[SOLVED] Crucial 2TB SSD shows in bios boot priority but won't boot...

[samrich884]

I'll try to be as thorough as I can with the details...

I'm currently running windows 10 from a HDD drive (MBR) and I'm using a Z97N-wifi motherboard

I cloned my drive using Macrium Reflect onto a 2tb Crucial MX500 drive which is GPT.

Both drives are showing up fine in the bios, however when I disconnect the HDD from the motherboard and try to boot from the SSD it says 'no bootable drives detected' (even after I adjust the boot priorities)

I hooked the HDD back up to try and find Windows Boot Manager or UEFI settings but they're not available as I'm running in 'legacy' mode from the MBR drive. Is this a conflict going from MBR to GPT or are them some settings that I'm missing?

Pics below:

https://ibb.co/dQ8XpJ2
https://ibb.co/k9KQLWW

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated! I'm all out of ideas.

 

[mdd1963]

You can mess with it for 'x' amount of time trying other cloning methods/BIOS settings (Or the free version of Acronis True Image, a version of which is free to use for owners of Crucial and WD drives), but, I'd keep in mind that a fresh install of Win10 to a decent SSD (which the MX500 is) takes about 5 minutes these days... (no one likes reinstalling the OS and then all the assorted games and applications, etc., but, think of it as good practice for the occasional rare times that it is needed)

 

[USAFRet]

Return the system to original bootable condition, and show us a screencap of the Disk Management window.

 

[samrich884]

Thanks so much for your quick reply... I was starting to assume this might be the only fix.

I imagine there are quite a few benefits from a fresh install of Windows, it's just going to take a lot of work copying and pasting files as I've been using the machine as a workstation for Music and 3D work. (lots of VST plugins tied into DAWS, obj files and Ztools linked to Zdocs, alphas etc... basically a right pain in the ass)

The computer will currently boot to the HDD with the settings in the screenshots... When I first opened the bios the boot order was the disk drive (ATAPI) first, and then the Toshiba HDD second. The screenshot shows my MX500 in the middle of the two but I've tried it in just about every order (without any luck)

The UEFI setting is set to 'Legacy and UEFI' and I think its defaulting to legacy due to the MBR HDD drive. When I set it to UEFI it refuses to find a bootable drive, even with the HDD unplugged.

Very frustrating! Thanks again for your help so far

 

[samrich884]

I don't know if this is a thing... But as I copied an MBR version of windows onto a GPT drive, is this making booting problematic?

If so, is there any software available which reinstalls windows (a UEFI version) onto a drive without deleting the user files?

 

[USAFRet]

I don't know if this is a thing... But as I copied an MBR version of windows onto a GPT drive, is this making booting problematic?

If so, is there any software available which reinstalls windows (a UEFI version) onto a drive without deleting the user files?

No.
But even if there were, for ANY OS install, you need to have your personal files elsewhere and offline.
An OS (re)install is a highly destructive procedure. The safety of your data is up to YOU.

What physical drives are in this system? Again, a screencap of the Disk Management window, please.

 

[samrich884]

No.
But even if there were, for ANY OS install, you need to have your personal files elsewhere and offline.
An OS (re)install is a highly destructive procedure. The safety of your data is up to YOU.

What physical drives are in this system? Again, a screencap of the Disk Management window, please.

Sure thing, I've attached a screenshot (I hope its the disk management window). I just full on cloned the HDD onto the SSD with a small part allocated to Overprovisioning.

Thanks again for the info!
https://ibb.co/P6PQdd1

edit

one thing I am noticing is that the primary partition for C is a bit bigger than E. Is this the missing Windows software? If so, It seems a bit weird if this hasn't been copied over to E as its a straight-up cloned drive. This is how it looks in Macrium Reflect: https://ibb.co/3NRKh7p

 

[USAFRet]

Which drive is which?



At the end of the clone process, the very first thing you needed to do was power OFF, disconnect the old drive, power Up with only the new drive connected.
Did you do that?

 

[samrich884]

Which drive is which?



At the end of the clone process, the very first thing you needed to do was power OFF, disconnect the old drive, power Up with only the new drive connected.
Did you do that?

Yep so the C drive is the old HDD drive, and the E drive is the SSD.

I powered off, disconnected the C drive and plugged the Sata from that into the new E drive. Powered up the system and it doesn't boot.

I've also looked at the boot priorities but I've had no luck so far.

 

[USAFRet]

If the system boots from just the HDD, I'd recommend trying the clone operation again.

Just like this:

-----------------------------
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)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

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.
-----------------------------

 

[samrich884]

If the system boots from just the HDD, I'd recommend trying the clone operation again.

Just like this:

-----------------------------
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)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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

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 specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

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.
-----------------------------

Thanks! That sounds pretty much exactly what I did but I must have missed something somewhere. Just one question... should the SSD be GPT or MBR if I'm cloning from an MBR HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks! That sounds pretty much exactly what I did but I must have missed something somewhere. Just one question... should the SSD be GPT or MBR if I'm cloning from an MBR HDD?

MBR

 

[SkyNetRising]

Cloning is done wrong.
Source and target drives have to be in same partitioning. Or else target is not bootable.

If you wish to change partitioning scheme from MBR to GPT, then you have to use mbr2gpt utility.

 

[samrich884]

Cloning is done wrong.
Source and target drives have to be in same partitioning. Or else target is not bootable.

If you wish to change partitioning scheme from MBR to GPT, then you have to use mbr2gpt utility.

Ahah! I thought this might be why.

Am I opening a can of worms trying to convert my boot drive from MBR to GPT? Or is there some reliable software for this that you'd recommend?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Am I opening a can of worms trying to convert my boot drive from MBR to GPT? Or is there some reliable software for this that you'd recommend?

mbr2gpt is reliable.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt

But there's not much benefit in migrating to UEFI. From user point of view - there's no difference.

 

[Palorim12]

Ahah! I thought this might be why.

Am I opening a can of worms trying to convert my boot drive from MBR to GPT? Or is there some reliable software for this that you'd recommend?

Cloning software automatically re-initializes and reformats the target drive to match the source, so even if you make it GPT before hand, if it sees the source is MBR, it will change the target to that....at least with the software I've used in the past (Samsung's Cloning program and Macrium)

 

[samrich884]

ITS WORKING!

So during my two-day panic attack plugging and unplugging sata cables, I spent a lot of time googling a solution through loads of old threads with hardware that was similar... but not quite the same as mine. If anyone is googling with a Gigabyte Z97N-wifi motherboard, an MBR HDD and an SSD that won't boot to windows this could be a solution...

If your HDD is MBR, make sure the SSD is MBR before cloning. Once its cloned, boot to windows from the SSD and use mbr2gpt to switch over to GPT (optional).
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/mbr-to-gpt

Reboot, go into your bios and set boot to UEFI. Job done.

I can't thank everyone who commented enough. I will try my best to pay the kindness forward with my limited IT skills... maybe an old dear needs a printer installing or someone wants to find out how to defrag! Every little helps.