SSD won't boot after clone

[Gerald99]

Hi!
I have an MSI GT72 laptop.
I've added an SSD, which I cloned using Easus backup home trial.
I can see the SSD, and access it, but can't boot from it.
I can still boot from the hard drive.
This is a fresh install of Windows 10, after reinstalling the factory OS (8.1)
If I look at the SSD in Windows partition manager, it shows as drive A, when I boot from the hard drive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Tumeden]

- If the HD is much larger then the SSD, it's possible that all the files didn't get cloned to the SSD properly.
-Are both the SSD and HDD internal or is one external?
-Have you tried changing the boot priority within the BIOS? You'd want to make sure the SSD loads before the HDD.
- If SSD is external via USB, you need to set "removable storage" as your first boot device.

 

[Gerald99]

Hi, Tumeden:
Thanks for your reply.

The boot partition on the hard drive is, in total, about the same size as the SSD - 500GB. The actual files on it are much smaller. about 39MB.

Both are internal.

The thing is, when I look at the BIOS, I don't have any options there for SSD.
It's as if the bios isn't recognising it - but, in File Explorer, I can read and write to it.
File Explorer sees it as Drive 'A'.

Gerald

 

[Tumeden]

It's possible you didn't clone the System Reserve partition when you cloned your HDD to your SSD, if that is the case then you will need to format the SSD & do the recloning as before, but with the System Reserve partition selected as well.

- Another possible solution if the above suggestion fails, is you could unplug your HDD and just have the SSD plugged in - install your operating system on that - then plug back in your HDD and manually copy files from your HDD to your SSD. ( a bit of a pain but is a possible workaround solution)

- Edit: I recommend formatting from the Disk manager (usually found by typing diskmgmt.msc in most windows search bars) and changing the drive letter to something more common (but unused) like the drive letter 'D' or 'C'
- 'A' is usually reserved for floppy diskdrives (or used to be)

 

[Gerald99]

That's the most likely answer. There's only one partition on the SSD.
The thing is; there are four other 'reserved' partitions on the HDD; two before the os-load partition, and two after.
Which one would I clone?

I've deleted all of the volumes from the SSD to get back to square one.
I can re-clone this, or install Windows from scratch.
If it will allow me - Resetting the PC from a recovery USB drive gives me the error 'a required drive partition is missing'.
Recover from a drive gives me the error 'The system drive is too small'.

Obviously, I'm missing something here...

Thanks!

 

[bambiboom]

Hi!
I have an MSI GT72 laptop.
I've added an SSD, which I cloned using Easus backup home trial.
I can see the SSD, and access it, but can't boot from it.
I can still boot from the hard drive.
This is a fresh install of Windows 10, after reinstalling the factory OS (8.1)
If I look at the SSD in Windows partition manager, it shows as drive A, when I boot from the hard drive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Gerald 99,

Tumenden has very good comments.

Additionally, ensure that the partition containing Windows is set to active, which can done in EaseUs Partition Master free edition. There can only be one active partition on the system and the cloning may not make that setting. As the system will not boot, the drive needs to be temporarily install in another system or you can do it from a command prompt running on a Win PE disk or possibly the EaseUs ToDo recovery disk.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Gerald99]

Hi!
I have an MSI GT72 laptop.
I've added an SSD, which I cloned using Easus backup home trial.
I can see the SSD, and access it, but can't boot from it.
I can still boot from the hard drive.
This is a fresh install of Windows 10, after reinstalling the factory OS (8.1)
If I look at the SSD in Windows partition manager, it shows as drive A, when I boot from the hard drive.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Gerald 99,

Tumenden has very good comments.

Additionally, ensure that the partition containing Windows is set to active, which can done in EaseUs Partition Master free edition. There can only be one active partition on the system and the cloning may not make that setting. As the system will not boot, the drive needs to be temporarily install in another system or you can do it from a command prompt running on a Win PE disk or possibly the EaseUs ToDo recovery disk.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Gerald99]

Thanks, Bambiboom, and Tumenden!

I appreciate your help with this issue.
I realized that I was just groping in the dark on this problem.

To make a long story short, the final solution was to create a new Windows 10 installation USB drive, remove all of the partitions on both the SSD and the hard drive, and do a clean install of Windows 10.
That works fine from the SSD, and I've decided to rebuild from scratch, instead of restoring my old system image from backup.

Gerald