[SOLVED] Two Problems, how do I make a drive "bootable" and how do I clone a drive and Keep it bootable ?

[Krynee]

So it might be a bit complicated and sorry for my bad english (not native Speaker and sorry for random caps, german autocorrect I cant turn off here in Office).
I hope I can explain the Problem enough.

Following Situation.
I have three SSDs. Lets call them SSD Old (128 gb Sata), SSD M2 Sata 275gb (new, Crucial) and SSD M2 NVME 1TB (new, Samsung EVO).
Last year I built a new PC and got the two new SSDs. At this point I had no idea that there is a difference between M2 Sata (slow) and M2 NVME (fast).
The smaller Sata M2 was meant for my new OS, so I used it not knowing it was a bad idea.

Now I found out that the NVME is alot faster/better and I want to move my OS to this one without the Need to reinstall Windows and all my <Mod Edit>again. So I want to clone it, but lets get back to that later.

Now Problem one occured. I left my SSD Old connected all the time. When starting my PC I always ended up in the bootmanager(?) which let me select the drive to start Windows. I had my SSD Sata new as Option and my SSD Old.

This was ok for me for, but I now wanted to make everything fresh and "finished". So before going to clone my OS to the new NVME I decided to disconnect my SSD Old first.
I disconnected it, started the PC and ended up in Bios. No Option to boot. I changed from UEFI to Legacy and manually selected my SSD Sata M2 with my current OS as first boot Option. Not possible to boot.

I put my SSD Old into a USB case and started the PC with it being connected and ended up in the boot menu again and then I was able to start from my current OS from SSD Sata M2.
So the current SSD Sata M2 seems not to be a bootable drive by its own and Needs the bootmanager(?) from SSD Old to start its OS.

How do I fix this without the Need to reinstall Windows ? I dont want to Keep my SSD Old connected forever.

So now lets get to the second part. When I work all of this out I want to move my OS to the NVME. How do I do that ? Before I disconnected the old SSD I tried to clone it with the Samsung Migration Tool, but it was showing me an Error (no Explanation) and I couldnt start the clone process.

 

[USAFRet]

1. What drive is the OS on now?
2. What is the size/make/model of ALL drives?
3. How much space is consumed on the current C drive?
4. Probably more questions to come, but this can be done.

 

[Krynee]

1. My current OS (which I installed last october and use since then) is on my new Sata M2 drive. During the Installation my old drive was still connected. My old OS is on the Sata SSD 128GB which is currently in an external USB case.

2.

New Sata M2 drive = Crucial MX300 CT275MX300SSD4 275 GB Internes SSD (3D NAND, SATA, M.2 (2280))

New NVME M2 drive = Samsung MZ-V7S1T0BW 970 EVO Plus 1 TB NVMe M.2

Old Sata SSD = Samsung 840 Pro Series interne SSD-Festplatte 128GB (6,4 cm (2,5 Zoll), 256MB Cache, SATA III)

3. My current C drive consumes ~110GB of the 275GB. I can look up the exact numbers tonight when I get home.

 

[USAFRet]

As an end state, you wish the OS to be on the Samsung 970?

What do you use this system for?
Leaving the OS on the Crucial is not necessarily the worst idea. But it can be moved to the Samsung.

 

[Krynee]

Yes, end state the System should be on the Samsung.

Crucial m.2 and old Samsung sata SSD will be removed in the endstate.

I use the System for gaming mainly and some minor Office work.

I got a second Samsung NVME 1TB shortly for free, so I Need to get rid of the crucial anyways to have the M.2 Slot free for the second Samsung M.2.

 

[USAFRet]

What motherboard is this?

 

[USAFRet]

Can you show us a screencap of the Disk Management window, please.

 

[Krynee]

MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk Wifi

 

[USAFRet]

When you tried te Samsung Data Migration, what was the exact error message it gave you?

 

[Krynee]

I will make a Screen of the disk mangement when I get on my PC tonight. (Might be 8 hours from now on).

The error had no actual meaning or Code. I can screenshot it tonight or make a detailed Translation, as it was in german.

Basically it said: The datamigration could not be done because of an error. (No Code, Details or whatever).

 

[Krynee]

https://imgur.com/xZpEJj0

View: https://imgur.com/xZpEJj0


Was able to make a quick screen. Sorry that everything is german. Is there a quick way to change it to english somehow ?

Disk 2 is the crucial with the current OS.

Disk 5 is the samsung which is the target for endstate.

Disk 6 is the currently USB connected old Sata SSD.

All other disks are not relevant for this matter and can/will be disconnected before I take any further actions.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm thinking the Samsung Data Migration failed because the Disk 6 is connected via USB.
That currently holds the boot partition. Which resulted from having that drive still connected when you did the install on Disk 2, the Crucial.

