Question Help moving Windows Image to new SSD

[Muckster]

Missed this in your answer. I was just getting to that with my own post.



This is because of where the boot record will be. Booting with the original drive in the system along with the clone, means the clone is not recognized or there are issues. As mentioned above. You will have to clone again. However, again, as others have covered, if you're going to gift the PC, then doing a fresh install from scratch is the preferred method.

Sorry if I'm repeating myself at this point, but most of what I've been doing with the old and new SSD invovles hooking them both up to a second PC that boots from it's own HD and then I just work on the old and new SSDs with an imager or Disk Manager. Also, as I tried to explain in my OP, I've also booted into the old PC with only the new SSD installed along with a USB thumb drive. After using True Image to boot from I've tried using that software to restore images of the partitions to the new SSD.

As for a fresh install, the issue for me is that I bought Win 8.1 over ten years ago and installed from that but then upgraded to Windows 10. So for me a fresh install would mean installing with Win 8, using my key, then upgrading to 10.

Least someone accuse me of piracy again, it was at one time, free to upgrade from Win 8 to Win 10. I don't know if they give you a new key or if you Win 8 key got translated for 10. Then there's the problem with the partition structiure, size, and order which has not been the same with Window 8, 10, and 11. Also, the PC is over 10 years old so a fresh install would me downloading all the proper drivers for the mobo, vid card, etc. Then there's all the tweaking. It's a much bigger deal to fresh install than just restore and image.

Also, I don't follow your logic of being concerned about data on the PC, when you are gifting it to a family member. Are they experts in data recovery? Are they going to hack you or something? I guess the answer would be no. Maybe those concerns are valid for you, but it seems like a little much.

I tend to overbuild or overworry when it comes to things I don't understand well. Just buying a new SSD is a cheap solution for peace of mind and I can still reformat the old SSU and use it on my new one, so I'm not really out anything.

It may not be common to ask what I'm asking for, but I have to believe it's common for people to suddenly realize the have a failing SSD and want to transfer it over as fast as possible.

Anyway, I'll come back with some images.

 

[Muckster]

4 images in order, text included, describing clone process and showing Disk Manager before and after along with the Imaging Software....

I then put the new SSD into the old PC (by itself) and again it fails to boot. I get a blue screen with "Your PC device needs to be repaired.. "

Next, I shut down, reinstall the old SSD (by itself) and it boots up normally.

I think this is a hardware problem. I've got a new SSD arriving tomorrow and will try this same process with that and see if it works.

 

[Muckster]

If anyone knows what that "mystery" partition is that Hasleo noticed, let me know. Unless I'm told otherwise, anything I do going forward will involve ignoring it on both drives.

 

[SkyNetRising]

After cloning is done recreate bootloader. Execute from elevated command prompt.

Bootloader is 100MB EFI partition on new drive.
Assign drive letter to 100MB EFI partition on new drive ( Y: in command example)
Command syntax:

bcdboot Q:\windows /s Y:​

Q: - windows OS partition
Y: - bootloader partition.

Using drive configuration from this screen:

Spoiler

 

[Muckster]

mispost...

 

[Zerk2012]

Not to get into your business but you been messing with that a long time.
I would of just installed the new drive and loaded W10 on it and tried to activate it. If it didn't take the activation code then just gave it to him/her inactive and told them to just run it like that or buy a key if it had to be activated.

 

[Muckster]

x

 

[Muckster]

After cloning is done recreate bootloader. Execute from elevated command prompt.

Bootloader is 100MB EFI partition on new drive.
Assign drive letter to 100MB EFI partition on new drive ( Y: in command example)
Command syntax:

bcdboot Q:\windows /s Y:​

W: - windows OS partition
Y: - bootloader partition.

Using drive configuration from this screen:

Spoiler

I think I'm doing it wrong or just not understanding. To be clear, this is from my alternative PC with just the new SSD installed, booting from my alternative PC and using Disk Manager. I don't even have the old SSD installed at this point? "Q" is the OS partition on the new SSD. "Y" is the new letter you want me to assign to the EFI partition which previous had no letter desgination. What's "W" in this example above?

