Apr 6, 2019
6
0
10
Hello all,

Last night, my new Samsung 860 Evo SATA 3 SSD came in and I installed it in order to upgrade from my HDD. I went with Samsung as I'd heard good things about their Data Migration Tool for cloning since I don't have my Windows Information in order to perform a fresh install. I successfully cloned my HDD onto the new SSD and managed to boot from said SSD last night.

I then turned my PC off and went to bed. Woke up this morning and now when trying to boot from either the SSD or HDD I'm getting an error asking me to insert boot media. Now I'm locked out of my PC completely. I've tried disconnecting/disabling all other drive connections and all other SATA ports and have been unsuccessful booting from either still.

Would my best option be to purchase and install a new copy of windows 10 or find my product information? Any other tips would be great as I have all day to try and get this resolved.

Thank you all so much. Let me know if I need to provide any more information.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
You do not need to purchase a new Win 10 for a reinstall in this same PC.

(on another working system)
Download the MediaCreation tool, and create you own WIn 10 USB or DVD
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

For future reference for cloning:
-----------------------------
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.
-----------------------------
 
Apr 6, 2019
6
0
10
You do not need to purchase a new Win 10 for a reinstall in this same PC.

(on another working system)
Download the MediaCreation tool, and create you own WIn 10 USB or DVD
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

For future reference for cloning:
-----------------------------
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.
-----------------------------
Going to try this now. Will keep you updated if there's an issue after I create the USB.

I'll make sure to follow these steps on the next attempt. In this case, my HDD was connected via SATA II and the SSD requires a SATA III (I believe, could be wrong.) If that is true, would there be an issue trying to boot connected to the same drive that the HDD was in (The SATA II)?

Thanks for your help.
 
Apr 6, 2019
6
0
10
Motherboard: ASUS PZ68-V Pro GEN3

It does have SATA III ports. My HDD was connected to a SATA II slot before this upgrade, so I was curious as to if you would still boot from the same port with a SATA III SSD after cloning?
 
Apr 6, 2019
6
0
10
I've formatted my 32Gb USB to FAT 32 and tried running the program from the USB in administrator mode and have received the following error twice:
0x80042405 - 0xA001A

Anything else that I could try?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator