Ready to give up on using an SSD as my boot disk

[Bob DeFranco]

I recently built a new system, with a Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 7 motherboard and an Intel Core i7 6600K processor. I kept my old boot drive, a Western Digital WD1003FBYX-01Y7B0 1TB drive. Having read about the joys of booting and running off an SSD, I installed a 480 GB BP5 M.2 NGFF SATA drive from MyDigitalSSD. It installed easily and was properly recognized by the BIOS and Disk Management. I initialized it as a GPT drive (I'm running Windows 10) and assigned it as Drive F:. Then, following advice found here and other places, I cloned my C: drive to it using Acronis True Image 2016, booting from the Acronis recovery disk to carry out the cloning. At the end of the process I shut the computer down, disconnected the old C: drive, having made sure that the SSD was shown in the boot order, and restarted my PC. No joy! The system requested a bootable disk, so clearly my SSD was not recognized as such.

I have tried startup repair from a Windows 10 install disk (unable to repair), and tried rewriting the operating system from the install disk (was told the drive was locked!) and tried writing new boot files to the SSD from the install disk using the "bcdboot" command. Still no joy.

I am about ready to remove the SSD and send it back. But first I though I might appeal to the collective wisdom of the Tom's Hardware experts.

 

[junkeymonkey]

when you clone you may have to repair the mbr between drives .

[FIDELIS answer]

http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/boot-windows-7-cloning-hard-drive-easeus/

http://superuser.com/questions/750856/new-drive-does-not-boot-after-cloning-mbr-partitions
just something to look in to on that ???

 

[Bob DeFranco]

when you clone you may have to repair the mbr between drives .

[FIDELIS answer]

http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/boot-windows-7-cloning-hard-drive-easeus/

http://superuser.com/questions/750856/new-drive-does-not-boot-after-cloning-mbr-partitions
just something to look in to on that ???

Hi,

Thanks for the links. I thought that, under Windows 10, the drive had to be GPT, not MBR, in order to boot. Both my C: drive and my new SSD F: drive are GPT drives, so no master boot record to repair. If I'm wrong about this, please let me know. Under Win 7 must be MBR to boot, but not under Win 10 I think.

 

[junkeymonkey]

cant say win-10 your on your own with it cant help you there

still that a thing that comes up when you clone so it cant hurt to try the repair even when it was just mbr to mbr the boot manager just may fail to take ??

I don't clone I cant see transferring old drive stuff [bootable] to a new drive I just start all new no point transferring anything ''bad'' from the old to the new in the end whats the point if there were any corrupt data of files ?? [opinion] I want all fresh new clean no issues , but that's just me

use your new drive set it up and do a fresh clean install of your OS and there should be -0- issues

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows

check these steps ??

http://www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/clone/clone-gpt-disk-in-windows-10.html

 

[Bob DeFranco]

cant say win-10 your on your own with it cant help you there

still that a thing that comes up when you clone so it cant hurt to try the repair even when it was just mbr to mbr the boot manager just may fail to take ??

I don't clone I cant see transferring old drive stuff [bootable] to a new drive I just start all new no point transferring anything ''bad'' from the old to the new in the end whats the point if there were any corrupt data of files ?? [opinion] I want all fresh new clean no issues , but that's just me

use your new drive set it up and do a fresh clean install of your OS and there should be -0- issues

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows

I get that. I might end up doing just that if I can't return the SSD for a full refund. It takes a long time to download replacements for everything that's on the old disk, so I'm kind of reluctant to go that way. However, as I said, I might end up doing that. Right now I'm reformatting the SSD and then I'll try a new clone. If that doesn't work then I may go your route.

 

[grimfox]

I would perhaps try a recovery from a backup to the new drive. I've had good luck using this method in the past. The MBR is effectively created clean for the new drive and then is populated during the backup process. The only time this has not worked for me is when the SSD is smaller than half the size of the original disk drive. The pagefile causes a problem with the size of the backup and wont restore to a smaller drive despite having only a small amount of data on the backup. It can be overcome but causes a lot of headaches.

 

[Bob DeFranco]

I would perhaps try a recovery from a backup to the new drive. I've had good luck using this method in the past. The MBR is effectively created clean for the new drive and then is populated during the backup process. The only time this has not worked for me is when the SSD is smaller than half the size of the original disk drive. The pagefile causes a problem with the size of the backup and wont restore to a smaller drive despite having only a small amount of data on the backup. It can be overcome but causes a lot of headaches.

Unfortunately the SSD is indeed less than half the size of the old drive (480 GB vs. 1000 GB). I would have loved to have a terabyte SSD, but they are quite expensive.

