So Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF arrives and I was able to setup Windows 10 without too much hassle including upgrading to the latest version. However, the wife wanted 'her computer' with the OS, apps installed, etc. which was on the drive in the waffled Dell Optiplex 980 SFF. Fine, no problem, I'll just swap the hard drives. I open the 980 and extract the drive in short order. Then I open the 9020, and first oddity is that the 2.5" SSD drive is loose, not secured and just flopping about the case. Not a huge problem if the case isn't moved but is a problem if you need to shift the case around. So, I hit up ebay again and find a drive adapter that claims it will specifically work for the Dell cases. In the meantime, I go to install the old wife's 3.5" hard drive after unpluggig and removing the SSD that's currently in there. I don't recall exactly what the specific issue was or even if there was an issue but I ended up leaving the case cover off and laying the drive loose on top. I tried booting the computer and it worked. Ok, we had a working pc for her.
Turns out she didn't need the computer in 3 days. Figures. Meanwhile, I decided to order a 1 GB crucial SSD drive and some external drive cases. In addition I found a used complete Dell Optiplex 980 SFF with video card, SSD drive & Win10 Pro for $200 so I bought it. Not sure why really. I guess one of those impulse purchases.
Anyway, the parts arrive. The drive adapter I install for the 9020 SSD drive only to find out that the sata cables aren't long enough to reach. Fudge puppies. That's probably why the drive was loose in there in the first place. So, I go and order a bunch of longer sata cables from Amazon. They arrive and I get it connected and working. I install the wife's drive into a drive enclosure and connect it via usb cable. I figure now I can boot off of either drive right? Not so much. I find that I can't boot off the usb drive. After searching the internet for hours and reading and trying various things I discover that in order to boot off of a usb drive you need to enable legacy mode in the bios. However, if that's done, then you can't boot off the internal drive and you need to switch back to uefi mode. When did they start that happy nonesense!?
I also migrated the wife's 3.5" drive to the new 2.5" ssd drive using some online free software. I don't remember which but there are plenty of them if you search. I also upgrade her windows 7 to windows 10 so my orginal mission was accomplished. Now I can take her usb drive that I put into an enclosure and usb plug it into any pc.
The Dell Optiplex 980 arrives. So what am I going to do with that?