[SOLVED] Trying to switch boot drive from HDD to SSD.

TheIronside

Honorable
Dec 19, 2015
12
0
10,510
I recently installed a new Crucial P5 NVMe SSD drive. I used a program called Macrium Reflect to clone my boot HDD over to the NVMe, however after doing so and restarting my PC and setting the SSD drive to the boot drive it brought me to a screen saying to change boot device. After switching back to the old HDD as my boot drive in the BIOS it brought me to same screen again. I did this various times and also tried to fix it using Microsoft install media on a USB but that didn't work. It wasn't until I selected Windows Boot Manager (for my SSD) in the BIOS that my PC actually booted to the desktop. However, looking in my files the windows logo is still next to my old HDD rather than my SSD which means it must've booted from the hard drive right? Not really sure what to do from here. Attached below is an image of what I mean.

https://pasteboard.co/KgFqvi7.png
 
Solution
however after doing so and restarting my PC and setting the SSD drive to the boot drive
The usual missed step.

After the clone process completes, you MUST power off, physically disconnect/remove the old drive, and allow the system to boot up from ONLY the new drive.
This is not optional.

Does the system still work with only the old drive?
If so, redo the clone process.

First, delete all existing partitions on the new drive.
Then....

-----------------------------
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...

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
however after doing so and restarting my PC and setting the SSD drive to the boot drive
The usual missed step.

After the clone process completes, you MUST power off, physically disconnect/remove the old drive, and allow the system to boot up from ONLY the new drive.
This is not optional.

Does the system still work with only the old drive?
If so, redo the clone process.

First, delete all existing partitions on the new drive.
Then....

-----------------------------
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.
-----------------------------
 
Solution

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Thank you for the reply, i'm still able to boot the system and I cleared the SSD in order to clone the boot drive once again but when I started up macrium the boot drive and the SSD's partitions seemed to have swapped around? Here's an image of it.

https://pasteboard.co/KgLu9UvT.png
At what point was that screencap taken?

Before or after this second clone operation?

And why was the other drive (D drive) still connected?