[SOLVED] hdd is formatted, cloned ssd is not booting, windows shows error

[Srirag]

Hi, im using Acer Aspire 5 A515-52-31AW which shipped with 1tb hdd .Recently i upgraded to kingston A2000 250gb ssd and tried cloning OS to it using Acronis true image hd OEM but always stuck on the dialogue box "bootable agent is waiting for removable devices" but the Acronis software in windows had already recognised the ssd .Then after multiple failed attempts i tried Macrium Reflect 7 free and this time it worked and i successfully cloned my hdd to new ssd. The UEFI was showing 2 windows boot manager (the original and the cloned) without the name of drive, and i boot into ssd ( by guessing) and the change in speed was noticable. So i thought of formatting hdd, thinking everything was working well. I deleted windows partition form hdd from disk partition and used cmd clean function to format the entire hdd and made a simple volume out of it. I was not able shutdown after this, looping back to lockscreen every time i tried so. I forced shutdown and now im getting windows error 0xc000000e and booting to bios didn't change anything.i removed hdd and tried booting, resulting in same error. Anyway i'm sure cloned windows and files are present in ssd and macrium had backup definition file before cloning. Can anything be done to get my licensed windows 10 booting on ssd (other file loss are not a problem).
additional info : i changed sata mode to ahci from rst with optane ( maybe i should've done this at beginning to see name of drive next to boot manager )
and there is no legacy mode in the bios.
in summary, my hdd is formatted, cloned ssd is not booting, windows shows error just after acer logo

 

[SkyNetRising]

First thing to do after cloning - you have to boot from cloned drive without old drive connected.
This is essential step and can not be skipped. It is not just a precaution to make sure everything is cloned properly. First boot also makes automatic alterations to registry, that are necessary to boot the system.

Now you have to boot from windows installation media and fix bootloader.
Boot into command prompt mode execute following commands, make a photo of command output and show here (upload photo to imgur.com and post link).

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

 

[Srirag]

First thing to do after cloning - you have to boot from cloned drive without old drive connected.
This is essential step and can not be skipped. It is not just a precaution to make sure everything is cloned properly. First boot also makes automatic alterations to registry, that are necessary to boot the system.

Now you have to boot from windows installation media and fix bootloader.
Boot into command prompt mode execute following commands, make a photo of command output and show here (upload photo to imgur.com and post link).

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

Now i have removed hdd ( yes i should have done it earlier) and created bootable windows 10 usb using rufus and tried to boot, but in bios the usb is not showing and only windows boot manager ( form ssd i guess ) is listed. Same windows error. Any way to boot from usb? or do i need to use windows media creation tool and try?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Enable legacy boot mode.
Your USB boot media probably is compatible with legacy boot only (not UEFI boot).

 

[Srirag]

Enable legacy boot mode.
Your USB boot media probably is compatible with legacy boot only (not UEFI boot).

as i said earlier, i cannot find legacy mode in boot options (only UEFI) and i checked while making bootable usb in Rufus it was UEFI

 

[SkyNetRising]

To enable legacy boot mode, you have to enable CSM.

 

[Srirag]

i dont know how to enable it, tried disabling secure boot. There is another option Acer disc to disc system recovery. In that there is options like "boot from file" where i can see the windows 10 usb but its like file explorer, inside there are some folders like source,efi etc

https://imgur.com/a/e3DUflw

View: https://imgur.com/a/e3DUflw

 

[SkyNetRising]

It looks like, your system supports UEFI mode only.

Then you have to remake Windows installation USB drive for UEFI boot.
Use rufus.

 

[Srirag]

It looks like, your system supports UEFI mode only.

Then you have to remake Windows installation USB drive for UEFI boot.
Use rufus.

yes, i used Rufus earlier , but it doesn't seem to work. Downloading latest windows 10 ver. 2004 from Microsoft site and trying to create bootable disc.

 

[Srirag]

First thing to do after cloning - you have to boot from cloned drive without old drive connected.
This is essential step and can not be skipped. It is not just a precaution to make sure everything is cloned properly. First boot also makes automatic alterations to registry, that are necessary to boot the system.

Now you have to boot from windows installation media and fix bootloader.
Boot into command prompt mode execute following commands, make a photo of command output and show here (upload photo to imgur.com and post link).

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

https://imgur.com/a/VkDkBjC

View: https://imgur.com/a/VkDkBjC

 

[SkyNetRising]

Execute this and reboot your pc:

diskpart​

select disk 0​

select partition 2​

(select 100mb EFI system partition)​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

bcdboot D:\windows /s H:​

(One of bcdboot commands will give error. This is expected - depends on, which drive letter is assigned to windows OS partition)

 

[Srirag]

Execute this and reboot your pc:

diskpart​

select disk 0​

select partition 2​

(select 100mb EFI system partition)​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot C:\windows /s H:​

bcdboot D:\windows /s H:​

(One of bcdboot commands will give error. This is expected - depends on, which drive letter is assigned to windows OS partition)

i have executed the above commands, but still it cannot boot to windows

https://imgur.com/a/fyzxyFg

View: https://imgur.com/a/fyzxyFg

 

[SkyNetRising]

If those commands didn't fix the issue, then you usually have to reclone.

Since you don't have this option anymore, then - reinstall.

 

[Srirag]

If those commands didn't fix the issue, then you usually have to reclone.

Since you don't have this option anymore, then - reinstall.

Then I'll loose the windows licence right? But after the cloning process i booted into the ssd and it was perfect before all this mess . Even if i loose all the files, but manage to keep the licenced windows it would be great. (cant afford to buy a new key, the laptop is only 4 months old ) Will rebuild bcd commands will work ? i see it many places online
attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -r -s
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec / rebuildbcd

(no idea about the code though. Something related to fixing bcd copying issue ?)

 

[USAFRet]

Then I'll loose the windows licence right? But after the cloning process i booted into the ssd and it was perfect before all this mess . Even if i loose all the files, but manage to keep the licenced windows it would be great.

Reinstalling on a different drive in the same system does not invalidate the Windows license.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Srirag]

I had a clean install of windows 10 and it turns out that, after windows 10 anniversary update, the digital licence of the windows will be automatically associated with the microsoft account . Luckily i have logged in using Microsoft account earlier .