Need help trying to clone old SSD with possible corruption to new SSD - rescue media on flash drive not seen in setup
I have Asus Zenbook laptop running Windows 10 Home. Used Acronis 2016 to create rescue disk on USB thumb drive. Trying to clone old SSD 256GB to new SSD 500GB, but cannot get Windows to boot from thumb drive (setup does not show any boot options).
Old SSD appears to have errors that are not being detected by chkdsk. With old SSD in USB enclosure and new blank SSD internal, PC tries to boot from old SSD. Displays messages: Preparing automatic repair, Diagnosing your PC, Windows did not start correctly. Displays menu with various options.
I tried getting to safe mode but reboot repeats above loop.
I'm not sure what to try next.
Carolyn


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Steve,
Thanks for the quick reply. My system will no longer boot into Windows. It gets hung in loop "preparing automatic repair", "diagnosing your pc", "Windows did not start correctly".
When it would still boot into Windows, I was able to copy all my files but didn't back up applications. I do have an older complete backup I can revert to if need be.
My system is UEFI, original hard drive is SSD M.2 2080 SATA, 256GB. New drive is same except 500GB. From your comments, looks like I should have created a WinPE rescue disk. Well, too late now!
Since posting my question yesterday, I tried a different approach. I have a downloaded Win 10 ISO file on a bootable flash drive. I tried doing a clean install of Windows on my new SSD. Got as far as "getting files ready for install", about 4% complete, when PC just shut down (black display, power off). Tried a second time with same result.
Now I'm thinking the hard drive is not the problem. Initial symptoms were rapidly flickering display, followed quickly by messages "hibernating" and "locked" and black screen, power still on. Reboot would sometimes succeed and sometimes not. Went downhill from there and now won't boot successfully at all. Chkdsk 1st run found errors and fixed them; subsequent runs found no errors.
Not sure what to try next. I'm very close to buying a new PC and starting over. Words of wisdom appreciated!
Carolyn
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Carolyn, the best approach I can suggest here would be to identify if the laptop can boot and stay operational when booted from an alternative OS that isn't using your current internal SSD?
The options that I have used when dealing with similar systems are to try booting from a Linux live distribution such as Ubuntu, or else download a copy of Hiren's BootCD which is also a Windows 10 PE boot disc that is good for testing. There is information on the Hiren's webpage for how to create USB boot media if needed.
The Ubuntu download page also has information on How to create a bootable USB stick on Windows
If the laptop can boot successfully from either of these OS media and stay operational while you have a wander through the features, connect to the Internet etc, then the laptop main hardware is still good and the issue is somewhere around the SSD drive.
The Hiren's media has a selection of tools that can be used to check for problems.
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Reporting back - I'm up and running!! I was able to boot using Hiren's BootCD and hardware was stable. After exploring solutions listed in Hiren's, I used Lazesoft to successfully clone my old SSD to the new one. The new drive booted fine. I've run some repairs on apps and now everything is running correctly. First task completed was full backup!
Many thanks Steve for your time and helpful suggestions!!
Carolyn
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Carolyn, always great to read of success! Glad you are back operational again!
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