Windows 10: BIOS won't recognise my new or old SSD boot drive

Hi, I've got a problem where my BIOS won't recognise my new or old SSD boot drive. My laptop currently has two hard drives in it: a 500Gb SSD (OS Drive/C Drive) and a 2Tb HDD (data drive only). My OS Drive had been running out of space and I wanted to upgrade it to a bigger version so I purchased a 2Tb SSD. I used Macrium Reflect Free to clone the 500Gb SSD drive with the new 2Tb SSD connected via a USB 3.0 hard drive dock. This seemed to go well and after Macrium had completed the process, the new drive was visible in windows and folder structure looked to have been replicated exactly. I powered down my laptop, opened it up and replaced the old SSD drive with the new one from the dock. I powered my laptop back up into BIOS mode but only the old data drive was visible. So I thought ok this is what the Macrium rescue disk I created is for. So I shut down and booted from the rescue disk. I clicked on Fix Windows Boot Problems but no disks appear in the subsequent pop-up dialogue box. So I thought ok start again. So I powered down and switched the SSD's again to put my old one back in. But now the BIOS doesn't recognise my old SSD either! So now I don't know what to do. I tried accessing the SSD via the dock on a different pc to check if the drive got corrupted somehow but the drive is accessible and all files and folders still appear intact and as they were immediately after the clone process. This is the video I followed up to the 12 minute mark where instead of rebooting and going straight into BIOS, I powered down my laptop and switched the hard drives around as I wasn't sure if I would be able to set the new SSD as boot drive while the old drive was still in the laptop and the new one was docked via USB: UPDATE: Using Macrium Reflect Free to Clone Windows to a Bootable M.2 SSD - YouTube I followed all applicable previous steps for cloning to a larger capacity drive including cloning and re-ordering of partitions and allocation of disk space. I only have 2 internal hard drive ports and one is already in use with a data HDD. What can I do?

:)

 

BIOS won't recognise my new or old SSD boot drive

Hi,

I've got a problem where my BIOS won't recognise my new or old SSD boot drive.

My laptop currently has two hard drives in it: a 500Gb SSD (OS Drive/C Drive) and a 2Tb HDD (data drive only). My OS Drive had been running out of space and I wanted to upgrade it to a bigger version so I purchased a 2Tb SSD.*Smile

I used Macrium Reflect Free to clone the 500Gb SSD drive with the new 2Tb SSD connected via a USB 3.0 hard drive dock. This seemed to go well and after Macrium had completed the process, the new drive was visible in windows and folder structure looked to have been replicated exactly.

I powered down my laptop, opened it up and replaced the old SSD drive with the new one from the dock. I powered my laptop back up into BIOS mode but only the old data drive was visible. *Huh

So I thought ok this is what the Macrium rescue disk I created is for. So I shut down and booted from the rescue disk. I clicked on Fix Windows Boot Problems but no disks appear in the subsequent pop-up dialogue box.

So I thought ok start again. So I powered down and switched the SSD's again to put my old one back in. But now the BIOS doesn't recognise my old SSD either! So now I don't know what to do.*Sad

I tried accessing the SSD via the dock on a different pc to check if the drive got corrupted somehow but the drive is accessible and all files and folders still appear intact and as they were immediately after the clone process.

This is the video I followed up to the 12 minute mark where instead of rebooting and going straight into BIOS, I powered down my laptop and switched the hard drives around as I wasn't sure if I would be able to set the new SSD as boot drive while the old drive was still in the laptop and the new one was docked via USB:



I followed all applicable previous steps for cloning to a larger capacity drive including cloning and re-ordering of partitions and allocation of disk space.

I only have 2 internal hard drive ports and one is already in use with a data HDD.

What can I do?

 

New windows 10 installtion on New SSD - wont boot unless old SSD present

It seems you installed Windows while the both SSDs were connected. This would have caused your current problem. Maybe it is sufficient to do this:

1. Launch the Disk Manager.
2. Right-click drive C:, then mark it as "active".
3. Shut down Windows
4. Open the BIOS and tell it that the new SSD is the primary boot device.
5. Disconnect the old SSD.
6. Boot up normally.

If this does not work then you might have to do this:

1. Disconnect the old SSD.
2. Re-install Windows on the new SSD, using the Media Creation Tool.

 

New SSD wont boot

Hi John

Boot into BIOS, is SATA Mode set to AHCI to enable booting from an SSD drive?

Is the SSD drive set a top of the Boot Priority list?

Did you try connecting that SSD to the SATA Port normally used by your old HDD?