[SOLVED] Issues with cloning Windows from SSD to larger SSD

[joe_shroe]

Currently I have a 120GB SSD (C drive) with Windows installed on it and a 1TB HDD (D drive) for storage. I just bought a 1TB SSD and am trying to clone the C drive and Windows on to it using Macrium Reflect. I copied over the partitions on my C drive and also expanded the size on the NTFS partition to fit the total space on my new 1TB SSD.

After the cloning was complete, I tried booting from my new SSD but it came back with the usual "Reboot and select a proper boot device" error message. Afterwards I took a look at Disk Management. Again C drive is my old SSD with Windows, D drive is for storage, and E drive is my new SSD. Can someone tell me what I did wrong here?

 

[USAFRet]

What is the make/model of the new SSD?

Interestingly, we can't see the whole E drive.
But it looks like you neglected to clone over the EFI partition from Disk 0. That is the actual boot info.

 

[USAFRet]

Also, at the end of the clone process, the FIRST thing you do is power off, disconnect the old drive, and attempt to boot from only the new drive.

 

[joe_shroe]

What is the make/model of the new SSD?

Intel 660p Series M.2 2280 1 TB SSDPEKNW010T8X1

Interestingly, we can't see the whole E drive.

Here is the rest of the Disk Management window

But it looks like you neglected to clone over the EFI partition from Disk 0. That is the actual boot info.

Actually in Macrium Reflect I am seeing the EFI partition under Partition 1 in the D drive (my HDD). However I did try cloning from my entire D drive previously and that resulted in the same "Reboot and select a proper boot device" error as well. Windows is on the C drive though. Do I need to clone the EFI partition from my D drive and also everything from my C drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Do I need to clone the EFI partition from my D drive and also everything from my C drive?

Yes. That is exactly the issue.

When the OS was installed on the current drive, you had the 2 connected.
Resulting in the boot partition ending up on Disk 0, and Windows, the C, being on Disk 1.
(yes, it does that)

Adjust for your particular situation:


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

 

[joe_shroe]

I've cloned the EFI partition from my D drive (disk 1) and everything from my C drive (disk 2) onto my new SSD on the E drive., but I'm still getting the Reboot error.

 

[USAFRet]

I've cloned the EFI partition from my D drive (disk 1) and everything from my C drive (disk 2) onto my new SSD on the E drive., but I'm still getting the Reboot error.

And at the end of the process, you disconnected all other drives, and attempted to boot from just the new drive?

 

[joe_shroe]

And at the end of the process, you disconnected all other drives, and attempted to boot from just the new drive?

Actually no I didn't... Well booting from just the new SSD works now. But the desktop was empty as Windows was trying to read from the desktop folder from my now-missing D drive. To port over everything else from my D drive, can I simply drag everything from D drive to C drive using File Explorer, or should I use the D drive's NTFS partition (#3) to overwrite the SSD's partition (#3) ?

 

[USAFRet]

Actually no I didn't... Well booting from just the new SSD works now. But the desktop was empty as Windows was trying to read from the desktop folder from my now-missing D drive. To port over everything else from my D drive, can I simply drag everything from D drive to C drive using File Explorer, or should I use the D drive's NTFS partition (#3) to overwrite the SSD's partition (#3) ?

Powering off and booting from ONLY the new drive is not an optional step.
Outlined in my steps above.

But, a successful clone should be exactly that - The entire C drive, just on a different drive.
Whatever is/was on the D drive is still on the D drive.
Assuming the drive letters stayed the same.

Don't try to copy things around.

Power OFF, disconnect all drives except the new SSD.
Power up, see if it actually boots.
If it does, then power off and reconnect all other drives.
Then, post a screencap of the Disk Management window.
Possibly we can determine what drive letters got changed.

 

[joe_shroe]

Booting from only my new SSD works, but it won't boot if everything else is connected. The only way for me to boot with all 3 drives connected is through my D drive. Is this because of a conflict between different boot drives? This is what Disk Mgmt shows currently, while booted from my D drive. The old SSD is still the C drive, the old HDD with the boot info and storage is still D, and the new SSD is still E.

 

[USAFRet]

Booting from only my new SSD works, but it won't boot if everything else is connected. The only way for me to boot with all 3 drives connected is through my D drive. Is this because of a conflict between different boot drives? This is what Disk Mgmt shows currently, while booted from my D drive. The old SSD is still the C drive, the old HDD with the boot info and storage is still D, and the new SSD is still E.

If it does not work with ONLY the new drive connected, then the whole procedure was not successful.
That line in the above steps exists for a reason.

Return the system back to original hardware config. Without the new SSD.
Does it boot properly?
If so, redo the clone operation.

This time, at the end of the process, power off, disconnect ALL other drives, and allow the system to try to boot up from only the new drive.

 

[joe_shroe]

If it does not work with ONLY the new drive connected, then the whole procedure was not successful.
That line in the above steps exists for a reason.

No it is working with only the new SSD connected. When I connect the other drives, it gives me the Reboot error. The only way to boot with all 3 drives is from my D drive, the old HDD.

Return the system back to original hardware config. Without the new SSD.
Does it boot properly?

It boots properly with the old config, but the problem again is that I cannot boot from the new SSD with all 3 drives connected. Am I able to transfer the D drive files to my new SSD with my old config, then remove the other drives and boot just from my new SSD?

 

[USAFRet]

No it is working with only the new SSD connected. When I connect the other drives, it gives me the Reboot error.


