[SOLVED] Same signature, Offline Drive, Cloning

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imusiics

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Dec 2, 2017
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I bought a new ssd, installed Windows 10 on it, cloned the NTFS file partition with all my old stuff from my previous SSD and swapped it out with the new NTFS on my new SSD while also expanding it since the new SSD was larger.
I now have both SSDs plugged into my motherboard. The old one was automatically set to offline because they both have the same "Signature". I want to format this drive. How do I go about doing this? Do I just turn it back to online or is that going to cause some issues?
 
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imusiics said:
I bought a new ssd, installed Windows 10 on it, cloned the NTFS file partition with all my old stuff from my previous SSD and swapped it out with the new NTFS on my new SSD while also expanding it since the new SSD was larger.
I now have both SSDs plugged into my motherboard. The old one was automatically set to offline because they both have the same "Signature". I want to format this drive. How do I go about doing this? Do I just turn it back to online or is that going to cause some issues?
Click to expand...
Please show us a screencap of the Disk Management window.

What tool did you use for this clone operation?

imusiics said:
installed Windows 10 on it, cloned the NTFS file partition with all my old stuff from my previous SSD and swapped it out with the new NTFS on my new SSD
Click to expand...
Unclear of exactly what you did here.
 
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I used Macrium Reflect. I created an image of my old C Drive, installed Macrium on the new C Drive and then loaded the partition with all the files from the backup onto the new c drive.
The picture might clear this up: The 118 GB Partition of Disk 1 held all my data. The 930GB Partition of Disk 0 is the location where my new drive has all its Data. I cloned the 118 GB partition, put it into Disk 0 and enlarged it to 930 GB.
https://imgur.com/a/KgO4vTT
View: https://imgur.com/gallery/KgO4vTT


Disk 1 = Old SSD
Disk 0 = New SSD
Tool used = Macrium Reflect, Windows install -> Macrium System Image backup restore

Sorry, I don't know too much about this stuff so Im probably using the wrong words to describe what I did.
 
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imusiics said:
The old drive also has Win10 on it. The only thing cloned here is the 118 GB partition. I couldn't figure out how to clone the OS so I installed the OS separately.
Click to expand...
That was the wrong way to go about it.

The 'clone' wiped out the install you did. It overwrote it completely, and you have the old install anyway.

Does the system work 100% from ONLY the old drive?
If so, I recommend starting over.

If it does NOT work with only the old drive, we can go down that road instead.

The small EFI partition is just the boot info. Windows itself resides in the large 118GB.


-----------------------------
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.
-----------------------------
 
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I managed to boot into windows with my old C drive disconnected. It looked pretty much the exact same as before and as far as I can tell all the files are still linked to the right places so I haven't had any issues yet. Is that what you meant by "does NOT work with only the old drive"?
 
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imusiics said:
I managed to boot into windows with my old C drive disconnected. It looked pretty much the exact same as before and as far as I can tell all the files are still linked to the right places so I haven't had any issues yet. Is that what you meant by "does NOT work with only the old drive"?
Click to expand...
With only the old drive connected, it works?
Seems so.

If it does, then I recommend just redo the whole clone thing, per the steps above.
All partitions, resizing the 118GB to take the relevant space of the new drive.
 
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imusiics said:
No no, I booted up windows 10 with ONLY the NEW ssd connected and it worked. Old C Disk wasn't connected.
Click to expand...
OK then...it all works with ONLY the new drive connected.

And it still boots up properly with both drives connected?


If so, we can go about cleaning off the old drive.
Commandline function diskpart, and the clean command.
Be absolutely sure of which drive you are accessing. 'clean' is a one way street. Select the wrong drive, and tears will result.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/format-hard-drive-command-prompt,37632.html
 
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