I did run it as you described but I got an error. Sorry to ask for spoon feed. I'll go google the bcdboot command.

 

[Muckster]

Not to get into your business but you been messing with that a long time.
I would of just installed the new drive and loaded W10 on it and tried to activate it. If it didn't take the activation code then just gave it to him/her inactive and told them to just run it like that or buy a key if it had to be activated.

You're not the first to suggest that. I get it, but I'd like it to make sure it has all the mobo/vidcard drivers and then tweak the windows settings, etc. If I knew it would be this time invovled I would have probably just thrown it in the garbage rather than give it away. lol. But there's always the promise of a solution just around the corner...

 

[Zerk2012]

You're not the first to suggest that. I get it, but I'd like it to make sure it has all the mobo/vidcard drivers and then tweak the windows settings, etc. If I knew it would be this time invovled I would have probably just thrown it in the garbage rather than give it away. lol. But there's always the promise of a solution just around the corner...

Installing all the drivers is easy just download and install it don't matter if its activated or not nothing really changes but just a couple of features can't be used. For the settings that takes like 5 minutes or less.

But there's always the promise of a solution just around the corner...

With the program your trying to use it really don't look like it your like what 10 hours or more in.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I think I'm doing it wrong or just not understanding.

1. You have to assign drive letter to 100MB efi partition on new drive.
You can do that with diskpart.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select new drive, replace x with appropriate number)​

list partition​

select partition z​

(select 100MB efi partition, replace z with appropriate number)​

assign letter=Y​

exit​

2. Recreate bootloader. Execute from elevated command prompt.

bcdboot Q:\windows /s Y: /f UEFI​

Q: - windows OS partition on new drive (replace Q: with appropriate drive letter)
Y: - 100MB EFI system partition on new drive

 

[Muckster]

1. You have to assign drive letter to 100MB efi partition on new drive.
You can do that with diskpart.

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select new drive, replace x with appropriate number)​

list partition​

select partition z​

(select 100MB efi partition, replace z with appropriate number)​

assign letter=Y​

exit​

2. Recreate bootloader. Execute from elevated command prompt.

bcdboot Q:\windows /s Y:​

Q: - windows OS partition on new drive (replace Q: with appropriate drive letter)
Y: - 100MB EFI system partition on new drive

I super appreciate your instructions and follow up instructions and I really thought this might work but...

Rats. Didn't work. Same boot error. I was able to follow your instructions and changes were confirmed as I went on, but no luck. If I reinstall the old SSD, it boots fine. (I do this just to confirm I my mobo connections are still good.)

I'm happy to try any other suggestions, but can you help me get my duck in a row for my new SSD that's arriving today (working on the assumption that the actual SSD may be faulty)

Could you please critique my planned method for how to clone over to it?

My intention is to install both the new SSD and the old SSD into my alternative computer and boot from that computer's HD, NOT from either the old or new SSD.

Is the first step to open "Disk Manager"? I believe at this point I will be requested to establish GPT or MBR for the new SSD. I will select GPT for the new SSD because the old SSD is already GPT.

I have a old SSD with the following partitions which I discerned from Diskpart's "list partition":

1. Reserved <-- This is the one I called "mystery" before that only Haselo saw
2. Recovery
3. System (EFI) - 100mb
4. Primary (OS)

In my case I'm using Haselo Imaging Software to CLONE each partition over to the new SSD, one by one. The old driver has other partitions that hold data, but I do not want to clone these over so I will ignore them.

My assumption is that the new SSD either already has a "reserved" partition or that Disk Manager will create it when I select GPT. (This is just a guess).

So, my intention is to ONLY clone over Partitions 2,3,4 (see above list) over to the new SSD.

Will that alone work? I feel like in the past I've done this and it was enough?

Because I'm cloning, I assume the new SSD Primary (OS) partition will already be set to active. I'm not sure whether or not I'll need the bdcboot command. I'm also not srue if there's any good reason to clone over the "1.Reserved" partition.

