Solved Cloned SSD will not boot computer

hdmi said:

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

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Although a NVMe SSD is much faster than a SATA SSD, you only see the difference on the benchmark test.
On old computers you can't boot directly to the PCIe card with the NVMe SSD as there is no option on BIOS to do so.
The EFI partition must be on a SATA drive and then transfer the boot sequence to the PCIe card

DaSOB said:

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.

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Remember that one SATA (SSD) is 600 and the other (ODD) is 300. Once cloned, the Crucial should be on the SATA 600

You should be able to boot to the PCIe card, check the hard disks priority section if the PCIe controller or SSD is listed. Make sure it is the first in the list of bootable hard disks. Also a Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation might no boot, only an UEFI (GPT) installation. If you plan to do a clean installation make usre it is in UEFI mode. You might have to provide drivers so Setup can detect the SSD. Just extract the drivers on a USB flash drive, connect it during installation and browse to the folder.

spapakons said:

You should be able to boot to the PCIe card, check the hard disks priority section if the PCIe controller or SSD is listed. Make sure it is the first in the list of bootable hard disks. Also a Legacy BIOS (MBR) installation might no boot, only an UEFI (GPT) installation. If you plan to do a clean installation make usre it is in UEFI mode. You might have to provide drivers so Setup can detect the SSD. Just extract the drivers on a USB flash drive, connect it during installation and browse to the folder.

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OP has a HP 260-p026 (6ºth gen, 8 years old) and just want to clone a 256G SSD into a 512G SSD and replace the ODD with a HDD caddy.

Megahertz said:

Remember that one SATA (SSD) is 600 and the other (ODD) is 300. Once cloned, the Crucial should be on the SATA 600

Click to expand...

Megahertz said:

OP has a HP 260-p026 (6ºth gen, 8 years old) and just want to clone a 256G SSD into a 512G SSD and replace the ODD with a HDD caddy.

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Thanks. I'll be sure to make that change.

Yep, my computer has been around since 2016. But it serves my purpose, so I'll just keep on using it.

DaSOB said:

Thanks. I'll be sure to make that change.

Yep, my computer has been around since 2016. But it serves my purpose, so I'll just keep on using it.

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My desktop is also a 6ºth gen and my laptop is 4ºth gen. No intention to change. They suite my needs

Well, I got the caddy and installed the Crucial SSD in the SATA 600 slot, and installed the existing SSD in the SATA 300 slot. Powered up the computer...

Nothing. I get a black screen with some BIOS info on it and instructions to press ESC to bring up the menu. I've pressed ESC, F9, F10, and F everything else - there is no response at all. If I disconnect the Crucial drive, I can boot up normally. But if it is in any way connected, the computer will not boot.

I'm ready to give up and just live with the 256GB SSD.

You must press F9 a couple of times at first screen when you switch on the computer. If you are too slow it doesn't work.

that is odd.

try booting a decent media from usb stick and have a look at the new crucial disk

take screenshots of disk management window and diskgenius main window and save them to the usb stick so you can post them up here.

faststone capture is on the taskbar for taking pics



you can borrow my boot media

23v7.iso

extract the 23v7.iso to usb stick using usb7ice

One thing at a time.
Remove the Kingston and Install the Crucial on same place were the Kingston was. Install the Kingston on the caddy.
Then boot and press F9 to launch the boot menu. Select to boot from the Kingston.
Clone the Kingston into the Crucial.
Shutdown, remove the Kingston and, on BIOS select the Crucial as main drive. Save BIOS settings.
Boot from the kingston.
Report

you could also check the efi entries

I have two SFF desktop PC's, , one Acer and one HP and they too have just one drive bay, for a full sized HD.
BUT, they both have a CD/DVD rom drive. So actually there are two SATA ports on the motherboard, and the port normally used for the DVD can be used for another HD/SSD.

