Bluescreen error on cloned hard drive

[hbenthow]

I recently bought a new computer. I have planned from the beginning to clone the C drive, remove the original C drive, use the clone as my C drive, and keep the original as a backup in case anything happens to my system.

I used the bootable disc of EaseUS ToDo Backup Free Edition to clone the drive that came with the computer (a 250 GB Seagate drive) to a Western Digital Black 1TB drive that I bought. The cloning process seemed to go off without a hitch, and I had EaseUS shut down my computer automatically when it was done cloning (so as to avoid booting up with both drives attached to my computer).

But when I replaced the original drive with my clone, all I got when booting up was a bluescreen with the following message:

Recovery

Your PC/Device needs to be repaired

A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed

Error code: 0xc000000e

You'll need recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/Device manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings

Pressing Enter did nothing. Pressing F8 changed the bluescreen message to the following:

Your PC/Device needs to be repaired

The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.

File: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Error code: 0xc000000e

You'll need recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/Device manufacturer.

Press Enter to try again
Press F8 for Startup Settings

I thought that maybe something had gone wrong with the cloning process, so I tried cloning the drive a second time. But, alas, I got the exact same results. Does anyone know what the problem could be, and how to fix it?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Does anyone know what the problem could be, and how to fix it?

BCD store needs fixing. That's rather common problem after cloning.
Boot from windows installation media/command prompt and execute:
bootrec /rebuildbcd

 

[hbenthow]

Does anyone know what the problem could be, and how to fix it?

BCD store needs fixing. That's rather common problem after cloning.
Boot from windows installation media/command prompt and execute:
bootrec /rebuildbcd

The problem is that the computer I bought is refurbished, and did not come with Windows installation media.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Not a problem. Create one.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[hbenthow]

Not a problem. Create one.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows8
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Thank you for the advice. I'll try that and tell you how it goes.

 

[hbenthow]

Does anyone know what the problem could be, and how to fix it?

BCD store needs fixing. That's rather common problem after cloning.
Boot from windows installation media/command prompt and execute:
bootrec /rebuildbcd

I'm the the process of trying what you described, but the command prompt gave me this message:

What does this mean? Does it mean that the cloned drive is labeled as drive D instead of C? And if so, what should I do about it?

What should I do?

 

[SkyNetRising]

What should I do?

Read the question and type appropriate answer.
Y - add installation to boot list
N - do not add installation to boot list
A - add all installations to boot list.

Hint - you should answer: Y

 

[hbenthow]

What should I do?

Read the question and type appropriate answer.
Y - add installation to boot list
N - do not add installation to boot list
A - add all installations to boot list.

Hint - you should answer: Y

Thank you. I did it and it worked.

However, I now have two new problems. Firstly, the original drive was a 250 GB drive. The one I cloned to is a 1TB drive. But now that I have the cloned 1TB drive up and running, it still "acts" like a 250 GB drive. Windows states that it has "200 GB free of 232 GB". Is there any way to unlock the rest of the space on the drive (preferably without creating a separately-named partition)?

Secondly, when I opened the Windows start menu and types "Activate" to make sure that Windows was activated, it couldn't find the activation settings. And searching for "Activate" in the Windows Settings module gives the message "Search results aren't quite ready yet, but we're working on getting them together. Try again in a few minutes."

 

[SkyNetRising]

What Windows version are you using? You can check activation status in Control Panel/System.
Post screenshot from Disk Management.

 

[hbenthow]

What Windows version are you using?

Windows 10 Pro.

You can check activation status in Control Panel/System.

Even if that is so, a cursory Google search shows that the ""Search results aren't quite ready yet" error is a problem that sometimes pops up if something isn't quite right with a Windows 10 installation, and it can severely limit what one can do with Windows 10.

That said, when I went to the Control Panel to check if the computer was registered, I saw a warning that there are issues with the hard drive, and that I needed to click the button to fix them, and that it would restart my computer to fix the error. The computer is now taking quite a while to restart (it is still showing a "Getting Windows ready - Don't turn off your computer" message). I'll see what happens, and tell you the results.

Post screenshot from Disk Management.

I plan on doing so after this process is finished (unless the aforementioned Windows process fixes the problem on its own).

 

[hbenthow]

What Windows version are you using? You can check activation status in Control Panel/System.
Post screenshot from Disk Management.