EDIT: I was always good about keeping sensitive data off my OS drive on the old ssd. I just used the data partitions. Still, what if I followed the above plan, but instead of "cloning" I simply make images of each partition and then, instead of cloning, I simply restored the image of each partition on the new SSD? Would this be less likely to "copy over" sectors that may or may not have "deleted" potentially recoverable data?

Thanks,

 

[Muckster]

UPDATE

Brand new SSD arrived in mail.

Put new SSD into alternative computer. Opened my Hasleo Imaging sofware and it showed no "mystery" partition which I later determined to be the "reserved" partition seen through Diskpart.

I opened Disk Manager. This immediately prompted me to declare MBR or GPT. I selected GPT. I open Hasleo again and no the "mystery/Reserved" partition is there.

Next, I reboot alternative PC with both OLD SSD and brand new SSD installed. I clone over the Recovery Drive (485mb) the System Drive (also known as EFI - 100mb). Last I RESTORE IMAGE of the OS drive onto the brand new SSD.

I install only the brand new SSD on old computer and boot, but get the same error.

Next, I install both old and new SSDs again to the alternative PC and then, using DM, I delete the OS partition from the brand new drive. Next I use Haselo to clone over the OS partition from the old SSD. This was a test see if cloning would would when restoring an Image did not.

I install only the brand new SSD on old computer and boot, but get the same error.

---------------
Next, I install the old SSD into the old PC by itself then use the Win DVD (Shift-F10) to get to a cmd prompt and launch Diskpart.

Here's the info I get for the working old SSD:

list partition

1-Reserved-1228mb
2-Recovery-485mn
3-System-100mb
4-Primary-113GB

list volume (which includes an info column)
0 - drive K - DVD Rom--BLANK INFO COLUM ENTRY
1 - c - (my OS) -113GB---INFO= "Boot"
2-4 are my data drives all with BLANK INFO COLUM ENTRIES

5-485mb--INFO="Hidden"
6-100mb--INFO="System"


Now, doing the same thing with the Brand NEW SSD installed I run:
list volume
0- CD ROM
1-485 MB
2-Drive C
3-100MB-INFO="Hidden"

Two things...
First, the volumes are listed in a different order comparing the old SSD to the brand new SSD. Not sure if this could cause problems. This may have been a result of going from windows 8 to windows 10 and window 10 messing with the partions. Just a guess.

Second, looking at "Info" under the list volume table, the results don't match. On the brand new SSD, not only do I not have listings for "boot" and "system" but the volume 3 (my 100mb efi or sometimes called "system" drive) is actually labled "hidden" instead of "system" as it is on the working old SSD.

I went back and tried the fix again. This time I booted the old pc with only the brand new SSD but used the windows DVD to lauch diskpart. From there I assigned "y" to the 100mb drive then ran:

bcdboot c:\windows /s y:

It said it was successful. I rebooted. Same error.

I tried researching bcdboot, but got confused. I'm not sure if it was proper to use the /s flag in this situation.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...mmand-line-options-techref-di?view=windows-11

Is the solution to get the brand new SSD "list volume" to match the old SSD? The info column isn't displaying the same information.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[SkyNetRising]

However, whenever I try to boot from the new SSD, I get efi errors.

I've restored the image to the new drive, but when I swap the new drive in, I get EFI errors immediately and no boot.

Please show screenshots of those "EFI errors".

 

[Muckster]

Either I misspoke or it's changed since first got the error days ago, but for a while now the error has always been "Your device needs to be prepared" and "a required device isn't connected or can't be accessed."

Keep in mind that everytime I swap back in the old SSD to the exact same SATA interface, it boots up fine, but both my new and NEW new SSDs always fail as described. Also these drives always show up when I read them on my alternative PC as non-boot drives.

Here's a photo of the bad boot blue screen.

EDIT: Image was blurry first time so I reuploaded.

Under the flash glare it reads...

