Error 0xc0000225 after cloning to SSD (ASUS laptop, UEFI)

[guanyu210379]

Hello dear experts,
I am in need of a help.
I thought I can simply increase the speed of the laptop by using an SSD and to save time and to avoid problems with the user (not me), I could simply clone the HDD...so...
I just cloned an entire Win8.1 system on an HDD (500GB) into an SSD (250GB) using AOMEI.
Everything or all partitions was cloned successfully but I can not boot from the SSD and got error 0xc0000225 instead.
I have totally no idea what to do next.

The partitions on the SSD are:
system 299MB FAT32, recovery 900MB NTFS, 128MB RAW, 100GB OS (Win), unknown 350MB NTFS, Data 110GB NTFS, Restore 21.25GB NTFS

Note:
- I plan to keep the original HDD for future emergency usages.
- The laptop is still always bootable using the original SSD.
- The laptop does not come with any Win serial numbers or Win DVD only pre-installed but I do have a Win8.1 installation DVD from another system.

I know that doing a clean install would probably fix everything but this laptop is being used daily by my uncle and he is really old.
The 5400rpm HDD is really slow and I do not really want to let him using such slow system, at least I thought so.
If I just simply delete or change any of his settings, he will get highly confused.
I was thinking if I could simply clone the SSD without letting him to notice it, beside the speed boost of course.

I searched the net already but I got really a lot headache...means I could not understand...yet..yes.. I am not that smart
I have never really worked with pre-installed Windows along with UEFI.
Can anyone help? Thank you very much in advance, I really appreciate your help.

 

[ajhockey3]

Sounds like a corrupt os, Try using another piece of software to clone I like to use reflect.

 

[guanyu210379]

This? http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
Can it clone a bigger HDD into a smaller SSD/HDD?
The free one is enough right?

 

[guanyu210379]

I cloned it again using Macrium...
It worked...yuhuuuuuu!
Thanx a lot!

 

[ajhockey3]

Sorry that I didn't get back to you It was sleeping time where I live, I'm glad you enjoyed reflect, Its pretty damn good for free

 

[Omwatos]

Thanks very much for the solution. I had the same problem, cloned my HDD to a smaller SSD using EaseUs, getting 0xc0000225 error when booting up after replacing disk. Using Macrium Reflect was the key for success. Just wanted to share detailed steps in case someone finds it useful.

OS: Win 10 version 1511
HDD: 600GB, 4 partitions (SYSTEM, (C: ),RECOVERY,HP_TOOLS). NFTS except HP_TOOLS which was FAT32
SSD: 512GB
Macrium Reflect version: 6.5.1502 (free)
USB to SATA cable used to clone laptop's disk to SSD

Once into Reflect, Disk image tab > Create Backup tab > Clone this disk
1. Select Source disk (HDD)
2. Select Destination disk (SSD)
3. Advanced options > intelligent Sector copy > Verify file system and TRIM checked (rapid delta clone option unchecked)
4. Delete partitions on target disk (the ones I cloned previously using EaseUs)
5. Drag and drop partition 1 SYSTEM
6. Drag and drop partition 3 RECOVERY
7. Drag and drop partition 4 HP_TOOLS
8. This left an unallocated space that let me know the maximum size my biggest partition (C: ) could have after cloning. I did it this way because dragging and dropping partition 2 after partition one, left no space for the other 2 partitions (remember target SSD is smaller than source HDD). Size could be adjusted but then again I could not know exactly how much should I shrink partition before copying the other ones.
9. Wrote down unallocated space size and deleted partitions 3 and 4
10. Drag and drop partition 2 and set size manually to the one obtained in step 9 using Cloned Partition properties.
11. Drag and drop partition 3 and 4 which fit exactly into remaining space
12. Started cloning. It took about 5 and a half hours to clone aprox 300GB.