Cloned SSD fails to boot
I have the OS and other programs on a separate SSD. I cloned it to a larger SSD connected by USB adapter. Once the clone was complete I shutdown and replaced the original SSD with the new one. I started it backed up but it will not boot to the new drive. Any thoughts on what I did wrong?
Thanks for your time.
I want to offer a heartfelt "thank you" both to David for posting his question and to Steve for pointing me to much useful information. I have been considering how best to do just what you, David, have already tried to do. My Windows 10 Pro x64 OS -- on an HP Omen desktop machine -- sits on a 256 GB PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 SSD. I would like to upgrade to a 1 TB PCIe NVMe TLC M.2 SSD and use that same internal M.2 slot. My plan was to purchase, along with the new SSD, a Sabrent enclosure that serves as an NVMe-to-USB connector. I would clone to the new SSD via USB, and then swap the drives after the cloning completed and the machine shut down.
HOWEVER ... perusing the various links that Steve has provided shows that Acronis already warns that cloning to a USB-connected drive might not result in a bootable drive. I was wondering if that is what you have already found. It seems, then, that I may not be able to do this upgrade after all, and perhaps should instead see if I can move some programs to my D: (SATA) drive and remove unnecessary software.
One final alternative might be to make use of those strange removable drive enclosures on the top of the HP Omen machine.[Apparently popular with gamers; I'm not a gamer but needed 8 cores so ... gaming machine.] Those enclosures can take a 2.5 inch SATA SSD. Perhaps I can clone to that, shutting the machine down after the cloning is complete, and then remove the M.2 internal SSD drive before rebooting to the removable drive.
I have asked support about the advisability of my plan. I will wait for their reply and proceed accordingly. Thank you again for letting me know I'm not alone in trying to do these sorts of system-drive upgrades. I wish you the best of luck sorting out your situation, and thank you again to Steve for all the useful pointers. I hope you're both doing well during these trying times.
Michael, welcome to these public User Forums.
I recently upgraded the NVMe M.2 SSD in my HP Omen laptop from the 128GB supplied from HP to a new Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB SSD without using any external SSD adapter!
The approach used was to make a full Disk backup of the original SSD on my external USB HDD.
Next, shutdown and remove the small SSD and replace it by the new 500GB one.
Now boot the PC from the ATI rescue media using UEFI boot mode and recover the Disk backup to the new SSD.
Finally shutdown again, disconnect the rescue media and external backup drive and boot normally into Windows.
Note: the only additional action that may be needed is if the recovered OS does not use the full disk space of your new SSD, in which case, download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software and use this to move any partitions found after the OS C: partition to the end of the new drive, then resize the C: partition as needed into the unallocated space.
Good morning, Steve, and thank you for your welcome! I apologize for the delay in replying. "Working from home" seems to mean that we're all working all the time, and i got wrapped up in something.
Your approach seems eminently reasonable, and i shall indeed try that. It's especially good to hear from someone on a similar platform.
A couple of deliverables were dumped in my lap, but i'm going to order the hardware (which might take a week or so to arrive, given that other deliveries are being prioritized) and give this a shot.
I promise to report back here so that others can benefit from the experience.
Kind regards,
Michael