Windows 10: Can't boot from newly cloned SSD drive

Hello, I'm attempting to upgrade my Windows 10 Home 64 bit PC from an HDD to an SSD, both 1TB in size. My goal is to have my SSD as my main boot drive and my HDD as a storage drive for my exceptionally large media files. I've already cloned my original hard drive using Macrium Reflect and currently trying to figure out how to boot from my SSD, but unfortunately upon selecting my new SSD from the BIOS startup menu my computer remains stuck on a black screen with a flashing white cursor in the top left.

Here is a screenshot of both my drives in Macrium Reflect post-cloning




As you can see I'm in dire need of freeing up space in my original hard drive (I've already cleared all my caches, trust me it's all media files *Biggrin ). I also switched my new SSD drive partition structure to GPT from MBR after cloning using AOMEI Partition Assistant. I don't know if this had any affect on my current problem but it's the only significant change I made after the cloning process.

Here is a screenshot of my Disk Management post-cloning




The original HDD is my C: drive and the SSD is D:

I should also note I attempted to use user SIW2's helpful program I found in this similar thread Cloned drive will not boot
I selected "D" under "FIX OS DRIVE LETTER" and under "AUTO BOOT REPAIR" I selected "C" as the active partition and "D" as the windows partition, but unfortunately I had the same results upon restarting my computer.

:)

 

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

I have to assume that the cloning software you used made the SSD bootable. You can only confirm that by checking the software's documentation and confirming that you followed the procedure correctly.

I also assume that you have made a system image of the HDD. I also assume that you made a Recovery drive or a System repair disk unless you have an installation disk [which can also do the same job]. You will need this if the cloning has not worked correctly
and you need to restore your system.

The BIOS might not be capable of booting from a SSD/HDD in the CD bay. Whilst that can be a convenient location for doing the cloning, you will almost certainly need to remove the original HDD and fit the SSD
in its bay instead.

Put the old HDD in a USB enclosure so that it can be used as a storage drive but do not connect it to the computer while you are trying to get the SSD to boot. Bootable HDDs & SSDs have "signatures" that the system will look for during booting and finding
multiple signatures will confuse it & probably stop it booting at all.

If, when the SSD has proved itself, you decide to fit the old HDD in the CD bay as an onboard additional storage drive then you will need to format it first so hold off on this until you are completely confident in the SSD.

- - - - - - - - -

When I did this job last year, I used Acronis TI to "clone" to the SSD. Actually, what I did was use Acronis TI to restore a system image to the SSD. That is, in effect, cloning it but I thought that it would be a more reliable way of doing it as TI system
images are tolerant of changed hardware being found.

• I put the SSD in the CD bay to do the image restoration.
• I removed the old HDD and put the SSD in its bay.
• The SSD booted correctly.
• After a while, I reformatted the old HDD and fitted it in the CD bay as an onboard additional storage drive.

Best of luck,

Denis

 

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