Windows 10: Windows doesn't boot after migrating from a SSD to Nvme. EFI partition is missing?

hello,I upgraded my PC with a nvme drive and wanted to move my windows to it. Windows was on a normal SATA SSD drive C. And I also had a 1TB HDD installed. D & E. I installed the new nvme and assigned it F. Then I used Macrium Reflect software to clone the C drive SSD to new nvme F. The process went smoothly and all the data seems to be copied.But when I restart and select the nvme as the boot drive, It says to insert a bootable device and press any key. Then boot back again with SSD and it worked. I did some digging and might have found the problem.I have attached a screenshot of

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Windows 10 install doesn't create a proper EFI partition when installing on Samsung 970 evo nvme SSD

Hello everyone!

I just spent 2 days helping a friend troubleshooting a problem he had on his computer trying to install Windows 10 on his Samsung 970 evo plus 500 GB NVME M2 SSD

He has an Asus X470-Prime pro motherboard which we updated with the lastest current bios (bios 6042 from november 2022).

We tested a lot of things to finally figure out that when we boot on a fresh windows 10 install media with full UEFI mode enabled on his motherboard (CSM disabled) and secure boot disabled as well, when we clean his SSD with diskpart and use the windows assistant over his clean disk to create the required partition by default, there is the default popup that says "windows needs to create more partitions...." that generates the "system" EFI partition and the MSR (reserved) partitions that are generated normally, but the "system" EFI partition is actually defective!

With this EFI partition automatically generated by the windows 10 install media, the motherboard cannot boot on the SSD and the SSD cannot be viewed as a booting option on the motherboard UEFI menu.

BUT!

If we install Ubuntu on the SSD using the same motherboard settings (full UEFI on, CSM disabled, secure boot disabled) on the cleaned SSD, Ubuntu installer generates another EFI partition and this time the SSD boots perfectly and is visible in the motherboard UEFI!

After this we boot on the same Windows 10 install media, we only delete the main ubuntu partition while keeping the EFI partition that was generated by Ubuntu, we create a new main partition to replace ubuntu main partition, we install windows 10 on this one and everything works pefectly!

So as the title of my message says it seems that windows 10 installer doesn't generate a proper EFI system partition for this SSD model. I never had this problem before so i'm wondering if this is a windows installer bug or if it could be linked to something like windows installer doesn't have a proper nvme driver loaded that is required for the specific nvme ssd model that could cause this issue?

Does anybody had this same kind of problem and figured out the precise origin please?

Thanks in advance for your help and have a great day.

Best regards,

Kev.

 

Migrating Data from SSD to NVME

Hi all. I recently built a new ryzen system and went through the entire windows 10 installation on my new samasung 960 pro NVMe and got everything to work. However, after doing so I realized I would rather just clone my old samsung 840 pro ssd, which was my original boot drive that contained my windows 10 install, to this new 960 pro. I was able to boot into the old windows ssd on my new system and have since wiped and re-formatted my 960 pro NVMe. I have macrium reflect installed and ready to go to perform the clone. The questions I have are as follows:

1.) On my original 840 pro windows install the drive has a System reserve (I*Smile drive partition, Healthy (Recovery) partition, and my main partition with the windows install. Do I need to clone all three of these partitions over to my NVMe drive? My 960 Pro drive currently has it's own Healthy (Recovery) partition, Healthy (EFI system) partition, and the main re-formatted empty partition.
2.) My original 840 pro drive is currently formatted in the MBR partition style while my 960 pro is in the newer GPT partition style. Do I need to reformat the NVMe drive to MBR? I've heard there can be issues when cloning between these 2 different partition styles but I've also heard that new bios's can handle things fine and that GPT is better for today's drives anyway.

Any help is appreciated!

 

Missing Boot record (Error code: 0xc000000e) after cloning OS from an NVMe SSD to a SATA SSD

Hi,

I'm having a bit of trouble following what you have done so far, but might suggest a trick that might work..

Your one picture says Disk 0 is the new cloned drive, but is showing a 256gb, not 1tb... Not a big deal, but I just wanted to make sure what I mention is correct..

Will the machine boot from the 256gb SSD with the NVMe and new 1tb removed ?

My impression is that you are now working with the new 1tb SSD that was a clone of the NVMe, and the NVMe that had the new 1tb SSD cloned back to it..

This is my suggestion that has worked for me in the past, but not always.. The way windows lays out the partitions in UEFI machines can be tricky.. Sometimes just 1mb of free space before the first partition can break the deal..

If your machine boots properly from the temp 256gb SSD, try this.. It will require that you make an image of the 256gb SSD and use bootable Macrium to restore part of it to the NVMe.. I chose the NVMe for this because it is a copy of a copy.. The best original
you have is now the new 1tb SSD..

Remove all other drives before attempting to boot with the NVMe after doing this..

After imaging the 256gb SSD, try recovering it's first Recovery partition to the NVMe and see what happens.. If that does not work, try Recovering both the Recovery and EFI.. If that fails, try all three of the partitions prior to the Windows partition..

If you still need to create the bootable media, don't even bother messing with the WinPE\Re version.. It is a real pain to create, and in my opinion, does not work as well as the Linux version.. The Linux version pretty much ignores any type of Windows fussiness,
and just does the job you request..

BTW.. Another method might be to wipe the NVMe and reinstall Windows... Then once installed and functioning, image the cloned 1tb SSD, then restore the windows partition to the NVMe overwriting what has just been installed..