 

[junkeymonkey]

I still use platter drives but I been looking to go ssd with my next drive to give it a try only thing is I will do a clean fresh OS install and then just uswe this drive I'm on now as a storage drive just to get what I need off it as needed - that way I get a clean install boot drive ant then just copy and pasrt any thing I need off the old drive as needed if you get what I'm saying

all programs just reinstall fresh as well that way its all fresh, right and clean

sorry I was no better help so good luck

 

[Bob DeFranco]

I still use platter drives but I been looking to go ssd with my next drive to give it a try only thing is I will do a clean fresh OS install and then just uswe this drive I'm on now as a storage drive just to get what I need off it as needed - that way I get a clean install boot drive ant then just copy and pasrt any thing I need off the old drive as needed if you get what I'm saying

all programs just reinstall fresh as well that way its all fresh, right and clean

sorry I was no better help so good luck

I believe that your approach would probably solve the problem. It is clean and conservative, but pretty time-consuming.

As I mentioned I was going to do, I zeroed out the SSD and again cloned my old drive to it. Not surprisingly, I suppose, it again failed to boot. I did notice that, in cloning my old drive to the SSD, Acronis added a partition described in Disk Management as "EFI System Partition" to the drive. This partition is NOT present on the old drive, the one that boots. Any idea what that partition is, what it is for, and why it is not present on the boot drive? Acronis seems to think it's necessary, but I'm wondering it it is the source of the problem.

 

[junkeymonkey]

but pretty time-consuming

true but how much time you got fooling with this clone thing now [that's not working ] at least you can work on a new install wile you get thing up to speed on the rest ??

I don't know when I go new it all new start from fresh like said thing out side of programd like picture folders and things as that just copy and paste over to the new install as needed or leave them on the old drive until I do need them after time most stuff is clutter anyway

and with that you know its all going in fresh and clean then I do guess if you do steam games ad such you screwed there ?? all my programs are fully on a retail disk I don't support steam / uplay or origin games [what a rip off] that right ther shows you got nothing with out them involved fully biggest time consumer for me is windows updates weeding them all out

''Acronis seems to think it's necessary, but I'm wondering it it is the source of the problem''

cant say but see a lot on that talked up on this at sites I look at for you like theres a small partition that has that boot manager on it that may not carry over ??

best I can see it maybe required for 10 ?

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/commercialize/manufacture/desktop/configure-uefigpt-based-hard-drive-partitions

check out this guys guide on this ??

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1670056/successful-clone-windows-hard-drive-ssd-gpt-uefi.html

notice from here these folks using Acronis don't seem too happy with it ??

http://www.tenforums.com/installation-setup/24984-windows-10-clone-ssd-will-not-boot-2.html

 

[junkeymonkey]

I was looking around today at ssd and looks like a trend on the cloning software and 10 ??

Beware: This kit will not clone a Windows 10 operating system.

There is a PROBLEM with this kit if you are trying to clone on a Windows 10 operating system. The Acronis cloning software download provided by Kingston in this kit is Acronis 2014. I could not get the software registration form on my Windows 10 computer unless I ran the software in Windows 7 compatibility mode.. A bit of research reveals that Acronis does not guarantee version 2014 will correctly clone a Windows 10 operating system and they recommend against trying it, They only certify version 2015 (latest update only) or 2016 to work on Windows 10.

The drive is great. The free software is garbage for Windows 10

I spent more than 8 hours on the Acronis forums which are great btw if you have the patience. I downloaded a bunch of free products that didn't work either so same as other people have reported, Windows 10 is not easy to get a perfect clone on especially when you buy a drive that is smaller than the drive you are cloning. Long story short, the Acronis 2016 True Image for Windows product that I was told I didn't qualify for;


I'd look at maybe some better cloning software or like in that one link above the one that seems to be working well doing 10 all seemed to of tried with success ?

good luck

 

[Bob DeFranco]

I was looking around today at ssd and looks like a trend on the cloning software and 10 ??

Beware: This kit will not clone a Windows 10 operating system.

There is a PROBLEM with this kit if you are trying to clone on a Windows 10 operating system. The Acronis cloning software download provided by Kingston in this kit is Acronis 2014. I could not get the software registration form on my Windows 10 computer unless I ran the software in Windows 7 compatibility mode.. A bit of research reveals that Acronis does not guarantee version 2014 will correctly clone a Windows 10 operating system and they recommend against trying it, They only certify version 2015 (latest update only) or 2016 to work on Windows 10.

The drive is great. The free software is garbage for Windows 10

I spent more than 8 hours on the Acronis forums which are great btw if you have the patience. I downloaded a bunch of free products that didn't work either so same as other people have reported, Windows 10 is not easy to get a perfect clone on especially when you buy a drive that is smaller than the drive you are cloning. Long story short, the Acronis 2016 True Image for Windows product that I was told I didn't qualify for;


I'd look at maybe some better cloning software or like in that one link above the one that seems to be working well doing 10 all seemed to of tried with success ?

good luck

Well.... I decided you're right. I bit the bullet and did a fresh install of Windows 10 on my new SSD. I installed all the drivers and am now in the process of loading my software. I have a pretty fast connection (cable modem), so downloading my games (I use Ubisoft and Steam, so everything is a download) is required - no CDs or DVDs, However, this has created a new problem, which didn't occur to me until AFTER I did this. My old boot drive, which I unplugged when setting up the SSD, is still a startup drive and is designated as C:, just like my new drive. So, how do I re-connect it to get files off of it without causing a conflict with my new C: drive? I feel like I have painted myself into a corner!

