Question New M.2 Drive No Boot Option

[Jayy8Bit]

Hey there! So I just bought and installed a new M.2 drive, cloned my old drive to this new one, but I can't seem to boot from it (triple checked the OS DID copy over). The new drive shows up in disk management, Speccy, Windows explorer, and I can use it like normal, but it does not show up in the BIOS boot list. Any suggestions?

 

[dwd999]

Hey there! So I just bought and installed a new M.2 drive, cloned my old drive to this new one, but I can't seem to boot from it (triple checked the OS DID copy over). The new drive shows up in disk management, Speccy, Windows explorer, and I can use it like normal, but it does not show up in the BIOS boot list. Any suggestions?

Precisely how did you clone your old drive and what software did you use? How many drives does the bios boot list show and how are they named? Many people here use the Macrium software so if you want to try cloning again you may wish to consider that.

 

[USAFRet]

Hey there! So I just bought and installed a new M.2 drive, cloned my old drive to this new one, but I can't seem to boot from it (triple checked the OS DID copy over). The new drive shows up in disk management, Speccy, Windows explorer, and I can use it like normal, but it does not show up in the BIOS boot list. Any suggestions?

What tool did you use for this clone?
What are the drives and motherboard involved?

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

 

[Jayy8Bit]

Precisely how did you clone your old drive and what software did you use? How many drives does the bios boot list show and how are they named? Many people here use the Macrium software so if you want to try cloning again you may wish to consider that.

EaseUS Disk Copy. Been using it for years with no issue. BIOS only shows my Kingston drive(C), not the new WD(E).

 

[USAFRet]

Sadly, the one step these tools fail to mention is what you do after the clone process is over.

That would be...
Power off
Physically disconnect the old drive.
Allow the system to try to power up with only the new drive.

Try that now.
If it still fails, redo the clone process, with that step at the end.

 

[USAFRet]

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Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to 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

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
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 specify the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
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.
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