Those two SATA ports can be used for two SSD's when doing a clone is desired.
From 40+ years of experience, I can think of NO good reason why a CLONE would not boot up a system. By its name, a CLONE is an exact duplicate of the Original drive. Using GHOST, which I've used since 1997, I've done hundreds of CLONES, and never once has a clone failed to work. The drive I'm using now, is a Clone, made by Ghost.


And YES, I've been a member of the Ghost forum for years, as Old Casper.
The Broadcom version of Ghost is actually "Ghost 11.5, DOS, incorporated into a Windows 10 Shell"
It boots up the PC, so, It totally bypasses the default Windows, on the PC. Yes, the little Ghost window is a bit small, even on my 24" monitor, but that's not the problem that gets me. Unless I go in to Options and Disable Spanning, the Ghost Image will be split up into multiple files, even a dozen or so. I want my Ghost backup Image File to be just one big file, not a whole bunch of little ones.

So I find it just as easy with less hassle to use my old Ghost 11.5 booted from a DOS boot disk.
I have Ghost on a CD, Flash Drive(s), and even an SD Memory card.

When you have something that works, 100% of the time, it's foolish to even try something else.

So my only answer to, "my clone doesn't boot my PC" (paraphrased) is....You or your cloning program is doing something wrong.

spapakons said:

You must press F9 a couple of times at first screen when you switch on the computer. If you are too slow it doesn't work.

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I was tapping F9 like a woodpecker on Red Bull from the millisecond that I pressed the "ON" switch. No soap.

Megahertz said:

One thing at a time.
Remove the Kingston and Install the Crucial on same place were the Kingston was. Install the Kingston on the caddy.
Then boot and press F9 to launch the boot menu. Select to boot from the Kingston.
Clone the Kingston into the Crucial.
Shutdown, remove the Kingston and, on BIOS select the Crucial as main drive. Save BIOS settings.
Boot from the kingston.
Report

Click to expand...

I did that - booted, pressing F9 repeatedly. The boot menu didn't come up - I just got a black screen with some info in the upper left and an instruction to press ESC to launch the boot menu. Pressing ESC didn't do anything.

This is all I get.

When I restart and press F10, I get this screen.



Here is my Disk Management screen.

Try selecting Windows Boot Manager

It is only showing one, so presumably it is the original kingston disk.

Megahertz said:

Although a NVMe SSD is much faster than a SATA SSD, you only see the difference on the benchmark test.

Click to expand...

Like, I said, I don't know how much was paid for the 500GB MX500 from Crucial, but on Amazon in the US it currently sells for $53.85 whereas the total price of the 500GB Spatium from MSI and the PCIe adapter card from Glotrends is $48.98, and the latter solution doesn't require to buy an ODD caddy.

Megahertz said:

On old computers you can't boot directly to the PCIe card with the NVMe SSD as there is no option on BIOS to do so.
The EFI partition must be on a SATA drive and then transfer the boot sequence to the PCIe card

Click to expand...

It should be fairly easy to transfer the boot sequence from the old Kingston SSD. In this example blog article, they use a USB flash drive for it instead: How to install and boot a Dell PowerEdge from a PCIe NVMe drive
On a side note, in this article they use the older (PCIe 3.0) version of the Glotrends adapter card, but the newer (PCIe 4.0) one currently is $1 cheaper on Amazon.

The OP has already purchased and used the crucial ssd. Are you suggesting he buys an nvme and adapter in addition ?

I have one of those glotrends, it is fine.

SIW2 said:

The OP has already purchased and used the crucial ssd. Are you suggesting he buys an nvme and adapter in addition ?

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No, I am only posting about this particular alternative solution because it is both cheaper and more future proof when compared to going the MX500 route (again, if the PCIe slot on the motherboard isn't going to be used for anything...), and, I have noticed someone here on the forum has been recommending the Crucial MX500 in multiple other discussion threads in spite of the fact that it is typically no longer the best choice for an upgrade that is similar to the OP's, especially nowadays.

SIW2 said:

I have one of those glotrends, it is fine.

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That was my whole point.