I can't find the place within Control Panel/System to check whether Windows is activated. Either way, I'm having serious problems searching for various services within Windows. There are many Windows settings that simply can't be successfully searched for, due to the search malfunction. (Even searching for something as simple as "Troubleshooter" in the Windows Start Menu results in a "These results may be incomplete" message.) It's now far beyond simply a matter of finding out whether Windows is registered.

Here's the screenshot from Disk Management:

EDIT: I was finally able to find out that Windows is indeed activated. However, I had to do it by manually going through various directories within the Settings console. The search functions within Windows are still not working correctly. I'm still getting "Search results aren't quite ready yet" and "These results may be incomplete" errors.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'd suggest that you do not increase C: partition, but create new partition in unused space and store your userdata/games there.
That way you'll be able to easily clone windows partition to SSD, if you later decide to upgrade.

But if you're sure you want to increase C: , then you'll have to delete recovery partition.
You can do that from diskpart.

• 
  diskpart
  list disk
  select disk x (x - number of your disk, should be 0)
  list partition
  select partition y (y - number of 500mb recovery partition, should be 3)
  delete partition
  exit

Make sure you select the right disk and right partition. Data in that partition will be lost.
After that you can use Disk Management to extend C: partition.

 

[hbenthow]

I'd suggest that you do not increase C: partition, but create new partition in unused space and store your userdata/games there.
That way you'll be able to easily clone windows partition to SSD, if you later decide to upgrade.

Currently, the partition size issue is on the back burner. I'm more worried about the search issues.

I just put in the original hard drive, and it also has the search issues (it didn't when I had first booted up with it, before the clone). I need to find out how to fix this problem before I do anything else.

 

[hbenthow]

I'd suggest that you do not increase C: partition, but create new partition in unused space and store your userdata/games there.
That way you'll be able to easily clone windows partition to SSD, if you later decide to upgrade.

But if you're sure you want to increase C: , then you'll have to delete recovery partition.
You can do that from diskpart.

• 
  diskpart
  list disk
  select disk x (x - number of your disk, should be 0)
  list partition
  select partition y (y - number of 500mb recovery partition, should be 3)
  delete partition
  exit

Make sure you select the right disk and right partition. Data in that partition will be lost.
After that you can use Disk Management to extend C: partition.

EDIT: After posting this message, I discovered that the cloned drive apparently does have a problem. It won't shut down. When I try to turn the computer off in the start menu, it just logs out of my account but won't turn off. Even trying to turn it off from the lock screen doesn't work. It will restart, but it won't shut down. I never had this problem with the drive after cloning it with EaseUS. It may be an Acronis-related issue.

I've solved the search problem. It wasn't a cloning-related problem. It also existed on the original drive. I used an in-place upgrade with a Windows 10 disc to completely reset my system (using the original drive), and that fixed it.

I then cloned the drive again, this time using the free Western Digital edition of Acronis True Image. It worked better than EaseUs had, and didn't require fixing the BCD Store.

However, I'm again having partitioning issues. I used the Acronis "Proportional" clone option, which resizes the clone's partitions to fit a different-sized hard drive than the original. What I did not anticipate was exactly how Acronis would choose to do this. It gave me a huge 698.40 GB recovery partition.

For the sake of clarity, here's what the partitions on my old computer (which I had to replace with this new one because the old computer is failing) looked like:

Now, here's what the partitions on the first clone I made from the drive of my new computer looked like (identical to the original drive of my new computer, except for the extra unallocated space (I don't remember whether the original drive had any unallocated space or not, but if it did, it was only a fairly small percentage of the drives' capacity):

Now, here are the results of my latest clone, using Acronis:

Now, what I would like is to have the drive partitioned similarly to how my old computer's hard drive was partitioned. I am considering wiping the cloned drive and cloning it again with Acronis (this time using the custom option that would apparently allow me to manually set the sizes of each partition), unless there is a better way for me to do it without doing another clone. But I need to know the following:

1. Is cloning the drive again using Acronis' custom partition size option my best choice, or is there an easier and safer way for me to do it within the cloned drive (such as a Windows feature or a program like EaseUS Partition Master)?

2. Is it necessary to leave any space on the hard drive unallocated? If so, how much is advisable? My old computer had 451 MB unallocated.

3. How much space is needed for the "System" partition? The old computer had 597 MB, whereas my new computer's original hard drive only had 100 MB.

4. How large of a recovery partition do I need? My old computer had 450 MB, whereas my new computer came with 500 MB.

5. Regarding the SSD issue, is it absolutely necessary to have one's User Data in a separate partition from C to be able to successfully clone the drive to an SSD later?

