Skip to main content

I used Acronis True Image 2020 to clone my 2TB NVME to my 512GB NVME and now my system won't boot...

Thread needs solution

I used the disk clone feature to move my OS and files from my 2TB NVME to my 512GB NVME (a total of about 146GB). I did this because 512GB is more than enough for my main OS drive and to store my documents and smaller files and I plan to use the 2TB drive as a media scratch for my video files (I'm a video editor).

Once the operation was done, my system refused to reboot into Windows. BIOS sees both drives and the Windows install USB informs me that there is a previous installation of Windows on each of the disks but they won't boot.

Anyone run into this issue before? Anyone resolved it?

0 Users found this helpful

Charlize, welcome to these public User Forums.

Are both your NVMe drives physically installed internally in your computer?

Did you make a full Disk backup of the working 2TB NVMe drive before you started the clone operation?

At this point, I would suggest shutting down the computer (if not already done), removing the smaller NVMe drive from the computer.

Next, go into the BIOS settings and check that the UEFI boot device is shown correct as being the 'Windows Boot Manager' from the 2TB NVMe drive.

Now try to boot into Windows from that drive to see if it will still boot correctly or not?

If you can boot into Windows (10 ?), then make a Full Disk backup of the 2TB NVMe drive to an external backup drive, plus create the Acronis 'Simple' Rescue Media on a USB stick or DVD.

At this point, do not attempt to clone from the working 2TB drive, instead do the following:

  1. Shutdown the computer fully (hold the Shift key while clicking on Shutdown).
  2. Remove the 2TB NVMe drive and replace it by your smaller 512GB NVMe drive, leaving the 2TB drive disconnected.
  3. Boot the computer from the Acronis Rescue Media in UEFI / GPT mode, with the external backup drive connected.
  4. Use the Tools > Add new disk option in the rescue media to check that the 512GB NVMe drive is correctly using GPT partition scheme and remove any existing partitions, leaving the drive as unallocated space.
  5. Recover the full disk backup image from the external drive to the 512GB NVMe drive.
  6. While still in the rescue environment, check the Log for the recovery operation.
  7. Shutdown the computer, remove the rescue media and external drive.
  8. Boot the computer from the 512GB NVMe drive and check all is OK.
  9. If all looks good, make a new full disk backup of this new working OS drive.

 Once you are happy with how the computer is working with the new smaller drive, then you can consider reinstalling the 2TB drive and reformatting it for use as a data storage drive.