[SOLVED] I messed up... Computer won't boot OS after cloning SSD.

[Spii]

Scenario: Was running an Intel 660p 2TB drive (PCIe3) on an ASUS z690 prime. Never had any issues, runs like a dream.

I bought a 980 Pro 2TB to add some headroom (current drive was about 60% full so not too bad). I think I messed up by doing several things at once that I shouldn't have:

1) I swapped the 660 from my CPU m.2 slot to one of my chipset m.2 slots and installed the 980 into that now open CPU m.2 slot. It booted up from the 660 in the new slot just fine. Ran several programs, games, browser - no issue. I didn't attempt to shut down (strike one).
2) I jumped straight to cloning the 660 to the 980 using Macrium Reflect. Cloned the whole thing from one to the other. Again, no issue. Everything ran fine afterwards. Still didn't attempt to shutdown (strike two).
3) Instead of removing the 660 like I should have and testing that the 980 would boot - like a total nincompoop I instead decided to wipe the 660 and reboot from BIOS so I could select the 980 as the primary boot.

The 660 sure wiped alright. Everything kept running great and I was so proud of myself. Then the computer wouldn't shut down or sleep (surprise surprise). Before I tried to shut down again, based on a suggestion from a German article I found online, I reset the EFI partition type field through DiskPart to:

SET ID=c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b

I'm confident I set the correct partition on the correct volume. Didn't fix the issue. Thought "I'll just try a hard reset!".
You can probably guess what happened next. No boot to OS. Swapping between Legacy/UEFI boot or disabling fast boot does nothing. Windows Recovery won't work. BIOS is detecting both drives and recognizes the 980 as a boot drive with Windows on it, but no luck.

I messed up by taking shortcuts. Lesson learned here so I'm trying to avoid doing it again. I am 99% sure I have the ability to install another instance of 11 on the 660 through USB media so I can get in and try to sort things out - but I'm worried that's another shortcut. Should I remove the 980 before I do that or is there little risk there?

Edit: I haven't tried removing the 660 yet through all of this. I think perhaps that should be my first step to see if the boot selections are in conflict or something.

Any other suggestions on how to unstick myself? I really made a mess of things...

 

[SkyNetRising]

Any other suggestions on how to unstick myself? I really made a mess of things...

Recreate bootloader partition manually.

1. Shutdown pc.
2. Physically remove old drive Intel 660p
3. Boot from windows installation media into command prompt
4. Run diskpart
If you get any errors, then stop immediately and show screenshot with command output.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

diskpart​

list volume​

(Note drive letter for windows OS partition. It will not necessary be C: . Later commands assume it's K: )​

list disk​

select disk 0​

(Select Samsung 980. If you have single drive connected, then disk number should be 0)​

list partition​

select partition x​

(Select EFI system partition, size is probably 50MB - 500MB )​

(Next command deletes selected partition. Be careful not to delete wrong partition!)​

delete partition override​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

(Assign a free drive letter. Drive letter H: has to be available or choose next available drive letter.)​

exit​

bcdboot K:\windows /s H: /f UEFI​

Last message should be "Boot files created successfully".

 

[Spii]

Thank you so much for the quick reply! So I removed the 660 and followed those instructions to the letter. I got hung up on format fs=fat32 quick. The message it gave me was:

Virtual Disk Service error:
The volume size is too big.

Screenshot here.

Edit: did a bit of digging here. Can I use shrink desired= in DiskPart to change the volume size to around 200mb or so?

 

[Spii]

Recreate bootloader partition manually.

1. Shutdown pc.
2. Physically remove old drive Intel 660p
3. Boot from windows installation media into command prompt
4. Run diskpart
If you get any errors, then stop immediately and show screenshot with command output.
(upload to imgur.com and post link)

diskpart​

list volume​

(Note drive letter for windows OS partition. It will not necessary be C: . Later commands assume it's K: )​

list disk​

select disk 0​

(Select Samsung 980. If you have single drive connected, then disk number should be 0)​

list partition​

select partition x​

(Select EFI system partition, size is probably 50MB - 500MB )​

(Next command deletes selected partition. Be careful not to delete wrong partition!)​

delete partition override​

create partition efi​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

(Assign a free drive letter. Drive letter H: has to be available or choose next available drive letter.)​

exit​

bcdboot K:\windows /s H: /f UEFI​

Last message should be "Boot files created successfully".

Just wanted to say this worked on my second try! (Had to delete the unformatted partition I created and got stuck on first) however I had to put create partition efi size=200 in order to make sure the partition I created wasn't too large to format. It worked perfectly after that without a hitch!

You're seriously a life saver - thank you

 

[SkyNetRising]

however I had to put create partition efi size=200 in order to make sure the partition I created wasn't too large to format. It worked perfectly after that without a hitch!

Normally - new partition would be created in space, where you deleted old partition.
So size automatically would be size of deleted one ( 100MB ).
But you have unallocated space of over 100GB at end of the drive and new partition got created there.
Recommended size of EFI bootloader partition is 350MB - 500MB. But 200MB is fine too, I guess.
Sometimes with bootloader too small windows update tries to update bootloader, process fails and you're left with non bootable system.

 

[Spii]

Normally - new partition would be created in space, where you deleted old partition.
So size automatically would be size of deleted one ( 100MB ).
But you have unallocated space of over 100GB at end of the drive and new partition got created there.
Recommended size of EFI bootloader partition is 350MB - 500MB. But 200MB is fine too, I guess.
Sometimes with bootloader too small windows update tries to update bootloader, process fails and you're left with non bootable system.

Yikes, good to know. I will look to create a separate image on a backup drive just in case anything should happen.

Thank you for all of the new information - I learned a heck of a lot this week!