storage option and can only be paired with a M.2 Solid State Drive as the Primary Storage Device."

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/optiplex-5070-desktop/opti_5070_mt_setupspecs/storage?guid=guid-b9a8195c-d60a-4f32-b84d-145ebf7f3131&lang=en-us

redxps630 · Accepted Answer

No, that is just what Dell offered configuration. You can certainly make any storage drive a primary boot drive. If Dell ships you nvme ssd + 2.5 ssd, you may want to remove the nvme ssd then do a clean install of OS on the 2.5 ssd. But before you do this remember to switch bios>sata operation to AHCI (Dell default is RAID).

having two boot drives can be confusing, so if you decide to keep 2.5 ssd as boot drive, better not to install nvme ssd that has Dell installed OS.

dell00001 · Answer

I have those settings. and also tried altering everything possible in the Bios. But bios does not recognize the 2.5 ssd for booting and doesn't provide it in the boot option. SSD has OS installed in it.

redxps630 · Answer

Re:bios does not recognize the 2.5 ssd for booting and doesn't provide it in the boot option. It is perfectly normal that 2.5 ssd is not listed in boot sequence using UEFI bios mode. Instead Windows boot manager is normal in UEFI. The 2.5 ssd would appear in boot device only during old legacy bios.

Windows boot manager is the UEFI boot file that leads to a boot device, be it 2.5 ssd, nvme ssd, or hdd. The exact device name does not show in boot sequence, which is normal and should not be interpreted as error.

There are a few possibilities why pc does not boot from 2.5 ssd that has os. If os were installed on ssd when bios>sata was raid, it would not boot after you switch to AHCI. If os were installed using legacy bios, it would not boot after you switch to UEFI. please recall how os was installed on 2.5 ssd which may help solve issue. If you cannot recall, then do a clean install of os on 2.5 ssd which wipes previously installed os.

dell00001 · Answer

The OS on 2.5 ssd was installed on Optiplex 7010. It has an EFI partition.

A few days back we had wind storm and a power outage that destroyed the motherboard in 7010. So I bought this 5070 as a replacement, and now trying to boot the 7010's ssd in 5070.

bradthetechnut · Answer

If the Legacy stuff was off in the 7010, having it on in the 5070 won't boot and vice-versa. I'm with redxps on doing a clean/fresh Windows install. When I do that, I do it with the Legacy stuff off. From your photo below is what I'm referring to:

redxps630 · Answer

Do you think there is a possibility that the ssd was electrically damaged by the storm?  If yes, one way to find out to try clean install a new OS on it after wiping it (delete all old partitions).

dell00001 · Answer

SSD is good, I can browse the partitions on it when connected to the new 5070 as secondary storage, and booted from the new preinstalled OS.

dell00001 · Answer

Thank you guys. You are correct. I had to reinstall OS on old SSD with new EFI partition, then it worked. Small partition on ssd was not efi.

Optiplex Desktops

Boot Optiplex 5070 MFF from internal 2.5 SSD

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