It boots properly with the old config, but the problem again is that I cannot boot from the new SSD with all 3 drives connected. Am I able to transfer the D drive files to my new SSD with my old config, then remove the other drives and boot just from my new SSD?

Given a successful clone, transferring stuff from what used to be the D drive is not needed.
The OS on the original drive was referencing things on the "D".
The OS on the new drive is a 1:1 copy of that, and should also be referencing things on the "D".

If that is not happening, something is wrong.

The NEW drive should be the C. Period.
The D partition on Disk 0 should still be the D partition.

Assuming things went correctly.

 

[joe_shroe]

Given a successful clone, transferring stuff from what used to be the D drive is not needed.

Back in comment #6, the only partition I cloned from the D drive was for EFI system, but I left behind all the other files.

The NEW drive should be the C. Period.
The D partition on Disk 0 should still be the D partition.

If I connect the new SSD and the old HDD, the new SSD shows as C and the old HDD as D. It works if I don't connect the old SSD which I don't need at this point. I'd just want to know what's the best way to transfer over all the other files from the D drive.

 

[USAFRet]

And, booting from the NEW drive, with the other ones connected...please show a screencap of the Disk Management window.

It is possible that what used to be the D got changed to a different drive letter.
Rendering those resources unavailable to the OS, looking for things on the D.

 

[joe_shroe]

And, booting from the NEW drive, with the other ones connected...please show a screencap of the Disk Management window.

It is possible that what used to be the D got changed to a different drive letter.
Rendering those resources unavailable to the OS, looking for things on the D.

Booting from the new drive, with all 3 connected, gives me an error. Just to be clear, should I be able to boot from the new drive if there exist 2 drives with boot info on them? The new drive currently has the EFI system partition from the D drive, and the other partitions including Windows from the C drive. If booting from the new drive with all 3 connected is not working, is there another way I should be cloning partitions to my new drive?

 

[USAFRet]

In the BIOS, remove ALL drive options except the new drive.
What happens?

And yes, it should boot up properly from the new drive, no matter what is on any other drives.

 

[joe_shroe]

In the BIOS, remove ALL drive options except the new drive.
What happens?

There was a drive option specific to the D drive which I disabled and tried restarting. I then ran into continuous boot errors which I couldn't fix by booting from the D drive because the option was somehow not there anymore. Now I am booting from just my new SSD.

Is there another way I can go about doing this? If my boot partition and windows are on different drives, could I somehow install windows onto the new drive then copy everything from the D drive over?

 

[USAFRet]

There was a drive option specific to the D drive which I disabled and tried restarting. I then ran into continuous boot errors which I couldn't fix by booting from the D drive because the option was somehow not there anymore. Now I am booting from just my new SSD.

Is there another way I can go about doing this? If my boot partition and windows are on different drives, could I somehow install windows onto the new drive then copy everything from the D drive over?

You could do a fresh install on the new drive, and then copy any personal files to it.
Not applications, just files.
Are these 'files' located in the Libraries? Documents/Music/Pics, etc?
If so, and if at all possible...copy those elsewhere first.

Installing a new OS and then trying to access will result in permissions issues.

 

[joe_shroe]

Are these 'files' located in the Libraries? Documents/Music/Pics, etc?
If so, and if at all possible...copy those elsewhere first.

I was referring to all my files, in Documents, Pictures, personal music library folder, Program Files, etc. I suppose they're mostly games and other applications that I can simply reinstall.

I managed to boot up from my new drive with all other drives connected. I had to successfully boot with my new drive by itself, then connect the others and boot again. I'm not sure what I did differently but it works now. The desktop and all other files are showing now that the D drive is being read from.

Here is a screenshot of Disk Mgmt. C is the new SSD drive. D is the old HDD. E is the old SSD. Here's also a screenshot from diskpart.exe showing that I am in fact booting from the new SSD. Going forward, what would be the best method to move everything to my new SSD? Can I simply wipe the new SSD, install windows onto a USB drive, reinstall on new SSD, then copy over other files? Would I need to clone the boot partition if I'm doing a total reinstall?

 

[USAFRet]

A full reinstall on the desired drive needs nothing except a USB to boot from.
You do NOT create that boot partition manually. The install process does that all by itself.

Question - You had /Documents/Pics on the D drive? You relocated the actual Libraries?

 

[USAFRet]

For a fresh install on which ever drive...you have only that one drive connected.

Read here:

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

 

[joe_shroe]

A full reinstall on the desired drive needs nothing except a USB to boot from.
You do NOT create that boot partition manually. The install process does that all by itself.

Question - You had /Documents/Pics on the D drive? You relocated the actual Libraries?

Yes most of my files were located on my D drive, the HDD, which I'm trying to move over. I suppose that I should just do a clean install with windows on a USB, use another USB for moving over a few files, then reinstalling everything else.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes most of my files were located on my D drive, the HDD, which I'm trying to move over. I suppose that I should just do a clean install with windows on a USB, use another USB for moving over a few files, then reinstalling everything else.

While you still have direct access to your files, copy them to some other storage device. USB or whatever.
Just the files, not the parent Libraries.

Then, create your Win 10 install USB and proceed on.

Overall, this case is a textbook visualization of when cloning does not work well.
Boot partition on a different drive, and the Libraries in a location other than the C.
Complicates things.
Cloning is great when it works. Here, not so much.

 

[joe_shroe]

While you still have direct access to your files, copy them to some other storage device. USB or whatever.
Just the files, not the parent Libraries.

Then, create your Win 10 install USB and proceed on.

This method seems the most successful so far, thanks a lot for all your help!