 

[SkyNetRising]

1. Is cloning the drive again using Acronis' custom partition size option my best choice, or is there an easier and safer way for me to do it within the cloned drive (such as a Windows feature or a program like EaseUS Partition Master)?
2. Is it necessary to leave any space on the hard drive unallocated? If so, how much is advisable? My old computer had 451 MB unallocated.
3. How much space is needed for the "System" partition? The old computer had 597 MB, whereas my new computer's original hard drive only had 100 MB.
4. How large of a recovery partition do I need? My old computer had 450 MB, whereas my new computer came with 500 MB.
5. Regarding the SSD issue, is it absolutely necessary to have one's User Data in a separate partition from C to be able to successfully clone the drive to an SSD later?

1 - No need.
2 - On mechanical hard drive that is not necessary. On SSD it's recommended to leave some space unpartitioned ~10%. It's called over provisioning.
3 - System partition holds only bootloader. 100MB is ok. If you want to put something more in there, then increase accordingly.
4 - On windows 10 recovery partition is not necessary. Those are remains of previous OS versions (windows 7 or windows 8)
5 - When migrating from HDD to SSD, SSD usually is significantly smaller than HDD. You have to manage used space in OS partition to be smaller than target drive or else it is not possible to clone. That's why it's a good idea to keep OS partition separate from user data partition.

 

[hbenthow]

1 - No need.
2 - On mechanical hard drive that is not necessary. On SSD it's recommended to leave some space unpartitioned ~10%. It's called over provisioning.
3 - System partition holds only bootloader. 100MB is ok. If you want to put something more in there, then increase accordingly.
4 - On windows 10 recovery partition is not necessary. Those are remains of previous OS versions (windows 7 or windows 8)
5 - When migrating from HDD to SSD, SSD usually is significantly smaller than HDD. You have to manage used space in OS partition to be smaller than target drive or else it is not possible to clone. That's why it's a good idea to keep OS partition separate from user data partition.

Do you know what could have caused the shutdown problem I mentioned in bold text, or how to fix it? I find it most perplexing.

Since I wrote that post, I decided to try cloning the drive again, this time with EaseUS, hoping that I would thus avoid the shutdown error. I again got the bluescreen error I mentioned in the OP (as I expected), but this time, the Windows disc command prompt wasn't able to fix it. It gave me a message saying that it couldn't find a Windows installation on my computer. Here's the message it gave me:

 

[hbenthow]

SkyNetRising, thank you for all your help. I'm sorry about being such a pest with constant new problems, but I'm a novice at hard drive cloning and am learning by trial and error. I have most recently cloned my drive using the free version of Macrium Reflect, and everything is working well, except that Disk Management isn't letting me extend the C volume. I feel that this particular thread has gone on too long, so this should be my last post in it.

 

[SkyNetRising]

everything is working well, except that Disk Management isn't letting me extend the C volume.

Probably recovery partition is preventing that. You need to delete recovery partition.
How to do that, was in one of my previous posts (diskpart commands).

 

[hbenthow]

everything is working well, except that Disk Management isn't letting me extend the C volume.

Probably recovery partition is preventing that. You need to delete recovery partition.
How to do that, was in one of my previous posts (diskpart commands).

everything is working well, except that Disk Management isn't letting me extend the C volume.

Probably recovery partition is preventing that. You need to delete recovery partition.
How to do that, was in one of my previous posts (diskpart commands).

I didn't want to delete the recovery partition (just in case) so (using some advice I got from TenForums) I downloaded and installed MiniTool Partition Wizard Free, slid the recovery partition to the right, and expanded drive C to fill the unallocated space.

Here are the results:

I'm very satisfied with these results, and everything on the computer seems to be working well. Thank you again for your help.

For anyone reading this, Macrium Reflect Free Edition was the one cloning program that I used that worked without any problems whatsoever. Your mileage may vary, but I would recommend it over EaseUS or Acronis, based on my experiences. I didn't even have to use their bootable disc. One thing to keep in mind, however, is that it appears that both in Macrium Reflect and in Windows Disk Manager, you can only expand a partition if it has unallocated space directly to its right. When cloning with Macrium, if you shift the partitions around accordingly while resizing (making sure to shift them into their correct order afterwards resizing), you should be able to resize partitions with ease. If not, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to easily resize partitions on the final cloned disc.