Question Upgraded SSD in a Dell Inspiron 17, but can't boot to it ?

[Zetrix88]

Hello everyone, I am having this particulary difficult problem. I am curious if somebody already dealt with something similar. I need some new angle because I am not able to figure this out.

My client has small M2 Nvme 128 GB SSD on Dell Inspiron 17 5000 Laptop. He has a lot of work-related programs on it and dealing with installing them again would take a lot of time, so when he wanted a upgrade I decided to clone the drive on a new 500 GB one. I used Macrium to clone it and everything went alright, then I replaced it and boom, I get a screen by DellSupport telling me there are no bootable devices.

I plug in my windows 10 USB and boot to that, and sure enough in a list of volumes, I can see the SSD just fine. I can even format it and clean install new windows on it. But thats not what I want. I try to go into CMD, and check on the drives and volumes there in diskpart, and sure enough once again I can see it just fine.

I tried to play some more with the BIOS UEFI settings but to no success.

I replaced the drive once again to the small one, PC booted just fine. Now, my suspicion is that it has something to do with Windows Boot Manager, if I turn it off. With the 128 GB drive in the laptop, I get the same exact screen, telling me there are no bootable devices. Even if I manually check to boot from the M2 SSD slot it doesnt work and tells me that booting failed.

I guess the windows boot manager sees some change between the two drives, even if they are cloned and refuses to boot to it.

Or I could fix this by somehow being able to boot on the drive without windows boot manager. I dont know, I was trying for like 5 hours and nothing helped.
I would be very grateful for any help.

 

[Lutfij]

I dont know, I was trying for like 5 hours and nothing helped.
It's for this exact reason most times, it's best just reinstalling the OS after fabricating your bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools, then manually installing all relevant drivers, then installing all necessary apps for your client.

Just curious, what is the make and model of the SSD's that are in your laptop and what SSD are you trying to migrate to? They should come bundled with an app to aid with drive cloning.

Perhaps try this guide and see if your issue is alleviated...?

 

[Zetrix88]

Yeeah if it was my PC I wouldnt have went for fresh install myself, but sadly its not my choice.

Didnt check the fabricator SSD brand, but the one I bought was SAMSUNG. Thanks for the link, but I followed their exact guide, I think the cloning proccess went alright.

I really have strong suspicion there must be some thing preventing from boot in the windows boot manager, or some partition which tells info to the boot manager.