[SOLVED] Cloned SSD doesn't boot - is it because I didn't clone all the partitions?

[Frooby]

This refers to a lovely Stone mini-desktop PC with an i5 CPU. It came with a Sandisk 120GB SSD and I wanted to replace this with a Crucial 275GB jobbie which I had.

I used Macrium for the cloning and the starting screen showed the Sandisk's 'layout' as having 4 partitions(?)

These were:
(1) System (None) Fat 32 (LBA) Primary 16.4MB of 100MB
(2) (None) Unformatted Primary 128MB (This is shown as all in 'blue' so seemingly 'full')
(3) Windows (C: ) NTFS Primary 26.37GB of 118.53GB
(4) Recovery (None) NTFS Primary 439.7MB of 500MB

Being really clever (ie not fully understanding what I was doing) I selected only (3), the main Windows partition, as I thought this was all that was required on the new drive, and I didn't want these other silly wasteful partitions messing up my lovely new SSD.

The cloning seemingly went fine but the PC would not boot up with the new SSD installed; it would go to "Checking Media Presence, Media Present, Start PXE over IPv4" etc etc. (I understand that PXE over IPv4 is the PC's attempt to boot up via Ethernet and stuff like that?)

Getting in to BIOS and checking the booting order, the new SSD didn't appear in this list. It does appear under something else in that whole BIOS setup thingy, so it does 'exist' - the PC knows there's a Crucial 275GB SSD on board. But it wouldn't appear in the boot order list.

Replacing the original Sandisk SSD has things back to normal.

I'd appreciate some guidance now, please;

(1) When I re-clone the wee Sandisk, which of the 4 partitions do I clone to the Crucial?
(2) Are there any I don't need to clone - can I leave them off? What do they do?

One other wee issue, please - I have just now cloned the whole caboodle - all 4 partitions - and I see it's left the new larger SSD with a greyed out section of 136.93GB. How can I add this to 'C:' so this main partition is as large as possible?

Thank you

 

[R_1]

assuming the wee SSD was the only drive installed, all of them.
partitions 1, 2 and 4 are used by windows for boot files and caching and recovery.
you copied the data partition without the instructions and boot sequence. (not exact but the essence).

yes you can resize the main partition to encompass the free space.

How to Resize a Partition on Windows 10

Windows 10 includes Disk Management to shrink and expand partitions. You don’t need a third-party partition manager for basic tasks, although they will often by more feature-rich. This works on other versions of Windows, like Windows 11 and Windows 7, too.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[USAFRet]

(1) When I re-clone the wee Sandisk, which of the 4 partitions do I clone to the Crucial?

-----------------------------
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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
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
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
-----------------------------

 

[Frooby]

assuming the wee SSD was the only drive installed, all of them.
partitions 1, 2 and 4 are used by windows for boot files and caching and recovery.
you copied the data partition without the instructions and boot sequence. (not exact but the essence).

yes you can resize the main partition to encompass the free space.

How to Resize a Partition on Windows 10

Windows 10 includes Disk Management to shrink and expand partitions. You don’t need a third-party partition manager for basic tasks, although they will often by more feature-rich. This works on other versions of Windows, like Windows 11 and Windows 7, too.

www.howtogeek.com

Many thanks - that makes sense.

Could you please explain how do I now change/expand the C: partition on the new drive to take in the unused/greyed-out 136GB area?

Cheers.

 

[Frooby]

-----------------------------
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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
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
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
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.
-----------------------------

Many thanks - that's very clear. I can see that leaving the other wee partitions off the clone was a bit daft...