[SOLVED] I Cloned my HDD to a new SSD, tried to launch it as my boot drive for windows and it doesn't work

[Willuctant]

I bought a crucial MX500 1TB to use as storage and to launch windows off of, so I used the Acronis True Image software that it comes with to clone my hard drive to it. After 6 hours it was done cloning and I restarted my PC. It automatically set itself as the boot drive which is great but whenever it tried to launch, it would bring up the "choose keyboard layout" and I'd select english, select "continue to windows 10" and it would just go back on a cycle to the choose keyboard layout.

I then changed my boot drive back to my hard drive and windows properly launched. I have tried this twice and the same issued occurred both times. I sanitized the drive using Crucial Storage Executive so my SSD is empty yet again, so it's ready to have my HDD cloned again to it but obviously I want to fix the issue before I do that.

How do I make my SSD properly launch as my boot drive? Is my windows corrupted?

Also side note: I'm posting this an hour before I go to work so I won't be replying until tonight, thank you either way!

 

[USAFRet]

If it does not work...
Either the source drive is not quite right, or you did something wrong in the clone process.

Return the system back to original config, without the new SSD.
Does it work properly?
If so, redo the clone process.


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

 

[Willuctant]

As you can see I got clone error 9 from using Macrium Reflect, never got any clone errors on the crucial mx500 software Acronis True Image? Either way the clone error is probably why it wouldn't boot from the SSD earlier huh?

 

[USAFRet]

https://forum.macrium.com/28460/Clone-error-9
Error 9 is a Read fail.
It can't fully read the source drive.

And if Acronis took 6 hours, that supports a faulty source drive.
A clone operation should take nearly that long.


Cloning is great, when conditions are perfect.
It can't fix corrupted source software, or a faulty drive.

 

[Willuctant]

Damn alright, what would my best course of action be to fix the drive? Would it be best to just move over all my data besides windows to another hard drive, then reset the windows on that hard drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Damn alright, what would my best course of action be to fix the drive? Would it be best to just move over all my data besides windows to another hard drive, then reset the windows on that hard drive?

Depends on if that physical drive is faulty.


Cloning is no longer an option.
First, any critical data...back that up to some other physical drive.
Then just do a clean install on the new MX500.
OS and all applications.
Then, copy your data over.

Later, investigate the old drive for any physical faults.

 

[Willuctant]

First, any critical data...back that up to some other physical drive.
Then just do a clean install on the new MX500.
OS and all applications.

Alright, what software would you recommend I use to backup data to another drive? same for the clean install on the new mx500, or i guess i might not need software for that cause its windows?

 

[USAFRet]

Backup?
Just find what you need, and copy it to some other drive.

Then...

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

 

[Rookie_MIB]

You could try putting a different cloning software on a thumbdrive and going from there. I put clonezilla (linux based cloning software) on a thumbdrive and moved my win10 install on a 250gb HDD to a 500GB Crucial SSD and it took 10-15 minutes, not 6 hours. They might work in slightly different ways that avoid hitting the bad sectors on the drive.

I'd also try verifying that your HDD isn't physically failing (Acronis Drive Monitor will give you any smart errors - pending sector and reallocation events indicate physical failure). If it is, you may need to do a Win10 reinstall. You already have a valid Win10 license apparently, and downloading/reinstalling to the SSD shouldn't be an issue.

Then just keep your original HDD and connect via a USB adapter to move your important files over after getting the SSD and Win10 system back up and running.