You don't have to remove the HDD while installing Windows on SSD!

The consensus is that you should remove any secondary HDDs you might have before installing Windows on a SSD for two main reasons:

1) avoid formatting the wrong drive and losing backup data.
2) avoid Windows putting installation file on the secondary drives.

However, I think this only applies if you are worried about the first reason.
If you are starting out fresh for all your drives, or don't mind losing data on the secondary drives,
then you don't have to worry about the second reason. There is a work around to stop Windows from putting installation files on secondary drives without removing any HDDs.

I asked in a thread below about what's better between:
allocating unallocated drive space while installing Windows
and
allocating in Windows using Computer Management

The answer was they're both the same. So if this is the case, during Windows you can simply delete your secondary drives into unallocated state, and proceed to installing Windows on your drive of choice. Since the drive is unallocated Windows will not be able to find any secondary drives to put files on. And once the installation is finished, you can safely allocate and format the other drives.

I apologize if this is a "DUH, everyone knew that already" thing, but it was a revelation to me just now, and thought it was good to share so that people can avoid the hassle of opening up their chassis and unplugging the HDD and whatnot.

But if I got this all wrong, please correct me, as this is only my assumption based on shallow knowledge.

Regardless, it's still good practice to only have the HDD the OS is going on connected at the time of install. In all reality, all you have to do is unplug the SATA cable from the secondary drive, which is hardly very difficult to do.

Lvcoyote said:

unplug the SATA cable from the secondary drive, which is hardly very difficult to do.

Click to expand...

Man I heard that.
RGone...

My experience is that if you don't disconnect all other HDDs, Windows could create a System partition on one of these, ie. System partition on one drive and Windows on another. This would create problems if you try to create a system image.

I once forgot to remove the secondary HDD from my wifes system during an install and when I later pulled that HDD out to go SSD only the windows bootloader was missing. There is just one more reason why its IDEAL but not required to have only the master disk connected at installation time.

I've never removed the secondary HDD and never had any problems.... Windows installation doesn't just put partitions in random places. It can be annoying if it tries to boot off the wrong drive but that's an easy fix

kayson said:

I've never removed the secondary HDD and never had any problems....

Click to expand...

^this

All my partitions are on my SSD, no data loss. Just be cautious what drive you format and select for install. Then you are good to go.

While it is super easy to unplug a port, I have never bothered and never had any trouble either.

I do it just so it's one less thing for Windows to install when so much is going on. I also unplug my webcam and gaming controller.

Open case ftw, I can unplug HDDs with my toes.