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]

Booting with ONLY the new drive connected will reduce the likelihood of mistakes with Diskpart.

 

[DistressedMom]

Booting with ONLY the new drive connected will reduce the likelihood of mistakes with Diskpart.

Working on it right now, it's still making the media but it's already about halfway done.

I almost wish I had just made a fresh install of windows, but there's so much important stuff on the C drive that I couldn't afford to lose it. I keep backups of all my work, both locally on an external and via git, but you can't save everything using those means. So I was strongly encouraged to copy the drive over.

Oh, should I also disconnect my HD drives or can I leave those be? That'd be a hell of a pain.

 

[Lafong]

Oh, should I also disconnect my HD drives or can I leave those be? That'd be a hell of a pain.

When doing what?

You have to be very careful about what drive you are issuing commands for.

The more drives connected, the greater the chance for confusion.

Things can look weird in Diskpart. It will show you a bunch of drives and you may wonder which is which.

 

[DistressedMom]

When doing what?

You have to be very careful about what drive you are issuing commands for.

The more drives connected, the greater the chance for confusion.

Things can look weird in Diskpart. It will show you a bunch of drives and you may wonder which is which.

Yeah, I understand that much I'm afraid. I had to use it once on a different PC quite some time ago to remove a partition (I can't remember what for, but I had a tech friend walk me through it). I even made the lovely mistake of accidentally wiping the wrong one and had to spend a day getting it all recovered.

I have two clunky HD drives, but they're situated in such a way that I would have to remove my graphics card to take them out, so I'm praying I can avoid it. I have a very small workspace and it's really hard to get in there.

But if I have to, I will. I'll do what needs to be done.

 

[Lafong]

If you can post pictures of what you see in Diskpart before issuing commands, you can probably get through it without disconnecting other drives.

Or take the risk.

 

[DistressedMom]

If you can post pictures of what you see in Diskpart before issuing commands, you can probably get through it without disconnecting other drives.

Or take the risk.

I'll post pictures first for sure, and if it's ambiguous I'll just remove those drives. I'm definitely done with risks!

 

[Lafong]

List disk should show all disks connected at that moment.

But you won't see any drive letters.

Size will be shown. That should help you tell which is which. Unless they are all the same size....................................then you'd have to use another distinguishing point.

 

[DistressedMom]

yes.

Sorry it took so long, but I've got it booted with the USB and only SSD drive connected. I even removed the HDs. I'm going into the command stuff right now.

Edit: spoke too early, it's asking to install windows?

 

[DistressedMom]

List disk should show all disks connected at that moment.

But you won't see any drive letters.

Size will be shown. That should help you tell which is which. Unless they are all the same size....................................then you'd have to use another distinguishing point.

Yeah, I decided to not risk it so I currently have only the new SSD connected, starting the commands now.

Edit: actually it's now asking me if I want to install windows??

 

[SkyNetRising]

Edit: spoke too early, it's asking to install windows?

You press Shift+F10 to open command prompt.

 

[Lafong]

I assume you are not at Diskpart yet.

You'd access it from an installation USB by hitting Shift F10......I think at the screen where you are asked to select a language....

Yeah...pretend you are going to install Windows and go to Shift F10 when asked for language preference.

 

[DistressedMom]

Oh okay. Sorry guys, I'm jumping ahead of myself.

 

[DistressedMom]

https://imgur.com/a/ECH1ILj

View: https://imgur.com/a/ECH1ILj

 

[DistressedMom]

yes.

Posted the image. I'm trying to not get glare so sorry the pics are kind of wonky.

 

[DistressedMom]

I assume you are not at Diskpart yet.

You'd access it from an installation USB by hitting Shift F10......I think at the screen where you are asked to select a language....

Yeah...pretend you are going to install Windows and go to Shift F10 when asked for language preference.

Glad I took your advice, because the only thing I can figure out from it is the USB is the 14gb.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Glad I took your advice, because the only thing I can figure out from it is the USB is the 14gb.

