Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: How is my PC booting from an empty hard drive?

Posted on December 1, 2025

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Question from Marvin: I read your article about upgrading a computer by switching to an SSD to make it run faster.

The following weekend I went to Best Buy and bought a 1TB SSD and cloned the contents of the existing 1TB hard disk onto it.

I then wiped the hard drive and formatted it. Then I installed the SSD in the computer, leaving the now-blank hard drive in place to store my data files on.

Everything works perfectly but something has me baffled. When I look in the BIOS it says the hard drive is set as the boot drive.

How is this machine booting into Windows when the boot drive is blank?

[Read more…]

Monthly Tech Giveaway – December 2025

Posted on November 30, 2025

Note: The links on this page are affiliate links.

December’s winner will receive a fantastic GMKtec Mini Desktop Computer.

It’s amazing how much computing power they’re packing into such tiny packages these days. True tower desktop power in a small case that’s about the size of a brick.

All subscribers to the Standard edition of my Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter have an equal chance to win.

Premium subscribers have two chances to win (their email addresses are added to the “pot” twice).

Not a subscriber? Just enter your email address in the sign-up form on this page.

Once subscribed you’ll be eligible to win each month’s drawing – starting with this month. Better yet, opt for a Premium subscription for double the chance to win!

The drawing for this month’s prize will be held on December 31 and the winner will be notified by email. The winner will be selected at random.

Good luck!

Why you should always travel with a portable surge protector/USB charger

Posted on November 29, 2025

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Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

If you’re a frequent traveler you’re probably well aware of just how scarce electrical outlets can be at airports and hotel rooms.

With all the gadgets we need to power and keep charged up these days, available outlets tend to get snapped up pretty quickly.

And of course there’s also the danger of using public USB charging stations.

Luckily, there’s on very simple and very effective way to avoid both of these problems at the same time… [Read more…]