 

[junkeymonkey]

change the drive letter

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38112/~/windows-10%3A-change-a-drive-letter-in-disk-management

[pretty sad you look for this to post you a guide and Microsoft never comes up ]

thenn in your bios you should designate the ssd drive as first boot device optical drive [if you got one ] as 2ed also have the drives hooked up on the boards sata connections in the same order [first boot device on sata port 1 .2ed on sata port 2 and so on ]

I got the near same issue here with 2 platter drives to where when I got to boot I got to hit F11 and manually select what drive to boot to [???? ] cause it will boot to the 2ed drive everytime no matter how I set the drives up in the bios . so you may not be the lone ranger on all that deal

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2163637/ssd-show-boot-priority-asus-z97-pro.html

less headache just to now hit F11 at bios post splash screen and choose what drive I want to boot to ??? if I get time i'll look in to that more on my end just one of them things [check your boards manual on how to and what hot key used on it mine is f11 could be f8 or something on yours ?? ]

???

''I did a little research about why the OS install had 'split' partially to the old HDD, even though I told Windows to install to my SSD. According to several others on the interwebs, this is a common problem when you install to your SSD and have another drive connected at the same time. I reformatted my drives, disconnected my other HDD and reinstalled to my SSD. Worked like a charm. All the issues I was experiencing prior went away. BIOS picked right up on the SSD with no issues. Windows defaulted to AHCI.

The big lesson here is when you install your OS to your SSD, make sure it is the only drive connected at time of install. ''

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/533596/ssd-issues-in-bios/page-2


thing is I never had this issue on mine until several months ago when I installed a new drive and installed Linux on it my old drive with older Linux [mint 15 to mint 17] all worked as ''normal ' and booted as I set in the iorder .. now after I went to mint 17 this boot order issue popped up fopr me as well and I don't use any SSD

 

[maxwellmelon]

"EFI System Partition" to the drive. This partition is NOT present on the old drive, the one that boots. Any idea what that partition is, what it is for, and why it is not present on the boot drive? Acronis seems to think it's necessary, but I'm wondering it it is the source of the problem

this is actually a nessary partition for uefi booting systems. it should be about 500mb in size and should be the first partition before you main partition. your main drive might not having been using uefi booting and therefore would be running a MBR based boot config.

other issue I have is a good clone program should just ask you what partition do you want to copy. it shouldn't ask you to manually create the partition before the copy. that means that that program is not a true cloning program, but just a file copying program. it should just ask you what partition do you want to copy and do you want to shrink or expanded it to xxx size and should this partition be marked as bootable.

anyways as to ", is still a startup drive and is designated as C:, just like my new drive. So, how do I re-connect it to get files off of it without causing a conflict with my new C: drive" just reconnect the drive just make sure in your bios that the ssd is set as the first boot device. windows will automatically change your old drive to a different drive letter most likely D:, and if anything goes wrong as long as you don't delete anything on your old drive (copy don't cut to move files) if you remove your ssd your old drive will still be bootable and will go back to the letter C:

 

[junkeymonkey]

any luck ??

 

[Bob DeFranco]

Thanks to both junkeymonkey and maxwellmelon for your answers. This has been a vexing journey through the Heart of Darkness (aka Windows 10). Junkeymonkey gave me the right answer; I just didn't want to accept it at first. And maxwellmelon gave me the courage to just plug the old boot drive in once I had the SSD up and running. Windows indeed just took the old drive, gave it a new letter and removed its designation as a boot drive. I can now go through it, copy over what I want to keep (can I just put pointers on the SSD and leave the content on the new D: drive?) and get rid of the junk.

Thanks to everyone who offered solutions and to you two for staying with me.

 

[maxwellmelon]

Thanks to both junkeymonkey and maxwellmelon for your answers. This has been a vexing journey through the Heart of Darkness (aka Windows 10). Junkeymonkey gave me the right answer; I just didn't want to accept it at first. And maxwellmelon gave me the courage to just plug the old boot drive in once I had the SSD up and running. Windows indeed just took the old drive, gave it a new letter and removed its designation as a boot drive. I can now go through it, copy over what I want to keep (can I just put pointers on the SSD and leave the content on the new D: drive?) and get rid of the junk.

Thanks to everyone who offered solutions and to you two for staying with me.

your welcome, enjoy and I think you selected the correct best answer as that was the majority of your issue.