Windows 10: Cannot Boot off of Cloned SSD

I recently got a new ssd to use alongside an hdd in my pc. I tried to clone my hdd to my ssd using three different software: EaseUS Partition Master (Did not work since every action seemed to be behind a paywall?), Macrium Reflect (Did not work as I received an error about failing to create a volume snapshot), and Minitool Partition Wizard (Successfully cloned the hdd to the ssd but I could not boot off of the ssd, no boot devices were detected when I changed boot settings in bios). Could anyone give me a hand? My ssd is from Western Digital and I used their ssd software to wipe the drive so that I would have a clean drive to work with. (This is all with Windows 10)

:)

 

Unable to boot Windows after cloning it to SSD

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I understand that you are facing issues while booting the PC after cloning Windows to new SSD. I would like to know what happens when you try to boot the PC to desktop using SSD?



The reason you are not able to boot the PC is that the files required to boot Windows are still recognizing the HDD as the main drive. I would suggest you to try rebuilding the BCD files and see if you are able to boot the PC using
SSD.



Kindly follow the steps below to rebuild the BCD.

1. Create a bootable media and boot the PC using the media.
2. On the Install Windows screen, select Next >
   Repair your computer.
3. On the System Recovery Options screen, select
   Troubleshoot> Advanced options > Command Prompt.
4. Now type in the commands and hit enter: BOOTREC /FIXMBR
   
   BOOTREC /FIXBOOT
   
   BOOTREC /scanos
   
   BOOTREC /rebuildbcd
5. Restart the PC.

If the issue persists, please get back to us with the results of the troubleshooting steps to assist you further.



Regards,

Prakhar Khare

Microsoft Community – Moderator

 

Moving to SSD. Clone or not to clone?

Part of how I keep my SSD fast is to clone it to a platter drive, then clone back. You just want to make sure that you are only cloning teh used space, and not the empty space.


So, again, I isntall Windows to the ssd. Clone to platter drive, then clone back.

I am not sure why, but if I do not do the clone step, the drive's speed, and windows booting, decreases substantially within a week or so.

I am using a Corsair F60 SSD and a Western Digital 500AAKS as drives, and using the free version of Acronis that WD provides, if any of that matters. I am not sure, at this point.

 

boot from cloned ssd installed on cd drive

Mahesh,

I do not know what is wrong because I do not know anything about the cloning tool you used. I suspect that the missing element might well be the MBR - this needs to be included as it is the MBR that the computer looks to in order to identify the disk to
boot from.

Note that my SSD did not end up with those two additional partitions before the boot partition:-

• Mine just has the System reserved partition before the boot partition. Your first one was probably called the System reserved partition on your original HDD but has lost its name in the cloning - that makes me doubt the success of the cloning procedure/tool.
• I don't know what the original purpose of that 16MB RAW partition was.

• I followed the procedure suggested by the regular forum contributor JWStuart at
  
  How to move from a smaller SSD to a larger SSD. I know that JWS was changing SSDs rather than replacing an HDD with an SSD but the procedure was still generally applicable.
  
• I used
  Acronis TI to restore a system image to the SSD. It was bootable straightaway. [Acronis have always provided a free 30 day trial version that you might wish to use]
• I used
  MiniTool Partition Wizard to set up "partition alignment" / "partition offset" but that was definitely used in setting up afterwards [the SSD booted beforehand with no problems].

The only sensible suggestion I can make is that you repeat the whole procedure using JWS's guide and basing it on a system image of your HDD that is restored to the SSD.

You might also benefit from changing the title of your question [click on the blue
Edit control just underneath the question]. If you call it something like
Cloned SSD does not boot then you are more likely to attract the attention of those skilled in this subject such as JWStuart.

Best of luck,

Denis