Cannot boot from cloned M.2 NVMe Windows 10
I have used the Disk Clone Wizard of True Image 2020 to clone my 256GB NVMe SSD to a 2TB NVMe SSD (both Samsung) via a Sabrent USB enclosure. I've used two methods 1) from within Windows running Acronis True Image 2020 and 2) from a flash drive containing Acronis Recovery Media but neither method has created a bootable SSD.
Once the new SSD is installed on the motherboard, I can see 'Windows Boot Manager (Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB)' at the top of Boot Priority list in my ASUS Z170-A UEFI BIOS Utility but the PC won't boot into Windows. After a couple of attempts to boot, the "Preparing Automatic Repair" routine begins but so far I haven't managed to select the right options to fix the problem yet, because I don't really know what I'm doing!
Re-installing the old SSD then starting Windows again allows me to run Disk Management, where (if I insert the new SSD into its USB enclosure), I can see that it has the same partition structure as the old — see screen 2 grabs — although the I:drive partition doesn't show Boot as it does for the C:drive.
Any assistance gratefully accepted, please...
Many thanks,
Ian
Attachment | Size |
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DM-C-drive.JPG | 103.43 KB |
DM-I-drive.JPG | 95.84 KB |


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Hello Steve, thanks for your reply.
No, I'm not dealing with a laptop system, it's a desktop PC (check the Disk Management screengrabs!) and Yes, I backup the whole caboodle to the F:drive on shutdown every day.
I don't know how to avoid using an NVMe enclosure, although I could get a Pluggable enclosure instead, as demonstrated by Casey Holzman, whose YouTube guide I followed — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJDx1fyH8Dw.
I had wondered if I might be using an incompatible NVMe SSD, that is until I performed a clean install of Windows from a Media Creation Tool USB drive onto it this morning, overwriting the Acronis cloned partitions. But that worked fine. It boots into Windows and everything :)
I think I'll return the Sabrent to Amazon and swap it for a Pluggable, then go through the whole procedure again — unless you or someone else has another suggestion.
Wish me luck... please!
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Ian,
I almost never clone an OS drive for the very reason Steve states, some enclosures introduce drivers that cause conflict.
Instead of cloning you should try installing the new NVMe drive into the PC in the location it will be when you complete migration. Boot the PC using the Recovery Media (flash drive), and recover your latest backup file on your F: drive to the new NVMe.
Be advised that drive letters can change in the recovery media so your F: drive may have a different letter when doing this. I have never had a failure using this procedure.
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Ditto to Bob's advice above.
See topic: Steve migrate NVMe SSD where I documented the process that I used when upgrading my laptop NVMe SSD drive using Backup & Restore.
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I use and recommend the procedure that Bob (Enchantech) and Steve suggest, and have never had a problem when migrating to a new NVMe M.2 drive.
Ian
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I've just popped back to report on some partial success.
Firstly, thanks to Steve, Bob and Ian (for the encouragement!).
I tried what I thought was Bob's advice to use Acronis to backup my C:drive [albeit this time noticing an Advanced option to back up sector-by-sector and unallocated space (in for a penny!)] then swap the SSDs, boot from a flash drive built with Rescue Media Builder, and restore within that Acronis environment. Result: a couple of automatic restarts, then "Preparing Automatic Repair", "Diagnosing your PC" and "Automatic Repair". Didn't get anywhere with that.
Then, this morning, I looked further into Steve's advice and eventually used the MVP WinPE tool to make a different USB rescue disk.
This time, after swapping the SSDs again and restoring from the new USB rescue disk I still got the "Automatic Repair" message, but after selecting Advanced options, then Troubleshoot and Start-up Repair, I was shown a "Repairing disk errors" message then a blue Start-up Settings screen, from which I selected 'Enable Safe Mode'.
Then, Windows started (in Safe Mode) — PROGRESS!
I chose Restart and Windows presented me with my restored desktop, just as I had left it before the backup.
Unfortunately the backup I had restored was from last night, so I need to begin the process all over again in order to preserve today's activity.
So, I'm off to do that now — fingers crossed...
Ian W
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Ian, progress is progress! Glad to read of yours!
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Ian you description of events is that of a classic locked disk or failed Windows update which can sometimes be corrected by a Safe Mode boot followed by a system Restart.
Awaiting your next post.
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Back again and I'm nearly finished.
I've restored an up-to-date backup of my old 256 GB SSD after using the MVP WinPE rescue environment and a Safe mode boot, followed by a system Restart as you mentioned Bob.
After a couple of test reboots all seems to be working fine.
However, as I half suspected might happen, the restore procedure hasn't made use of the whole of my lovely new 2 TB SSD — it's left 1624.34 GB unallocated (see screen grab), and I don't know how to extend the partition containing the C:drive into that empty space.
(I hope the image is readable once this post goes live)
Edit: looks a bit squished by the upload process - sorry.
Here's a better shot.
I played around with Partition Magic decades ago (and Fdisk back in the previous millennium) but I've forgotten how to do that now.
Could I ask for a final piece of advice please?
Thanks,
Ian W
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Ian, if you don't already have it installed then download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software which is pretty easy to use.
Note: you will need to move the 99MB System Reserved partition (next to C:) to the end of the drive, which you can do using the Move option, then use the Resize option to expand C: into the unallocated drive space (or create a new Data partition on the drive)
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As Steve says, using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free is the easiest way to sort things out. You cannot move the Recovery Partition using the DiskManagement App, or if I remember correction Acronis Disk Director 12.5. I have used MiniTool several times when migrating to a larger system disk.
Ian
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