Sounds like you started on the right track but strayed off some where. This is just my opinion but the best boot drive for your equipment is a 32GB Sandisk Ultra Flair. Buy two right off the bat, the second one for a backup.
- They are inexpensive.
- They are easy to back up.
- They free up a sata connection.
- With the flash memory plugin they last a really long time - years and years.
Sounds like you are still in the experimental stage. Don’t worry about messing up and starting over. All Most of us have had to start over many times. The first thing you need to learn once you get a basic boot drive up is how to back it up AND restore from the backup. Here’s a good starter document.