I have an ASUS S56CM with UEFI firmware, x64, Windows 8.
- Core i3 processor
- 500 GB HDD (496 GB and 4 GB marked as boot)
- 24 GB SSD (18 GB and 4 GB marked as OEM partition)
- 4 GB RAM
The system used to boot in under two seconds, and the desktop was responsive the next second. Only the HDD used to be visible in Windows Explorer. I installed Windows 8 Professional using Windows OS disc since the Windows 8 that was pre-installed got corrupted.
The first difficulty was that my disk wasn't recognised under UEFI. Rather I booted it under BIOS and I wasn't able to install Windows on any drive. The thing was: Windows under BIOS can't be installed on GPT style drives. I used GParted to convert GPT drives to NTFS drives and installed Windows on my HDD.
Now with Windows on the HDD with 4 GB HDD empty and idle, the SSD with 18+4 partitions are not in use. All my partitions including 4 GB HDD, 1 MB HDD, 18 GB SSD, 4 GB SSD are now visible in Windows Explorer and booting takes 3:27min with desktop responding after 2:26min.
The question is, how do I restore my device to its first state, where it booted within two seconds, while using my SSD?