Windows 10: Installed new SSD, cloned old HDD. Numerous BSODs, then Boot-Up Fail, then Reinstall...

I installed a SSD in a Dell 5570 running Windows 11, intended to do a straight transfer on all the apps, files, data to the SSD from an pre-existing HDD. I installed it and used Macrium cause I heard it was best.Long story short, I booted it up, with HDD inside still originally. It said OS/Drive was corrupted, tried repair, still issues. So just tried to clone drive before taking it out I hoped I could leave in possibly but took it out as read it was necessary. Afterward I couldn't boot up the PC, Dell SupportAssist, or Windows & Recovery/Safe Mode, I've tried changing things in BIOS/UEF

:)

 

Unable to Boot to Windows 10 after Cloning old SSD to new SSD

When you say 'recovered the image to the new SSD'. Did you clone from the HDD to new SSD, and why the round about method ?

I've never cloned to an external drive, with the exception of when the machine has an external hot swap SATA port, but I

have cloned from SSD to HDD and back again using a SATA connection without any issues.

The boot sector should get written to the new drive by the cloning software (I use AOEMI ). The software also sorts out

alignment differences between HDD and SSD.

If there is a problem booting with the new drive, if you swap the SATA ports so the new drive is connected to the port the

old was connected to and vice-versa, the boot sector should get written to the new drive when you reboot.

 

Unable to Boot to Windows 10 after Cloning old SSD to new SSD

Hi,

My old SSD (with windows 10 installed) is not big enough, so I bought a new one,
Samsung 970 EVO with NVMe. After cloning my old SSD to the new one using
Clonezilla and replacing the SSD, I was not able to boot to Windows. I selected the Windows Boot Manager in the BIOS but it got stuck. Even if I got into Windows, it is asking me to reset Windows, which is not what I wanted. The troubleshooting
tools do not work either.

I searched online and found people saying it's probably the BIOS setup. I have a Gigabyte Z170XP-SLI motherboard, and I could not find the NVMe setting here.

I cloned the SSD by creating a disk image of the old SSD onto an external hard drive, and then recovered the image to the new SSD.

I know reinstalling Windows could probably fix the problem, but I don't want to do that. That's why I'm trying to clone my SSD. Can someone help with that? Thanks!

Best,

Allen

UPDATE 6/17/19:

When selecting boot device in BIOS, my old SSD's name is "P0: SanDisk X400 SSD 120G", and my HDD's name is "P1: TOSHIBA DT01ACA 2TB". After installing the new SSD, the name appeared in BIOS does not have the "P0:". It's
only "Samsung 970 EVO plus 500G". Would that be the problem? If yes, how can I fix it?

 

Unable to Boot to Windows 10 after Cloning old SSD to new SSD

I use AOEMI free . They use the term 'migrate' OS to new SSD (but it will also migrate\clone to HDD or HDD to SSD).

Ah! Yes, I overlooked the NVMe part of your SSD description. This does rule out any swapping of ports, unfortunately,

but the recent versions of the cloning programs should normally write a boot sector to your new SSD.

You could still connect the HDD to an internal SATA port rather than using USB though... or not ?

- The main difference between an Image and Clone is the clone is an exact replica of your C:\ drive including fragments and

unused space. With an SSD the fragments don't much matter, and when I clone to an HDD I always do a full de-fragment and optimise

(optimising moves files that may be spread out on the HDD into a contiguous order) after doing the clone, but this is

more about performance on the HDD than the final result on the SSD should I need to clone back to an SSD at some point.

(I make a new clone on a HDD prior to every Win10 version update as a precaution should the update bork my OS).

btw - The base of my Win10 is Win7 installed in Jan 2010 which has been cloned to two new machines (using new license keys)

prior to upgrading to Win10.

Still performs as well as a clean install of Win10 I did as a test (and never used because, even after spending half a day installing and getting

the basics sorted out, I would have still needed a lot more time dealing with a lot of games and software).

.