Question Terrified I broke everything when cloning my boot hard drive. Please, please help.

[DistressedMom]

Hello,

I recently bought a 1TB SSD to replace my 120GB SSD, which has my operating system on it. I was constantly running out of room on my C drive (the smaller SSD). I asked some people in a tech forum how I could move my C drive from the smaller SSD to the larger one and was given some instructions.

I followed the instructions I was given and cloned my old, smaller SSD into the new SSD for booting. I booted up my PC initially with only the new SSD and it worked fine, then I turned it off, plugged in the new SSD with the intentions to reformat (as I was told to do), and now this mess is showing up.

The new H drive is the clone, though it initially showed up as a C drive before I plugged the old SSD back in. It also appears to be missing the 'boot' partition? I made certain when I booted up the PC after plugging the SSD back in that I booted FROM the new SSD. I specifically selected the boot override and chose it.

I need help, I'm kind of panicking at this point. I don't know how to resolve this. I'm also assuming the new G drive is part of the new H drive (all from the new SSD)? I'm so scared I've broken everything and I don't know how to proceed. I am a game dev and I use this PC for all my dev work, and I can barely run my programs right now. Everything is suddenly extremely slow and hangs.

(Sidenote: ignore the unallocated disk, I just installed that earlier and haven't set it up yet).

 

[Lafong]

You say "I booted up my PC initially with only the new SSD and it worked fine, then I turned it off, plugged in the new SSD with the intentions to reformat".

Is that what you meant to say? If the new SSD "worked fine", I don't understand why you would then "plug in the new SSD" and reformat it.

Does the PC boot with drive 0 disconnected completely?

I assume you used Macrium. Is that correct?

You say clone. The instructions in your link refer to imaging, not cloning.

They are similar processes that can have the same end result... moving a system to a new drive.

I'm guessing you used imaging, not cloning.

To image, you should have made a Macrium image file of ALL partitions on drive 0 shown in your picture. That is your old drive. You should have saved that file on some other drive. That file should have an .mrimg extension. Did you?

If you "cloned", you would NOT have made such an .mrimg file.

Did you ever make "recovery media" on a USB flash drive from Macrium menus?

Clarify if possible.

 

[DistressedMom]

You say "I booted up my PC initially with only the new SSD and it worked fine, then I turned it off, plugged in the new SSD with the intentions to reformat".

Is that what you meant to say? If the new SSD "worked fine", I don't understand why you would then "plug in the new SSD" and reformat it.

I assume you used Macrium. Is that correct?

You say clone. The instructions in your link refer to imaging, not cloning.

They are similar processes that can have the same end result... moving a system to a new drive.

I'm guessing you used imaging, not cloning.

To image, you should have made a Macrium image file of ALL partitions on drive 0 shown in your picture. That is your old drive.

You should have saved that file on some other drive. That file should have an .mrimg extension. Did you?

Did you ever make "recovery media" on a USB flash drive from Macrium menus?

Clarify if possible.

Yes. I wanted to reuse the old SSD for storage (specifically for testing gameplay for our project since it's the only other SSD I have). I was told to do this I just needed to reformat it. But the moment I plugged it in, I got the above pictured mess. I haven't touched a thing since, or even tried to reformat or do anything since seeing that. I didn't want to make things worse and I didn't know what on earth I was looking at.

Yes, I used Macrium, and I did imaging, that's right. Sorry, all of this particular stuff is incredibly new to me. I've never really messed with disks or my OS or any of that before. The most I've done is add new storage before.

I saved the Macrium image on my D drive and it's still there. That's what I used. I used Macrium to make the USB a recovery flash thing and then started up with that (with only the new SSD installed and the old one disconnected), and used it to recover the image saved in my D drive.

When I booted the PC up with ONLY the new drive, it was identical in structure to the old drive. The above image only happened after I added the old SSD back with the intent to reformat it.