Execute following:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 100MB EFI system partition)​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s H:​

Shutdown,
disconnect USB flash drive,
reboot your pc and try to load into windows.

 

[DistressedMom]

Execute following:

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 0​

list partition​

select partition 3​

(select 100MB EFI system partition)​

assign letter=H​

exit​

bcdboot D:\windows /s H:​

Shutdown,
disconnect USB flash drive,
reboot your pc and try to load into windows.

All commands were successful. It wouldn't automatically boot with the drive so I went into bios and manually selected it. But it's loaded up!!!

 

[DistressedMom]

https://imgur.com/a/RrvhnN6

View: https://imgur.com/a/RrvhnN6

This is what it looks like! Oh my god I could cry. This has been so insanely distressing and I am so appreciative.

If I may ask one last thing after all the trouble I've given, how on earth DO I clean out the old SSD so that I can reuse it for storage/running my programs? I'm so scared to even touch it now.

 

[SkyNetRising]

how on earth DO I clean out the old SSD so that I can reuse it for storage/running my programs?

Shutdown,
reconnect old SSD,
make sure boot options in BIOS are correct - boot from Windows Boot Manager on 1TB drive,
boot into windows,
delete all partitions on 120GB drive (Disk Management will not allow deleting EFI and recovery partitions, use diskpart instead)
or use diskpart clean method (just be carefull not to clean the wrong drive),
create a new partition on 120GB drive, format, assign drive letter.

 

[Lafong]

Pic looks good....................only thing is I'm not sure that System Reserved partition needs a drive letter?

Let Skynet comment.

Now is your chance to make another Macrium image so you can get back to this state if you get in a jam again. Update it periodically. Monthly?

If reconnected, I'd assume your old drive would simply appear as E right now.

But hold off on that for right now.

You say "running your programs"...............do you want to install programs on the old drive rather than the new drive? Why?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I'm not sure that System Reserved partition needs a drive letter?

It doesn't need a drive letter.

 

[DistressedMom]

Shutdown,
reconnect old SSD,
make sure boot options in BIOS are correct - boot from Windows Boot Manager on 1TB drive,
boot into windows,
delete all partitions on 120GB drive (Disk Management will not allow deleting EFI and recovery partitions, use diskpart instead),
create a new partition on 120GB drive, format, assign drive letter.

Okay, will do. For creating the new partition and assigning the letter, do I also use Diskpart for that? Like the commands you gave earlier for making drive H?

 

[SkyNetRising]

Okay, will do. For creating the new partition and assigning the letter, do I also use Diskpart for that?

Partition creation is simpler with Disk Management.

 

[DistressedMom]

Pic looks good....................only thing is I'm not sure that System Reserved partition needs a drive letter?

Let Skynet comment.

Now is your chance to make another Macrium image so you can get back to this state if you get in a jam again. Update it periodically. Monthly?

If reconnected, I'd assume your old drive would simply appear as E right now.

But hold off on that for right now.

You say "running your programs"...............do you want to install programs on the old drive rather than the new drive? Why?

I will absolutely make a new image immediately, haha.

I do game dev work and I'd like to use the old SSD to test run the project over time and store the working version there. Since SSD runs so much faster than HD drives, you know? Or at least that was the hope.

 

[DistressedMom]

Partition creation is simpler with Disk Management.

Okay, understood.

So I boot and go into bios immediately, then use boot manager to boot from the 1TB new SSD
then I open up the old SSD in disk management and delete the partitions that I can delete
then I use diskpart to delete the rest (I will google what the commands are since I currently have no idea)
Then I create a new partition (I'm guessing from unallocated at this point?) and format, all done in disk management, and assign a new letter.
Did I miss anything?

 

[SkyNetRising]

then I use diskpart to delete the rest (I will google what the commands are since I currently have no idea)

Use diskpart clean to clean old SSD. Make sure, correct drive is selected. Do not clean the wrong drive. Data will be lost.
Other than that rest is good.