Your PC/Device needs to be repaired

A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Here are two photos of the bad boot blue screen. I took two because of camera lense flash.

Boot from windows installation media and run startup repair.
Windows installation media has to be for the same windows version as windows you're booting.

So if you're using windows 10, then use windows 10 installation media (not windows 7, 8 or 11).

Also turn off secure boot in BIOS.

 

[Muckster]

Boot from windows installation media and run startup repair.
Windows installation media has to be for the same windows version as windows you're booting.

So if you're using windows 10, then use windows 10 installation media (not windows 7, 8 or 11).

Also turn off secure boot in BIOS.

Okay, FIRST, I'll enter bios then turn off secure boot.

Next, I'll boot from windows 10 DVD with only the brand new SSD installed. I'll try startup repair.

Keep in mind this old PC originally had Win 8 and was upgraded to Win 10. Not sure if that matters although it may have done partitions differently.

I'll try it right now...

 

[Muckster]

EDIT: I tried Startup Repair without turning off "secure boot" because I couldn't figure out how to do it. It failed with message, "Startup Repair couldn't recovery your PC."

-----------------
I can't figure out how to turn off secure boot despite downloading the manual, skimming it and doing google searches. It's over 10 years old, is it possible mobo didnt have that feature back then?
Gigabyte... GA B85 HD3

Can you see it in the bios?

 

[SkyNetRising]

It doesn't seem to have Secure boot option.

Disable all the numerous boot options - #2 - #7.
Have only single boot option enabled.
Make sure, it is windows Boot Manager on correct drive.

OS Type - Ohter OS,
CSM Support - Always
Boot Mode Selection - UEFI and Legacy

I see - you have two instances of Windows Boot Manager. This can and will cause problems.
Remove all drives with extra bootloaders to avoid confusion.

 

[Muckster]

It doesn't seem to have Secure boot option.

Disable all the numerous boot options - #2 - #7.
Have only single boot option enabled.
Make sure, it is windows Boot Manager on correct drive.

Here are the choices.

I've disabled everything but 5 and 3 (my DVD ROM) and rebooted. Works on old SSD. Same error on brand new SSD.

Using F12, choose the boot, I tried booting the new SSD with 5, 6, and 7, but always get the same error. Once, after I did 7, it went right to windows DVD and didn't give me error.

I don't know how to determine if "windows boot manager" is on correct drive.

OS Type - Ohter OS,
CSM Support - Always
Boot Mode Selection - UEFI and Legacy

I don't see any of that in my bios or on the screens I showed you.

I'm VERY much out of my element here. Any chance messing with these settings will prevent my original SSD from working or make me unable to install from fresh?

I see - you have two instances of Windows Boot Manager. This can and will cause problems.
Remove all drives with extra bootloaders to avoid confusion.

I think I did that as described above.

lol. I'm really exhausted. I've been doing this on and off for 3 days. I've been working on this the whole time in between posts, taking and uploading pictures, swapping drives, rebooting with the only 1 monitor I have. It's a huge process.

Your help has been greatly appreciated. Unless you really feel like you're on to something, I think it might be time for me to give up and do a fresh install, if possible. Even that's a chore because I started this old PC with a key I bought for Win 8, then upgraded to Win 10. I don't know if that key will work on Win 10. I already checked Gigabyte.. some of the drivers seem to be missing. This is insane. I might just throw the whole PC in the garabage.

What blows my mind is that I AM 100% certain I was able to clone a drive and have it boot IN THE NEAR PAST on the old pc. Bizzarre.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I don't know how to determine if "windows boot manager" is on correct drive.

Disconnect all other drives.
That's why I said - multiple bootloaders will cause confusion.

When you boot from cloned drive, old drive (clone source) has to be physically disconnected.
This step IS NOT OPTIONAL

I don't see any of that in my bios or on the screens I showed you.

In BIOS Features screen - you have to scroll down.
There are more options below.

I'm VERY much out of my element here. Any chance messing with these settings will prevent my original SSD from working or make me unable to install from fresh?

