Thanks for the replies
The big question is, what caused the really MEAN destruction of the W10 OS on the original drive? The secondary question is, can I ever have an SSD 'front end?'
This 2TB had W 8.1 which was upgraded free to W10. The 8.1 was on an unopened boxed Lenovo which I picked up cheap. (a young housewife who lived just yards from the place I was already going 60 miles away! You'd think that would be a good omen.
)
All went well and I loaded the NVidia software which made a considerable improvement when used with a Samsung 22" Put other odds on like Firefox - nothing much. It then sat awaiting the day I could make it my main computer.
However, after all my 'Connecting' woes, a new router made the old one so quick I hadn't bothered for weeks though I kept updates going.
It worked perfectly, but I wanted - still want - a solid state front end. Oh, and if I can wangle 'Pro' at the same time, it would be a bonus.
Don't however want to tee MS off as they have been fantastic with me while in Texas. There was no doubt when I phoned them that they could see my software packages - and even how many seats I'd used.
Now it seems I'll need a new OS just to have that solid state 'front end'.
BUT, what caused the drive to be corrupted when I added the SSD as a second drive?
Guess 1. MS in some form, could see there was an OS on the second drive and levied some mean trick.
Guess 2. Trying the SSD with another copy of W10 on it (their upgrade on another machine) put a record in MS's database which then jiggered the original OS when that was reinstated.
Yes, the system could only get going by a full automatic reinstall presumably from a partition. All other options failed, one saying it had fixed the problem, but hadn't.
I've just booted it this AM and it's running. The repair said it had loaded updates so it's possible
everything came via the net. (it took the fat end of an hour) But when I partitioned the drive originally, there was a 'rescue partition'.