Windows 10: 11/23/20 – Strange USB Boot problem that I’m thinking is Windows oriented

Something I’ve always done over the years is run weekly 100% mirror image bootable backup clones of the C-drive in my ThinkPad laptops…using spare USB cable connected SSD hard drives. [ connect the drive, run ‘Acronis True Image’ cloning software that I use, done ]

From time to time I’d boot the laptop from a USB backup drive, always worked perfectly…but mostly I’d just make the weekly backups for peace of mind in case the C-drive should ever fail.


But discovered a pesky little problem as I’ve been setting up a new ThinkPad P52 to replace my older P51. After I finished setting up the new P52 C-drive, I cloned it to a USB attached hard drive like I’ve done on the P51 a couple hundred times…and then just to be sure it worked, tried to boot the P52 back from the cloned USB attached drive.
Failed…blue screen error message: “Inaccessible Boot Device”.


TROUBLE SHOOTING SUMMARY SO FAR:

The P52 ThinkPad boots up normally / works perfectly from its internal C-drive.

All USB flash drives and/or USB cabled hard drives that I plug in all operate normally.
The P52 laptop sees them all, adds them to the list of other drives in the laptop c, d, e, f, etc..

I can read/ write to them business as usual, click open / look at content inside normally.

My cloning software works like always because I’ve taken cloned copies and physically installed them inside the laptop as the internal C-drive and the laptop comes right up normally / works perfectly, etc. I simply cannot BOOT FROM a USB connected clone any longer.


I’ve spent hours over a few days Internet searching, trying this, trying that, no help.
I’ve tried different SSD hard drives, different cables, different USB ports, no help.

Ran a few check-disk kinds of scans and the SSD’s are rock solid as always.

Ensured all Lenovo ThinkPad updates are downloaded and installed.
Ensured all Windows updates are downloaded and installed.

Then started trying the approach of uninstalling Windows updates one at a time but it’s time consuming and several of the ‘security related Win updates wouldn’t let me uninstall them.


So I decided to go back and ensure everything sill worked OK on the original P51, and to my surprise it fails the same way. Been quite a while since I actually did a USB Boot on the original P51 so I assume something must have changed during the past several months and I’m thinking the Win 10 Pro software is the common denominator.

Thought I’d check here with the Brain Trust and see if anyone might know of a specific Win 10 related finding / fix for this situation…thanks a lot in advance.

:)

 

USB boot for bios update

Did the first step. It already doesn't work. Note the capacities and drive letters M:/N: The HP utility is about to format my raid-1 volume containing my 2 750gb drives. It thinks it's the usb stick. I can not select any other drives in the HP utility. My 512mb usb stick is U:.

Any other suggestions?

 

Strange boot problem

I am trying to get my head round the 6 steps above before having a go. If you can expand on them it may give me a bit more confidence. I cant lose the whole contents of my PC.
Have attached details as you suggested.

 

USB problem

I have difficulty booting up computer at usb ports detecting and I think of my webcam cause it.
The computer boot screen is having a big delay it freeze for 30 or 60 seconds at the usb scanning step. Sometimes in Windows it says Unknown hardware at windows opening. Could it be my usb ports that begin to sucks or my webcam is having trouble ? (No other usb devices plugged other than wireless usb key for keyboard-mouse combo)