Windows 10: Cloning to SSD

If your computer is set to boot from the USB flash drive first, it will just keep rebooting from the flash drive. Try restarting your computer with the flash drive removed.

 

Hi

I have tried that and it just says no operating system installed.

The method I tried was Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums

Everything is fine up to step 14 with windows restarting I do not get a step15 it just goes back to step 5 select your language.

 

Another update. The transfer to the SSD looks to have succeded to a degree. If I now connect the SSD to the laptop as an external USB hdd
the laptop booted up fine after asking for the key and downloading updates. If I now put it into the laptop I again get the no operating system available message. I then connected the original HDD to the laptop as a USB HDD and it will not boot. Am I missing something very obvious?

 

Hmmmm! Sounds like a boot order issue, where you've got multiple drives that can boot the device, and it's not clear about which device should have priority. I'd investigate BIOS settings to see what drives the BIOS recognizes, and try to solve it from that angle first. If doesn't work, please post again. Windows never fails to amaze with its infinite causes for vexation!
FWIW, I had exactly the problem you describe, and was ultimately only able to resolve it by reformatting the original boot drive (the original HDD in your post above) so that it was no longer bootable. After that, everything worked fine.
HTH,
--Ed--

 

It would help to see a disk management screenshot of both the original HDD and SSD:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of - Windows 10 Forums

Please be sure to widen the columns so we can see all the information in them.

 

Attached is screen shot as requested. I can see there are differences in C: and E: ie E: appears to be missing boot info for a start. What confuses me though is that the laptop will boot up fine if the SSD is connected via the USB port

 

The SSD has a boot partition on it. Two things come to mind - the HDD is obviously a GPT partitioned disk. Is the SSD GPT or MBR? If it is MBR, it probably needs to be converted to GPT. MiniTool Partition Wizard Free is the easy way to display if it is GPT or MBR and also has a utility which might convert it to GPT. I know the diskpart command will display GPT/MBR too, but would have to wait to get home to see how to do it in diskpart. Using diskpart to convert the disk from MBR to GPT requires wiping the disk, whereas MiniTool Partition Wizard Free can do it without wiping the disk.

Second, even though the SSD contains a boot partition (EFI System), it might not have valid boot information in it. For that I would suggest either Kyhi's recovery disk (which also has MiniTool Partition Wizard on it) or a bootable Macrium Reflect Free rescue disk. Boot from Kyhi's recovery disk, with the SSD installed in the laptop and the old HDD not connected at all. Run Macrium Reflect Free, there is a utility under the Restore menu to fix Windows startup problems. That will probably put the correct boot information into the EFI System partition.

Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

 

SSD is a GPT device. Will try your other suggestions to hopefully get a fix. Thanks

 

Hi again.
I think I have tried everything about to give up and keep to the HDD in my laptop. I have been using Macrium reflect to try to sort the problem. If I try a cloning operation of even just one partion of the HDD it gets 98% of the way then says cloning failed. Gives an error of
Write failed -22 Invalid arguement. This happens after it is trying I believe to do something with the trim of the SSD. I did try to do an image of the HDD which it said had succeeded but again I get the message no OS .

 

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free also has a migrate to SSD function.
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

 

I thought it was always better to make an complete image backup using Macrium Reflect, than to use ANY clone feature, for moving the OS to a new drive.

 

Tried that again with no success.

 

I would love either to work*Biggrin tried both.

 

I have cloned the internal HHD on two different Laptops by using AOMEI backup and a USB to SATA cable such as this.......

Maybe this method will work for you....

 

Well have tried everything else might as well give it a go. The cable you mention is the type I am using.