[SOLVED] [PARTIALLY SOLVED] Cannot boot on cloned Windows partition (2 SSDs)

[AMastryukov]

[CLICK HERE TO SEE SOLUTION]

I recently purchased a new SSD (Disk 1). Previously, I had a single SSD (Disk 0) with 2 partitions: Windows 10 and STORAGE (and the two system partitions).

My goal was to clone Windows 10 and its system partitions from my old SSD (Disk 0) onto the new SSD (Disk 1) and expand my STORAGE into the old SSD (Disk 0) by deleting the Windows 10 and the other two system partitions and expanding STORAGE into the newly unallocated space.

After cloning System Reserved, Windows 10, and the recovery partition selected in the screenshot into the new SSD (Disk 1) and setting the new System Reserved partition (Disk 1) to active, I tried to boot from the new SSD (Disk 1). This did not work and it showed a black screen with a blinking underscore. Not good.

I tried making a windows recovery USB and booting from that to see if I can diagnose the issue and fix it up, but that didn't do anything. The new SSD (Disk 1) still boots to a black screen.

I'm not sure what to do at this point.

 

[SkyNetRising]

First boot from cloned drive has to be done with old drive disconnected. This is essential.

Reclone and disconnect original drive, when you boot from cloned drive.

BTW - 546MB partition is not necessary. Do not clone that.
Also make sure cloned drive is MBR partitioned (not GPT) or else your clone will not boot - this is why you're getting blinking underscore.

 

[AMastryukov]

First boot from cloned drive has to be done with old drive disconnected. This is essential.

Reclone and disconnect original drive, when you boot from cloned drive.

BTW - 546MB partition is not necessary. Do not clone that.
Also make sure cloned drive is MBR partitioned (not GPT) or else your clone will not boot - this is why you're getting blinking underscore.

Thank you for your quick response, I will try this solution first thing tomorrow morning.

The cloned drive is MBR partitioned already, so I think my mistake was not booting with the original drive disconnected. Quite frustrating. Just to be sure, I should re-clone the System Reserved and the Windows 10 partitions from Disk 0 onto Disk 1, turn off the computer, physically unplug Disk 0 and boot from Disk 1?

Could you clue me in on what is the purpose of the 546MB partition? If I don't need to clone it, is it safe to delete entirely? I don't recall creating it manually and didn't want to touch it in fear of breaking something.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Just to be sure, I should re-clone the System Reserved and the Windows 10 partitions from Disk 0 onto Disk 1, turn off the computer, physically unplug Disk 0 and boot from Disk 1?

Yes. Make sure disk is partitioned in MBR and reserved partition has been marked active.

Could you clue me in on what is the purpose of the 546MB partition? If I don't need to clone it, is it safe to delete entirely?

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/delete-recovery-partition.html

 

[AMastryukov]

Yes. Make sure disk is partitioned in MBR and reserved partition has been marked active.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/delete-recovery-partition.html

I have performed the steps I outlined earlier but now I get a different error.
The disk boots into a blue screen that says Windows needs to be repaired. Pressing Enter or F8 to enter setup just refreshes the screen and refuses to continue.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Boot from windows installation media into command prompt (installation media has to be same version as windows installed, so windows 10). Execute following commands and show command output:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

 

[AMastryukov]

Boot from windows installation media into command prompt (installation media has to be same version as windows installed, so windows 10). Execute following commands and show command output:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

I have done the above for disk 0 and disk 1 (Disk 0 is the original SSD, Disk 1 is the new SSD onto which I'm copying Disk 0's partitions):

 

[SkyNetRising]

Why is old drive connected?
You had to disconnect old drive for first boot from new drive. Did you do that?
If not, then you'll have to redo cloning.

Since you have both drives connected, I can't tell, if C: or D: is on Disk 0 or Disk 1.
Anyway execute these commands:

bcdboot J:\windows /s C:​

bcdboot J:\windows /s D:​

Disconnect old drive and boot from the new one.

 

[AMastryukov]

Why is old drive connected?
You had to disconnect old drive for first boot from new drive. Did you do that?
If not, then you'll have to redo cloning.

Since you have both drives connected, I can't tell, if C: or D: is on Disk 0 or Disk 1.
Anyway execute these commands:

bcdboot J:\windows /s C:​

bcdboot J:\windows /s D:​

Disconnect old drive and boot from the new one.

The old drive is connected because it was the only way I could create a recovery drive. It was not connected originally when I tried booting after completing the copy operations.

I ran those commands but the problem persists. The new SSD (with the old one unplugged) still boots to a blue screen and refuses to run any operations:

Just to recap, here is what I did today (I used NIUBI Partition Editor for these operations):

1. Deleted all partitions on the new SSD
2. Copied System partition to new SSD
3. Copied Windows partition to new SSD
4. Set boolean flag to turn off machine after above operations are complete
5. After operations were complete and the machine turned off, I unplugged old SSD
6. Plugged new SSD into same SATA slot as old SSD (some people online said this resolved their issues)
7. Booted to a black screen saying "Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"
8. Googled how to resolve this problem. People said System partition had to be marked Active (could not do this before performing copy operations, program did not give this option)
9. Figuring this was the problem (and that I already attempted to boot from new SSD satisfying the first-boot-must-be-from-new-SSD condition, and the fact that setting the copied System partition as Active was impossible before completing the copy), I plugged old SSD back into the machine and booted
10. Opened NIUBI Parition Manager to mark new SSD's System partition as Active
11. Turned off machine and unplugged old SSD, plugging new SSD into old SSD's SATA slot
12. Booted into new SSD and was met with the blue screen above

I can imagine the issue being the fact that I didn't technically boot into the new SSD, but setting the copied System drive as Active was impossible before the copy operations completed, and booting after the copy operation to set the flag as Active would just get me stuck again.

Should I try running the automated diagnostic from the recovery USB drive and attempt to fix it that way?

 

[AMastryukov]

I managed to partially solve this problem:

I created a recovery USB drive using the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool.
Then I copied the System and Windows 10 partitions over once again.

Finally, I followed these steps.

Right now my computer boots to Windows but crashed with a boot error after some time. I think I will just reinstall Windows 10 without deleting any files because dealing with this has been a nightmare.