Windows 10: Windows 10 won't boot after cloning HDD to SSD - multiboot system, other systems boot fine

I have 4 hard drives in my system. Windows 10 is installed on the last drive. When I try to boot into Windows 10, it state it can't find windows\system\winloader.exe.I tried recovery disk and it states it can't repair.I booted into Windows 7 which is on a different hard drive, where it auto-installed drivers for the SSD drive.Windows 7 has no problem in seeing the SSD drive partitions, including the Windows 10 partition and all it's files.The HDD and SSD drives are both 2TB, and I used clonezilla to do a sector by sector copy.

:)

 

Cloned HDD to SSD, how to set SSD as Boot?

I've recently got my new SSD and cloned the HDD to it. When I went back to the BIOS to set the boot priority and restarted the computer, it wouldn't boot Windows 10 ("Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"). My SSD is set to GPT, the boot is in UEFI mode.

Disk Management (Disk 0 = HDD, Disk 2 = SSD)

imgur.com

 

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

 

Need Help Booting from Cloned Windows 11 HDD and File Transfer Query

I'm currently facing an issue that has me stumped and in need of some guidance regarding a Windows OS cloning and booting problem.

Here's the situation: I used Macrium Reflect to clone my Windows 11 operating system from my internal SSD onto an external HDD. My intention was to downgrade back to Windows 10. However, upon attempting to boot from the cloned drive, I encounter the dreaded "inaccessible boot device" error. As a result, the system automatically boots back into my original SSD, which currently runs Windows 10 (after the attempted downgrade).

I've tried several troubleshooting steps, including adjusting BIOS settings, checking for driver compatibility, and attempting different boot options without success. I'm seeking advice on how to resolve this boot issue and successfully boot from the cloned drive containing Windows 11.

Furthermore, if booting directly from the cloned drive proves unsuccessful, I'd appreciate any suggestions on how to transfer files and applications (if possible, I understand some apps may not function properly due to the OS difference) from the Windows 11 cloned drive to my internal SSD running Windows 10. Doing this without manually copying each file and searching for its respective location would be immensely helpful.

Any insights, suggestions, or step-by-step guidance would be greatly appreciated.