Cloned Win 10 hard drive

Hodsocks

Posts: 417   +2
I decided to upgrade my drive to a SSD to improve the performance, I have Cloned the c: partition on my old drive to the ssd, the version of windows is 10. I have rebooted the pc having disconnected the old drive but the ssd is not being recognised in the BIOS, all the settings are as they were with the original drive. The pc is a Packard Bell imedia s2185. I used the cables for the old drive and if I reconnect the old drive it boots up fine.
I connected the ssd to an old pc (approx. 7yr old) and it was detected by the BIOS without any issues, it would not boot up due to disk boot failure, I tried to boot up with the Win 10 disc and carry out a startup repair but without success.
First issue is why is it not being detected by the BIOS, despite when I connected both drives it was detected by windows and allowed me to clone the drive.
Secondly what do I need to do to get it to boot up into Windows 10 with the new drive, I don't want to reload the software because there are lots of settings for the network that will be lost and iots a pain to set them up again.
 
I haven't used cloning software for years but hopefully it has improved. On the two occasions I've cloned a drive to SSD I used a hard drive copy station but you have to copy to a drive that is at least the same capacity as the original one. I'd read up about the best freeware available for the task and have another go at cloning the drive with a different program.
 
I used easeus backup but an older version, maybe I will try the latest version, stil don't understand the BIOS not detecting the drive though, I put it in an old pc (8yr old) and it was detected straight away.
 
What SSD brand is it?

Most drive OEMs offer utilities that can be used for free - usually they're limited to the manufacturer of the drive in question but as long as one of them matches the two disks you have you should be able to use them.

Did you do a sector-by-sector clone of the entire hard drive?
If not, what did you clone?

It sounds to me like you are missing the System Reserved partition at the beginning of the hard drive. If that hasn't also been cloned to the SSD it'll never boot. You also won't be able to repair a non-existant partition - which would account for you being unable to do so.
 
The BIOS is already in legacy mode the ssd is a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, I was beginning to wonder if it was an issue with partitions because the drive I was cloning was 1TB in size but I only cloned the 500GB C: part of the drive so your comments make some sense. I need to figure out how I clone the relevant parts of the drive.
 
Assuming you have plenty of free space, you could shrink your existing 1TB disks C:\ disk parition to below 500GB. Start > Disk Management > Select C:\ partition > right-click resize and shrink to below 500GB. That being said, it maybe possible to do a clone of both partitions without resorting to doing this -- you won't be able to do a sector-by-sector clone though because the new disk is half the usable capacity.

Then you can use the cloning software to clone the System Reserved 100MB partition and the smaller C:\ partition onto the smaller SSD.

That will give you a bootable clone of your existing hard disk.
 
Leeky is right and while it is easy to clone to a larger capacity drive SSDs tend to be smaller in capacity than the ones they are replacing hence your difficulties.
 
Hi Leeky, I recloned the 500GB C:\ drive and the smaller reserved partition but it still won't boot, it is at least being recognised by the BIOS now. In the past I have cloned discs but they have been of similar size but a 1TB SSD don't come cheap hence the smaller SSD, the customer doesn't need that much storage space.
 
Hi Leeky, I recloned the 500GB C:\ drive and the smaller reserved partition but it still won't boot, it is at least being recognised by the BIOS now. In the past I have cloned discs but they have been of similar size but a 1TB SSD don't come cheap hence the smaller SSD, the customer doesn't need that much storage space.


You may be able to boot from the Windows media and attempt to repair the boot partition. I would try this before progressing any further.

What error do you get when you go to boot the computer?
 
I appreciate that you wanted to save time and trouble by avoiding the hassle of a fresh install of Windows 10. Perhaps it's time to reconsider this strategy. You've by now tried a few cloning programs without success. As Windows 10 has already been installed on your computer I think that it will automatically be validated. I'd do a fresh install from a W10 ISO.
 
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Sadly Bazz I think you may be right, I tried the Macrium reflect and I have the same issues ater cloning with that also.
 
The BIOS is already in legacy mode the ssd is a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, I was beginning to wonder if it was an issue with partitions because the drive I was cloning was 1TB in size but I only cloned the 500GB C: part of the drive so your comments make some sense. I need to figure out how I clone the relevant parts of the drive.
I doubt this will be of help so consider it anecdotal.
I installed a 750 EVO in one of my Windows 7 machines. This was going from a WD 600GB "Velociraptor", (already partitioned to 300GB C:/), to a 250GB Evo.

The Samsung cloning software functioned flawlessly, although I did download the latest version from their website. In fact Windows didn't even start bellyaching until I hooked the machine to the web, when I was promptly told, "your copy of Windows may be stolen" (I think they're pissed because I have updates shut down completely, and never installed their "KB-Nagware").

What I did do, which you could possibly find helpful, is move everything off C:/ first, which wasn't related to either Windows or installed software.
 
I had a similar problem when I wanted to clone my old 320GB laptop drive to the 500GB Samsung SSD.
Tried maybe a dozen different programs before I got them copy the drives correctly, with all of the reserved/system/hidden/factory/whatever partitions.
But it still wouldnt boot, was driving me crazy.

TLDR
I finally figured out that the new drive had a wrong Master Boot Record (since it was copied along with everything else I assume) which was incompatible with the with the new drive.

In my case the issue was fixed after I rebuilt the MBR on the copied drive.
If I remember correctly, Minitool can do that when booted up from the usb stick.

Also, Macrium Reflect and Minitool Partition Wizard are indeed the best software for one time use disk cloning.
 
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