Boot Problem from Cloned NVMe Drive

[nurhandrio]

My HP Pavilion 690-0034 specs:
Windows 10 64-bit
Ryzen 7 2700,
16 GB RAM
Radeon RX 580 4GB
Samsung PM871b 128GB M.2 SSD.

Boot Problem
I wanted to clone my system from the factory M.2 SSD (Samsung PM871b, 128GB) to my new Samsung 970 Pro 512GB NVMe drive. My HP desktop's Sunflower motherboard only has one M.2 slot, so I did:

1. Clone my whole system from the SSD to a bootable external USB using Hasleo WinToUSB software.

2. Removed the old SSD from the slot, and replaced it with the 970 Pro, and booted into windows from the USB.

3. I then cloned the USB system to the 970 Pro using EaseUS Partition Master 13.

4. Now I thought I should be able to boot from 970 Pro, but I encountered errors many times, saying inaccessible boot drive. Upon restarting, the computer stay dark and beeping sound can be heard from the motherboard.

5. I bought NVMe external enclosure today. I then booted from my original SSD (no problem at all), connected the NVMe through the enclosure, attempted to clone my system using Samsung Data Migration. But the software couldn't detect the 970 Pro. I tried installing the 970 pro driver, but the installation says Device is not connected.

6. I then cloned the system using Macrium Reflect to 970 Pro. But still I cannot boot from 970 Pro.

When the NVMe external enclosure is connected, I can see the drive in My Computer, and I can even copy individual file to it. I'm running out of idea... should I try clean-installing Windows 10 directly to the NVMe?

 

[USAFRet]

If you have an external drive (of any type), you do this with an Image, not a direct clone.

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Assuming you have another drive with sufficient free space to hold the entirety of your current m.2 drive:

1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks"
3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
4. When done, power OFF.
5. Swap the 2 drives
6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
7. Recover, and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new m.2
8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
9. That's all...this should work.

 

[nurhandrio]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll try it now. The reason that I tried cloning directly was because I tried once upgrading my laptop's M.2 SSD size, and I used external enclosure and direct cloned it with Samsung Data Migration with no problem. So that's why I didn't understand why this time it didn't work.

I'll try now and let you know, hopefully it works!