Edit: to further clarify, disk 0 is the old SSD and disk 2 is the new one. Disk 2 DID look exactly like disk 0, until I added the old SSD (disk 0) back to my PC.

 

[Lafong]

Disconnect disk 0, the old drive.

Attempt to boot the PC.

If it will boot, show us another picture of Disk Management without disk 0 connected at all.

Are you sure what partitions you included in your image file?

I still don't understand this point:

You say "I booted up my PC initially with only the new SSD and it worked fine, then I turned it off, plugged in the new SSD with the intentions to reformat".

Is that what you meant to say? If the new SSD "worked fine", I don't understand why you would then "plug in the new SSD" and reformat it.

 

[SkyNetRising]

You say "I booted up my PC initially with only the new SSD and it worked fine, then I turned it off, plugged in the new SSD with the intentions to reformat".
Is that what you meant to say? If the new SSD "worked fine", I don't understand why you would then "plug in the new SSD" and reformat it.

Probably typo.
Intention was to format the old drive.

 

[DistressedMom]

Probably typo.
Intention was to format the old drive.

Yes, sorry. It's like and I've been panicking over this all day. I'm a bit all over the place, sorry.

 

[SkyNetRising]

I made certain when I booted up the PC after plugging the SSD back in that I booted FROM the new SSD. I specifically selected the boot override and chose it.

To boot from new drive, you have to select Windows Boot Manager (1TB drive) as boot option.
If you selected boot option without Windows Boot Manager, then that is boot option for legacy boot. It will not work and boot process will default back to boot priority settings in BIOS.

You'll have following boot options:
Windows Boot Manager (120GB drive)
Windows Boot Manager (1TB drive).

Choose Windows Boot Manager (1TB drive).

 

[DistressedMom]

Disconnect disk 0, the old drive.

Attempt to boot the PC.

If it will boot, show us another picture of Disk Management without disk 0 connected at all.

Are you sure what partitions you included in your image file?

I still don't understand this point:

You say "I booted up my PC initially with only the new SSD and it worked fine, then I turned it off, plugged in the new SSD with the intentions to reformat".

Is that what you meant to say? If the new SSD "worked fine", I don't understand why you would then "plug in the new SSD" and reformat it.

Reformat the old drive, I'm sorry. I'm really off my game right now, I've been stressed all day over this. I will try what you said and will update shortly!

 

[DistressedMom]

Disconnect disk 0, the old drive.

Attempt to boot the PC.

If it will boot, show us another picture of Disk Management without disk 0 connected at all.

Are you sure what partitions you included in your image file?

I still don't understand this point:

You say "I booted up my PC initially with only the new SSD and it worked fine, then I turned it off, plugged in the new SSD with the intentions to reformat".

Is that what you meant to say? If the new SSD "worked fine", I don't understand why you would then "plug in the new SSD" and reformat it.

It won't boot without the old drive at all, now. I think I imaged the whole thing, but I'm not sure anymore. I followed the directions I was given.

It is showing me this now.

https://imgur.com/a/yZP54qz

View: https://imgur.com/a/yZP54qz

 

[DistressedMom]

To boot from new drive, you have to select Windows Boot Manager (1TB drive) as boot option.
If you selected boot option without Windows Boot Manager, then that is boot option for legacy boot. It will not work and boot process will default back to boot priority settings in BIOS.

You'll have following boot options:
Windows Boot Manager (120GB drive)
Windows Boot Manager (1TB drive).

Choose Windows Boot Manager (1TB drive).

I tried that, but it still boots the old one. And now with the old one disconnected I get this:

https://imgur.com/a/yZP54qz

View: https://imgur.com/a/yZP54qz

 

[DistressedMom]

I tried that, but it still boots the old one. And now with the old one disconnected I get this:

https://imgur.com/a/yZP54qz

View: https://imgur.com/a/yZP54qz

And now it's showing this:

https://imgur.com/a/AfhG51R

View: https://imgur.com/a/AfhG51R

 

[Lafong]

2 possible paths:

1; attempt to repair the new drive so it is bootable. That might be possible through the Macrium Rescue Disk you made or through other options from a command line; I'm not qualified to help with this.

