Windows 10: Can windows be cloned from an nvme drive onto an m.2 sata drive?

I have an old 512GB m.2 sata ssd. The laptop i'm using a lenovo thinkpad 20LE has widows installed on a 1TB nvme ssd, with exactly half of the drive being unallocated, because I cloned windows from another 512GB nvme ssd onto it and used that old nvme drive in a different pc. My intention is to clone Windows to the spare m.2 SATA ssd and use the 1TB nvme as extra storage in another pc, where I desperately need the extra space that pc can only use m.2 nvme drives. However, no matter what I try, the cloned windows on the the sata ssd never boots. It will either send me straight into windows

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cloning sata ssd to m.2 nvme

Hi so i'm planning on building a new pc and my main storage drive on it will be an m.2 nvme and i want to clone my current pc's main sata ssd with my windows install on it to the new pc, I already know how to clone sata ssd to m.2 nvme and keep all my old files and keep windows but i'm wondering if there will be any hardware problems since my new pc will have a completely different motherboard, cpu and gpu, if there is any hardware problems is there anyway to get around it? or would i just have to install windows by itself on the new m.2 nvme and then afterward copy all the files except windows from the old ssd

 

M.2 SATA to NVME clone: Windows 10 won't boot

Problem: Windows partition won't boot after cloning M.2 SATA drive to M.2 NVME. Simply returns to BIOS splash screen are restarts boot sequence.

Background: Cloning process was simple raw dd copy. Drive had EFI, Windows 10, and Linux partitions. Cloning preserved exact partition sequence, sizes, and UUIDs.

Linux partition needed minor tweaks to /etc/fstab due to the device names being different (/dev/nvme0n1px vs. /dev/sdax), but boots fine.

The disk is GPT, and I believe the original Windows 10 was UEFI - the Linux installation definitely was.

Boot sequence brings up Linux 'grub' menu first. Choosing the EFI partition then brings up Windows EFI boot menu. Fresh Windows install (see below) boots fine from here, old install fails.

Attempts at solution: I did a fresh Windows install in a spare partition and it boots fine. Using the new Windows installation, I've edited the BCD entry for my original Win 10 install. I have
the correct BCD device, osdevice, and path.

Questions:

• What else needs to be done to make Windows boot again?
• Are there any config file or registry changes that need to be made to account for the SATA to NVME move?
• How do I see boot error messages for a UEFI boot failure? No errors displayed and no log files that I can find in Windows or EFI partitions...

 

How to clone SATA m.2 drive to NVMe m.2 drive?

Hi sn2015,

Did you disable sata2 in the bios before installing the NVMe SSD?

I've found references to both disable sata2 and also enable AHCI. I'm not familiar with your bios options, what do you see for sata options?

Did you disable Secure Boot?

What is the make, m/n, & size of the new NVMe SSD?

I've read at least 2 sites that indicate a Dell 7370 is limited to a 512GB drive.


On one Dell site it suggested that all of the above was necessary before installing, coping image or cloning to an NVMe SSD.


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