If you disconnect ALL except Disk 2, it fails to boot, correct?

 

[Krynee]

I had it still internally connected to the MB when I tried the Samsung Migration.

I tried to migrate Disk 2 (Crucial) to Disk 5 (Samsung M.2). At this point I had no idea that I will have a problem without Disk 6 at all. Migration failed and I thought that I should get rid of Disk 6 first before any further action. Then I had the boot problem.

If I remove Disk 6 (currently USB) before I start the PC I cant boot at all. Not even by manually selecting Disk 2 in legacy boot mode as first choice.

 

[USAFRet]

I had it still internally connected to the MB when I tried the Samsung Migration.

I tried to migrate Disk 2 (Crucial) to Disk 5 (Samsung M.2). At this point I had no idea that I will have a problem without Disk 6 at all. Migration failed and I thought that I should get rid of Disk 6 first before any further action. Then I had the boot problem.

If I remove Disk 6 (currently USB) before I start the PC I cant boot at all. Not even by manually selecting Disk 2 in legacy boot mode as first choice.

Right. Because that drive has no boot partition.

There is a way to correct this via the commandline, but I am unsure of the exact steps and don't want to get it a little bit wrong.
@SkyNetRising can assist with this, if he has time.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Disk 2 is the crucial with the current OS.
Disk 5 is the samsung which is the target for endstate.

So - you want to migrate windows from Disk 2 to Disk 5 and make it bootable. Right?

Disk 5 must be empty.
Create bootloader partition on disk 5 manually.
Clone C: partition to Disk 5 (in partition to partition clone mode).
Fix bootloader on Disk 5.
Shutdown and disconnect all drives except Disk 5.
Change boot priority settings in BIOS, boot into windows and verify it boots normally.
Shutdown and reconnect all other drives. Verify boot sequence and boot into windows.

-----------------------

Commands to perform (cleanup of disk 5 and bootloader creation):

diskpart​

list disk​

select disk 5​

clean​

convert gpt​

create partition efi size=500​

format fs=fat32 quick​

assign letter=H​

Next clone C: partition to Disk 5 (in partition to partition clone mode). Assign letter W: . This can be done with Macrium Reflect free or Minitool Partition wizard free.

Fix bootloader on Disk 5. Execute from elevated command prompt. Regular command prompt will give error.

bcdboot W:\windows /s H:​

​

Shutdown and disconnect all drives except Disk 5.
Change boot priority settings in BIOS, boot into windows and verify it boots normally.
Shutdown and reconnect all other drives. Verify boot sequence and boot into windows.

How to open elevated command prompt:

How to open elevated command prompt in Windows 10

Describes how to open an elevated command prompt (cmd.exe) as Administrator in Windows 10.

winaero.com

 

[USAFRet]

One day I'm going to lock down that procedure, so I don't have to ping you all the time...

 

[Krynee]

Thanks alot so far!

It seems to not work with Minitool Partition Wizard free, doesnt matter what I select it always asks me to pay for an upgrade when I want to start. (Using version 12.3).

And I cant find this partition to partition mode in macrium reflect. I can only copy the whole disk, which deletes the boot partition i created before and just shows the partition copied with the smaller 275gb size, leaving ~640GB unused in the end.

I will have a closer look to macrium now, maybe I can work it out.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks alot so far!

It seems to not work with Minitool Partition Wizard free, doesnt matter what I select it always asks me to pay for an upgrade when I want to start. (Using version 12.3).

And I cant find this partition to partition mode in macrium reflect. I can only copy the whole disk, which deletes the boot partition i created before and just shows the partition copied with the smaller 275gb size, leaving ~640GB unused in the end.

I will have a closer look to macrium now, maybe I can work it out.

In Macrium, you can select/deselect individual partitions to migrate.

 

[Krynee]

https://imgur.com/a/eemBrYc

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


This is how macrium looks for me. (sorry for german again)

It will not allow me to select / deselect anything from the target disk. I can only select the target disk as a whole. I can select single partitions from the source though.

If I start it like that it deletes the H partition I just created and makes a new 256GB partition and leaves the rest of the now bigger target disk unused empty.


I thin I found the option I need in Minitool, but it asks me to upgrade to a paid version if I try to start it there.

Edit: I found the option to have the new partition in the right size. It will still delete the new 500mb H Partition :/

 

[Krynee]

Ok forget about it. I just pulled down the partition I want to copy via drag and drop and it seems to work now. Will start it now and tell you later if it worked

 

[Krynee]

It worked out !

Thank you so much guys !!!