[SOLVED] Need Help Changing my Boot Drive from my Hard Drive to my new SSD

reaganbush84

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Dec 26, 2017
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I recently purchased a new Sabrent Rocket Q 1tb version. I installed it in the PCIE slot on my motherboard, and it showed up fine in my Disk Management screen. I initialized it on Windows, gave it a letter, then watched a tutorial on how to make it my boot drive.

-The tutorial I watched told me to use Macrium Reflect to copy over the files from my Disk 1 (HDD), to Disk 2 (SSD), which I did, as shown here: View: https://imgur.com/a/nXAzztc

-That didn't work, so I consulted Reddit. A user told me to reclone my Hard Drive to my SSD, so I did. What you see in the link above is what is currently the case for all my drives. I then
I made G: (Which I'm assuming is to be the boot drive because on my hard drive that's the partition that boots) active. I also just made F active, though you can't see it in the linked screenshot.
-I also tried using a Macrium Reflect rescue boot, and then used the "Fix boot" option when I used the flash drive with the rescue boot to boot in (very confusing sentence sorry). I told the rescue boot that I wanted my SSD to be my boot device, and that fixed nothing.
-I've gone in my BIOS and made the SSD my primary boot device, and it does nothing.

I'm very sorry if a lot of this doesn't make any sense, feel free to ask for any screenshots necessary to help in solving this issue. I don't know what to do.
 
Solution
This will be my third time cloning. Am I supposed to just give up on having an SSD after this doesn't work? No idea why my system just can't handle it.
No, don't give up on having the SSD.
But maybe give up on the clone process.

Maybe time to just start fresh with a clean install. Yes, I know that is not the optimal solution. But...

reaganbush84

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Dec 26, 2017
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Stop.

Questions before we proceed.
What specific motherboard?
Why the PCIe slot?
How much space is consumed on the current C drive?
What size is the new SSD?
If you put the system back to original configuration, does it work?

Apologies, by PCIe slot I meant it's an NVMe SSD.

Motherboard is an ASUS Prime Z390-A

There is 32gb left on my 1tb C Drive
New SSD is also 1tb

The system in normal configuration, that being booting from the original Hard Drive, is fine, and it's what I'm using to reply to you now.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Apologies, by PCIe slot I meant it's an NVMe SSD.

Motherboard is an ASUS Prime Z390-A

There is 32gb left on my 1tb C Drive
New SSD is also 1tb

The system in normal configuration, that being booting from the original Hard Drive, is fine, and it's what I'm using to reply to you now.
"by PCIe slot I meant it's an NVMe SSD"

Meaning the M.2 port?


" 32gb left on my 1tb C Drive"

Meaning your 1TB HDD is currently approx 900GB full, correct?
This will not work.

You NEED to get that actual used space to below 800GB for a proper clone operation.


We can do this, but you NEED to get that used space down, for multiple reasons.
 

reaganbush84

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Dec 26, 2017
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"by PCIe slot I meant it's an NVMe SSD"

Meaning the M.2 port?


" 32gb left on my 1tb C Drive"

Meaning your 1TB HDD is currently approx 900GB full, correct?
This will not work.

You NEED to get that actual used space to below 800GB for a proper clone operation.


We can do this, but you NEED to get that used space down, for multiple reasons.

I appreciate it. So delete stuff on the C until it's under 800gb full? Then reclone the SSD? At that point everything should work?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
The step about power off and disconnecting the old drive before you boot up....this is not optional. You NEED to do this.

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

reaganbush84

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Dec 26, 2017
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4,510
The step about power off and disconnecting the old drive before you boot up....this is not optional. You NEED to do this.

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

Thank you very much for the instructions. I did exactly what you told me, except for plugging the SSD into the sata cable that connects the current boot device as my SSD connects through the M.2 port. I got this error while attempting to log into windows: View: https://imgur.com/a/6u0Naqe


Any idea on how to fix it?
 

reaganbush84

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Dec 26, 2017
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When you got to that blue screen error above, what did you do?

I got into the command prompt and typed in some commands I looked up to try and help with the situation. I tried bootfix, but access was denied. I made the partition that's supposed to boot active, and I changed the SSD to FAT32 because I was trying some other commands to try and help me bypass the bootfix access denied problem. The SSD still is read fine, and won't boot properly after all of that. I currently am in windows on my regular HDD boot drive.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I got into the command prompt and typed in some commands I looked up to try and help with the situation. I tried bootfix, but access was denied. I made the partition that's supposed to boot active, and I changed the SSD to FAT32 because I was trying some other commands to try and help me bypass the bootfix access denied problem. The SSD still is read fine, and won't boot properly after all of that. I currently am in windows on my regular HDD boot drive.
"typed in some commands I looked up "
" I changed the SSD to FAT32 "
"trying some other commands "


You need to start over completely.

Please show us a screencap of the running DIsk Management window.
You need to reformat the new SSD to NTFS. NOT FAT32.
 

reaganbush84

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Dec 26, 2017
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reaganbush84

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Dec 26, 2017
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No, don't give up on having the SSD.
But maybe give up on the clone process.

Maybe time to just start fresh with a clean install. Yes, I know that is not the optimal solution. But...

How would I go about that? Would programs still on my HDD be easily accessible? I ask this because my internet where I'm currently at is not optimal for the downloading of large files, especially the game library I have on my drive.

Thank you for the help as well, I really do appreciate it, you've been very instructive and patient!