It's possible to mess up cloned drive up to point, you have to redo cloning.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Anyway - if still no success, then
1. Have only new cloned drive connected (disconnect all other drives)
2. Boot from windows installation media and
3. Perform operations described in post #36.

And show screenshot with command output.
There can not be any errors. If there were, then you did something wrong.
Last message has to be "Boot files successfully created".

 

[Muckster]

Disconnect all other drives.
That's why I said - multiple bootloaders will cause confusion.

When you boot from cloned drive, old drive (clone source) has to be physically disconnected.
This step IS NOT OPTIONAL

I've tried writing or cloning to the new drive many many times, deleting all partitions before trying each time with the only exception being sometimes I don't copy the reserve drive from the old SSD and sometimes I do. If I don't I let it get created when I enter Disk Manager and it set its according to GPT or MBR.

Ever single time I have booted from the old PC, I either have ONLY the old SSD or ONLY the new SSD. I'm certain of this. The only other "drive", if you want call it that, is the DVD player.

In BIOS Features screen - you have to scroll down.
There are more options below.

It's possible to mess up cloned drive up to point, you have to redo cloning.

I've redo it many many many times. Sometimes cloning, sometimes imaging.

I can look for those options in the bios, but how could any of that be the problem if the old SSD always boots no problem and when I fresh install to the new SSD it also works. (I've don't THAT about 5 times now just to test).

I'll check the bios....

 

[Muckster]

Anyway - if still no success, then
1. Have only new cloned drive connected (disconnect all other drives)
2. Boot from windows installation media and
3. Perform operations described in post #36.

I've done that on the new SSD and on the brand new SSD I just got in the mail yesterday. But I've not yet done it with bios tweaks you suggested because I saw your new post and wanted to see it first.

And show screenshot with command output.
There can not be any errors. If there were, then you did something wrong.
Last message has to be "Boot files successfully created".

I don't remember the message exactlly, but I have done exactly what you said about 5 times now between this new SSD and the last new SSD. The only difference is I haven't done the bios tweaks you suggested because I haven't yet found them.

Are you sure it' supposed to be a /s flag before theY: ? I looked up bcdboot and that seemed like a setting you use to put on a third party drive, not one your working on, but its very very possible I just didn't undderstand.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...mmand-line-options-techref-di?view=windows-11

Okay.. looking for those bios settings one more time before wiping it clean, recloning, and trying your fix.

Thanks again.

 

[Muckster]

I'm back.

I was able to confirm these are as you say they should be.

OS Type - Ohter OS,
Boot Mode Selection - UEFI and Legacy

Where it says windows 8 features I've always had "Other OS". If I switch it to Windows 8, then I could turn on Secure BOOT, but otherwise, under Other OS, it's not even available. Before I couldn't find it. I assume if there's no setting for it under "Other OS" then it's off.

Same is true for CSM support. If I switch to "Windows 8" then I can access CSM mode and turn it on. Otherwise, there is no option for it. I assume that because I'm running "Other OS" it's not available and so it's OFF.

Again, I know you want me to turn it on, but to do so I'd have to switch to Windows 8 and not uses "Other OS".

So, rather than do everyting all over again in Windows 8 mode just to turn on CSM, I think it's unlikely to help consdering my old SSD boots just fine with these settings.

I'm sure you get a lot of people who don't follow instructions right. I'm truly impressed you know the tech enough to speak to it in bios. But in my case I assure you I've done and redone and redone again all your suggestions.

SO to RECAP..... I didn't go through the whole cloning process again because I'm certain I've done it properly many times already including your bcdboot suggestion. No point in doing it again because all the bios were as you said they should be except the CSM which I couldn't access without being in Win 8 mode.

I really does seems like we're just one tweak away from getting this to work. It makes no sense, and as I said, I know I went through this process recenting ON THIS OLD PC and it worked no problem. In fact, if it didn't seem so tanalizingly close, I'd have give up 10 hours ago.

I think we're done. Nothing left to try, right?