Solved Cloned SSD will not boot computer

Megahertz · Jun 15, 2024

DaSOB said:
I'm going to try using Macrium again, but this time I'll use the drag and drop you suggested.

Just so I understand, I would go into BIOS and change the boot priority to the Crucial drive. Then I would power down, change out the drives, and then power back up. Correct?

You must have the Crucial installed to see the Crucial boot manger on BIOS.

Power down, change out the drives, and then power back up, go into BIOS and change the boot priority to the Crucial drive, save BIOS settings and boot with Crucial.

It isn't essential that you clone it again using Macrium. It is quite easy to fix the current layout.
Try to boot the Crucial the way it is.

DaSOB · Jun 15, 2024

Megahertz said:
You must have the Crucial installed to see the Crucial boot manger on BIOS.

Power down, change out the drives, and then power back up, go into BIOS and change the boot priority to the Crucial drive, save BIOS settings and boot with Crucial.

It isn't essential that you clone it again using Macrium. It is quite easy to fix the current layout.
Try to boot the Crucial the way it is.

So I would need to start in Safe Mode after installing the Crucial drive, change the boot priority, then save the settings and re-start, correct?

SIW2 · Jun 15, 2024

Safe mode?

glasskuter · Jun 15, 2024

Cloning rarely worked for me without issues. Rather than clone, it is my preference to image the old drive, then restore that image to the new drive. It always works. With the imaging software I use, it is not necessary for me to initialize or format the new drive. The software does it all for me as well as allows me to resize partitions if needed during the restore. It will also fix any boot problems I might encounter. However, it is rare I need to use that function as it always boots. However, not all imaging apps offer all the functions that Macrium does. Many of us here have been accused of over-promoting Macrium but when any app works as well and does all the things it will do, it warrants mentioning.

SIW2 · Jun 15, 2024

replace it with a 512GB Crucial MX500 SSD (F Drive). I used Acronis to clone my current SSD to the Crucial SSD using an external USB hookup

Apparently there is at least one other sata connector.

did you try plugging the new ssd directly into the machine ?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05115048

If there is an optical drive , unplug the sata power and data cables from it and plug them into the new ssd.

Try booting and see what happens.

DaSOB · Jun 15, 2024

SIW2 said:
Apparently there is at least one other sata connector.

did you try plugging the new ssd directly into the machine ?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05115048

Yes. I've installed it and uninstalled it several times. I'm thinking I'll install it again, then start in Safe Mode and select it as the boot device, then go from there.

SIW2 · Jun 15, 2024

I am not sure of the relevance of safe mode. Your bios should show two bootable devices. Either select it from bios, or use the one time boot menu

If it doesnt show or doesnt boot, post on here exactly what happens , how far it got, any error messages, etc.

I can't remember the acronis default behaviour. If it has duplicated the disk id, it can be adjusted easily in a few seconds.

hdmi · Jun 16, 2024

DaSOB said:
Just so I understand, I would go into BIOS and change the boot priority to the Crucial drive. Then I would power down, change out the drives, and then power back up. Correct?

You would power down, change out the drives, and then power back up and immediately press F10 while continuing to hold F10 until the BIOS Configuration screen is displayed. Then change the boot priority to the Crucial drive in there.

Also in the BIOS, it may be necessary to disable Fast Boot (that can be found under Secure Boot Configuration).

DaSOB · Jun 16, 2024

hdmi said:
You would power down, change out the drives, and then power back up and immediately press F10 while continuing to hold F10 until the BIOS Configuration screen is displayed. Then change the boot priority to the Crucial drive in there.

Also in the BIOS, it may be necessary to disable Fast Boot (that can be found under Secure Boot Configuration).

OK, thanks.

DaSOB · Jun 16, 2024

SIW2 said:
Apparently there is at least one other sata connector.

did you try plugging the new ssd directly into the machine ?

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05115048

If there is an optical drive , unplug the sata power and data cables from it and plug them into the new ssd.

Try booting and see what happens.

View attachment 99272

I'll give that a try. Thanks.

Megahertz · Jun 16, 2024

As your desktop use a Laptop ODD, you can buy a caddy to install the old SSD and then replace the ODD.
You have to find out if your ODD is 9.5mm or 12.7mm high

Amazon.com : caddy 9.5mm

Amazon.com : caddy 12.7mm

DaSOB · Jun 16, 2024

Megahertz said:
As your desktop use a Laptop ODD, you can buy a caddy to install the old SSD and then replace the ODD.
You have to find out if your ODD is 9.5mm or 12.7mm high

Amazon.com : caddy 9.5mm

Amazon.com : caddy 12.7mm

It's 9.5mm - I ordered a caddy. Thanks!

hdmi · Jun 16, 2024

DaSOB said:
It's 9.5mm - I ordered a caddy. Thanks!

Here's how to put it in there.

hdmi · Jun 16, 2024

hdmi · Jun 16, 2024

I don't know how much you paid for the MX500, but if you weren't going to use the PCIe 3.0 x16 slot for anything, then IMO it is worth noting that you could have considered to get an NVMe SSD and grab this card for ten bucks to make it work: https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-PA09_HS/dp/B07FN3YZ8P
It's a PCIe 4.0 card whereas the slot on the motherboard is PCIe 3.0, but PCIe is both backward compatible and forward compatible so it will work, albeit it will be limited to ~4GB/s (~~Gigabits~~ Gigabytes per second) maximum theoretical transfer speed due to being in a PCIe 3.0 slot. The 500GB P3 can be had for fourty bucks: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-500GB-PCIe-NAND-3500MB/dp/B0B25LQQPC
You wouldn't have needed the ODD caddy if you went this route (but again, that's only if you weren't going to use the PCIe slot).

hdmi · Jun 16, 2024

IMO the 500GB MSI Spatium M450 would be an even better choice than the 500GB Crucial P3, at the same price of fourty bucks:

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-SPATIUM-Internal-Gaming-3600MB/dp/B09RBCZXL1

spapakons · Jun 17, 2024

Cloning with the disk connected with USB might fail if the controller of the USB case doesn't work properly or if the USB cable is faulty. It is safer and faster to connect the disk inside the computer and clone. After the cloning don't try to boot into Windows. Power down the computer, remove the original disk, connect the clone on the first SATA and switch on the computer. If it cannot boot, restart the computer, press F9 to see the Boot menu and select the disk. If it boots the clone works, you have to enter BIOS (press F10 on restart) and make sure the disk is first on the Boot Priority disk. Also check hard disk boot priority and make sure the SSD is first, not a USB or whatever other device.

DaSOB · Jun 17, 2024

spapakons said:
Cloning with the disk connected with USB might fail if the controller of the USB case doesn't work properly or if the USB cable is faulty. It is safer and faster to connect the disk inside the computer and clone. After the cloning don't try to boot into Windows. Power down the computer, remove the original disk, connect the clone on the first SATA and switch on the computer. If it cannot boot, restart the computer, press F9 to see the Boot menu and select the disk. If it boots the clone works, you have to enter BIOS (press F10 on restart) and make sure the disk is first on the Boot Priority disk. Also check hard disk boot priority and make sure the SSD is first, not a USB or whatever other device.

That's what I'm going to do. Once I get the second SSD in the computer, I'll do another clone and do what you described.

hdmi · Jun 17, 2024

Every decent, reliable, clone software has a Verify option that, when set to enabled, causes it to perform an additional step to check if the cloning process went successful. Acronis True Image does this by reading the data from the clone and comparing that to the data from the original so, if the USB flakes out or anything else bad happens during the cloning, the chance of an error going undetected is extremely very close to zero chance.