Windows 10: How do I boot off the partition I cloned, not the original partition

So I'm having a lot of trouble doing my Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade (long story, other threads here), and then I realized that if I screwed up, I could damage my Windows partition *Mad, which also contains like 100+ GB of installed programs (but no real user data). I figured that I should do all my experiments and trials on a spare copy of that partition. *Wink

My Windows C: partition is on an SSD, but I cloned that partition to a spare HDD. When I try to boot off the HDD, it still wants to boot off the SSD. How do I get that HDD to boot up properly?

*Redcarded

:)

 

Replacing an existing Hard Disk by cloning

I've never used EaseUS, but AOEMI Partition Assistant works well for cloning Windows.

With AOEMI you clone only the C:\ drive, not the whole HDD/SSD.

Other partitions can be done via the backup option, or you can create new partitions later

via Windows Disk Manager and copy data directly to the partition.

I have never tried using a external drive via USB though (I have an e-SATA dock on my case, which is the same as connecting to a SATA port on the motherboard).

Using a USB may cause issues with the MBR not being written to the cloned OS drive, but this should not

be an issue if cloning back to the original HDD as the MBR on the original HDD should still be viable.

Free Partition Manager - AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard

Note that when doing a cloning operation you start with unallocated space on the HDD you want

to clone to, not a partitioned space.

.

 

Recovery Image showing in File explorer

I have just cloned my disk to my new SSD. The Recovery image was also cloned. It is fraction smaller than the original file, but, I believe contains the whole file. The problem is that the recovery image partition shows up in file explorer, and I get alerts
that the partition is nearly full and I should do something about it. How do I stop getting the partition showing up in File Explorer and not get the alerts.

Thanks

 

From a Command Prompt (Admin) try running the following:

bcdboot C:\Windows /s C: /f BIOS

The drive letters in red will be the drive letter to the HDD windows partition.

 

NavyLCDR,

I just did the help file for bcdboot and it does not have an /f flag. Is BIOS the OS Loader ID?

I'm still on Win 7 SP 1 plus all patches.

Thanks.

 

the /f flag is the firmware options

BIOS, UEFI, ALL

With the SDD in place - we will add the HDD to the SSD Boot files (BCD)

Assume the HDD is drive letter H

bcdboot H:\windows

Now if you are disconnecting the SSD then you would use the command as Navy suggested
As that command will add the boot files to the HDD
Or you could use that suggested command - and then change the boot order in the bios to boot from the HDD first and the SSD second