2; start over, make a new image with better instructions so you don't go off the rails as you have.

Can you now confirm that the PC will boot properly with ONLY THE OLD DRIVE CONNECTED? If it will, you might try option 2 above.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Boot with only new 1TB ssd connected.
Go into recovery environment by pressing F1.
In command prompt window execute following and show result:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

list volume​

 

[DistressedMom]

2 possible paths:

1; attempt to repair the new drive so it is bootable. That might be possible through the Macrium Rescue Disk you made or through other options from a command line; I'm not qualified to help with this.

2; start over, make a new image with better instructions so you don't go off the rails as you have.

Can you now confirm that the PC will boot properly with ONLY THE OLD DRIVE CONNECTED? If it will, you might try option 2 above.

I'll certainly give it a shot. Whichever I need to do. I just really appreciate the responses because I've been nearly in tears over this, it's completely halted my work and I have a lot of deadlines.

I will try and see if it will boot with only the old SSD.

I did plug it back in just so I could respond here properly, but I also noticed something weird when I started it back up, with both SSDs in. It said "repairing H drive" and then went through whatever that process was before booting. Not sure if that matters or not.

 

[DistressedMom]

Go into recovery environment by pressing F1.
In command prompt window execute following and show result:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk x​

(select 1TB disk containing cloned windows, it will have multiple partitions on it)​

list partition​

list volume​

Do I do this while only having the 1tb plugged in, and not the old one? Sorry if I'm being redundant but when it comes to tech stuff I've learned to ask as many questions as possible.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Do I do this while only having the 1tb plugged in, and not the old one? Sorry if I'm being redundant but when it comes to tech stuff I've learned to ask as many questions as possible.

Yes - only new 1TB SSD connected.
It will be easier, if there are no other drives connected.

 

[Lafong]

Did that "repairing the H drive" process complete?

Or not?

 

[DistressedMom]

Yes - only new 1TB SSD connected.
It will be easier, if there are no other drives connected.

Okay, I'll do that and report back in a minute. Thank you so much for taking the time, you guys are serious life savers here.

 

[DistressedMom]

Did that "repairing the H drive" process complete?

Or not?

Yes, and it started back up, but it looked the same.

 

[DistressedMom]

Yes - only new 1TB SSD connected.
It will be easier, if there are no other drives connected.

I can't seem to get passed the recovery screen. When I hit F1 nothing happens. I've been waiting a few minutes so far, is that normal?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I can't seem to get passed the recovery screen. When I hit F1 nothing happens. I've been waiting a few minutes so far, is that normal?

Could be - recovery environment on 1TB drive is invalid.

Boot from windows installation media instead.
Go into Command prompt by pressing Shift+F10 after booting from windows installation media.

 

[DistressedMom]

Could be - recovery environment on 1TB drive is invalid.

Boot from windows installation media instead.
Go into Command prompt by pressing Shift+F10 after booting from windows installation media.

Do I need to make a new USB bootable or something like that to do that? Or do I need to dig up my old windows install stuff? It's been a few years and from what I remember, I purchased windows online and downloaded it to a USB flash drive.

Nevermind, I'm making the USB media now. I can figure out that much, haha

 

[SkyNetRising]

If you can't find your old windows installation media, then make a new one (8GB or larger USB flash drive is required).

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[DistressedMom]

If you can't find your old windows installation media, then make a new one (8GB or larger USB flash drive is required).

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Doing that right now, then I boot using that USB with only the new SSD connected right? And then do the diskpart stuff you mentioned?

Again, sorry for being redundant, I just don't want to screw up somewhere.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Doing that right now, then I boot using that USB with only the new SSD connected right? And then do the diskpart stuff you mentioned?

yes.