Question Cloned NVMe won't boot Win10

[AeroTacto]

Hello,
I've successfully cloned a new NVMe drive (Samsung 980 PRO in a ASUS Maximus X Hero Wi-Fi with up to date BIOS/UEFI) from an old Samsung SSD drive using Macrium Reflect, but the system won't boot. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thank you.

 

[USAFRet]

Hello,
I've successfully cloned a new NVMe drive (Samsung 980 PRO in a ASUS Maximus X Hero Wi-Fi with up to date BIOS/UEFI) from an old Samsung SSD drive using Macrium Reflect, but the system won't boot. Any ideas on how to fix this?
Thank you.

If it does not work, the clone was not successful.

If you put the system back to original config, without the new drive, does it boot up?
Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

Why the 980 Pro?
The M.2 port in that board is only PCIe 3.0 x4.

 

[Inthrutheoutdoor]

If it does not work, the clone was not successful.

^^THIS^^

It could be as simple as selecting the new drive as the boot device in the bios.

However, if you did not format the new drive correctly as NTFS/GPT, then you may need to redo the clone.

One thing that almost always seems to help is, after cloning is completed, remove the old drive before booting up the machine again. That way windows has no choice but to boot from the new drive, as long as the formatting is correct....

 

[geofelt]

Why not try the samsung ssd migration aid?
You can download the app and instructions here:

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

semiconductor.samsung.com

It is a C drive mover not a for bit clone.

I have used it several times to move from a sata C drive to a samsung nvme drive.

Samsung has a nvme driver which you may want to install first.

 

[USAFRet]

It is a C drive mover not a for bit clone.

Unless you take particular pains to select a Forensic clone, Macrium is not a bit for bit clone either.
In actual use, I see little functional difference between Macrium Reflect and SDM.

Let's see what his Disk Management looks like.

 

[AeroTacto]

If it does not work, the clone was not successful.

If you put the system back to original config, without the new drive, does it boot up?
Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

Why the 980 Pro?
The M.2 port in that board is only PCIe 3.0 x4.

By successful I mean the copy of the partitions, it's all there, the files, etc.
I've already removed the old drive, so I'm not able to test, but I see no reason for it to not work.
I chose this ones because the price was favorable and I'm thinking about upgrading the MoBo+CPU+RAM in the near/medium future.
I will do the process all over again and take pics of the steps, thanks!

 

[AeroTacto]

^^THIS^^

It could be as simple as selecting the new drive as the boot device in the bios.

However, if you did not format the new drive correctly as NTFS/GPT, then you may need to redo the clone.

One thing that almost always seems to help is, after cloning is completed, remove the old drive before booting up the machine again. That way windows has no choice but to boot from the new drive, as long as the formatting is correct....

I suppose Macrium Reflect rescue disk/application does all the process, such as creating partitions, volumes, formatting, etc. As for the old drive, it's already out of the computer.

 

[USAFRet]

I will do the process all over again and take pics of the steps, thanks!

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------

 

[USAFRet]

Of course, a screencap of your Disk Management window would help here.

 

[AeroTacto]

A few updates regarding this issue:

1. I've been able to install Win10 from scratch using the original DVD and it's booting just fine, thus any problem related to the lack of drivers or compatibility seems to be out of question;
2. I was able to install Samsung Migration Tool on the "new Windows installation" but when I run it it won't allow me to choose my original drive (which I have reconnected to the PC via a USB adaptor) as the source and the new NVMe as the destination, it will allow me to choose only the opposite;
3. I tried booting up via my original drive via USB (the one which had the original Windows installation) and it even starts to boot OK, but eventually it comes into a BSoD which says INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE (this drive's contents have not been modified whatsoever since I removed it from the PC);
4. What I initially called "cloning" was merely restoring the backup I have from a USB external drive into the new, fresh NVMe. I didn't partition, format, etc since I assumed Macrium Reflect Rescue Disk would do it all automatically to me, since I've selected all the partitions (3 in total) to be restored/copied/cloned into the new/empty/unpartitioned/unformatted NVMe. Apparently Macrium Reflect isn't smart enough to do all the procedure by his own and that's why it's not booting up. Now I need to figure out how to recover/restore my backed up Windows drive into the new NVMe in a way that it will boot up by it's own.

 

[SkyNetRising]

3. I tried booting up via my original drive via USB (the one which had the original Windows installation) and it even starts to boot OK, but eventually it comes into a BSoD which says INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE

It doesn't work this way.