Solved Computer suddenly not detecting windows install on new SSD

About a week ago I got a new SSD and transferred my windows 11 install to it. Everything went smoothly and a few days later I left for a week for Christmas. Turned my computer off when I left obviously.
When I got back and booted my PC again I noticed it had booted Windows off my old install on my other SSD. And when I went to the BIOS, the boot option for my new SSD is no longer there. I can see the drive is still activated, I've still got files on it and I'm pretty sure all the necessary files for Windows are still on there.
So this has just kinda happened out of nowhere and as a result I have no idea what the issue is.

Anyone know how I can fix this?

Hello and welcome to the forum. I don't have enough information to give a specific solution since you have neither completed your system specs in your forum profile nor given info about what kind of old drive you had and what you replaced it with. Also you say you "transferred" to the new drive. Did you clone or restore an image to this drive. Did you put the replacement drive into the same slot as the old one was in?

As a general answer, try bringing up boot menu at startup, either f12, f9, or esc depending on brand of computer. Usually f12 will do it but HP uses f9, some brands use esc. Does your new drive appear in this one-time boot menu? If so, select appropiate drive OR go into bios and change boot order for the change to be permanent..

Welcome @AuzEll to ElevenForum.

First thing you should do is post a screenshot of Disk Management, stretched out so we can read everything.



To post a screenshot on this forum...

1. Take the screenshot, edit it as desired, save to your desktop as .png or .jpg
2. Left click the mouse in your post, where you want to place the screenshot.
3. Click the Attach Files button at lower left, browse to your pic and click Insert.



Like this...

AuzEll said:

About a week ago I got a new SSD and transferred my windows 11 install to it.

Click to expand...

Indicate if this was cloning, restoring an image, dual booting, etc.

AuzEll said:

When I got back and booted my PC again I noticed it had booted Windows off my old install on my other SSD.

Click to expand...

What was the old install?

AuzEll said:

And when I went to the BIOS, the boot option for my new SSD is no longer there. I can see the drive is still activated, I've still got files on it and I'm pretty sure all the necessary files for Windows are still on there.

Click to expand...

What is meant by activated?


Can you move the disk drive to an empty bay of another computer or to a hardware enclosure for testing?


Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste: (all at one time)



Type:
ctrl + a
ctrl + c


Paste into this thread typing:
ctrl + v

glasskuter said:

Hello and welcome to the forum. I don't have enough information to give a specific solution since you have neither completed your system specs in your forum profile nor given info about what kind of old drive you had and what you replaced it with. Also you say you "transferred" to the new drive. Did you clone or restore an image to this drive. Did you put the replacement drive into the same slot as the old one was in?

As a general answer, try bringing up boot menu at startup, either f12, f9, or esc depending on brand of computer. Usually f12 will do it but HP uses f9, some brands use esc. Does your new drive appear in this one-time boot menu? If so, select appropiate drive OR go into bios and change boot order for the change to be permanent..

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply.
The old drive is a SATA and the new one is an NVME. The SATA was not removed or reseated when I installed the NVME.
I cloned the install to the NVME drive using Partition Wizard.

I checked and the NVME drive isn't appearing in the boot menu either.
I'm not sure what other specs you may need other than my motherboard which is a Gigabyte Arous Z590 Elite AX.

Ghot said:

Welcome @AuzEll to ElevenForum.

First thing you should do is post a screenshot of Disk Management, stretched out so we can read everything.



To post a screenshot on this forum...

1. Take the screenshot, edit it as desired, save to your desktop as .png or .jpg
2. Left click the mouse in your post, where you want to place the screenshot.
3. Click the Attach Files button at lower left, browse to your pic and click Insert.



Like this...

Click to expand...

Here you go.
'Sata SSD' is the old drive and 'Boot Drive (NVME)' is the new one.

zbook is one of our resident experts in such matters. He will lead you in finding out why the drive is not showing up in boot menu. Just follow his instructions. Just FYI, I have noticed several posts recently similar to yours where the new drive ended up being bad. Hope you have better luck.

zbook said:

Indicate if this was cloning, restoring an image, dual booting, etc.


What was the old install?


What is meant by activated?


Can you move the disk drive to an empty bay of another computer or to a hardware enclosure for testing?


Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste: (all at one time)

Code:

bcdedit
reagentc /info
diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel dis 2
det dis
lis par

Type:
ctrl + a
ctrl + c


Paste into this thread typing:
ctrl + v

Click to expand...

The install was cloned.
The old install is exactly the same as the one on the new drive. I only left for Christmas a few days after I cloned it so they can't be that different.
By "activated" I just mean the drive is still working properly. My volumes are still set up and I can still store and read from it.
I can't move new drive to another computer unfortunately. It's an NVME drive and I don't have any other computers that support it.

What exactly is the reason for running that command into cmd? I've done it and I'll paste the results below but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.963]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=H:
path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {f7a3070e-7844-11ed-a261-1418c3ac82d9}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 5

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 11
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {f7a30711-7844-11ed-a261-1418c3ac82d9}
displaymessageoverride Recovery
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \WINDOWS
resumeobject {f7a3070e-7844-11ed-a261-1418c3ac82d9}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

C:\Windows\System32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: f7a30711-7844-11ed-a261-1418c3ac82d9
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


C:\Windows\System32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.22621.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: DESKTOP-38EGVSE

DISKPART> lis dis

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 232 GB 3072 KB *
Disk 1 Online 931 GB 0 B
Disk 2 Online 931 GB 5120 KB *

DISKPART> lis vol

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 E System Rese NTFS Partition 500 MB Healthy
Volume 1 C Sata SSD NTFS Partition 231 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 NTFS Partition 657 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 547 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 5 D Local Disk NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy
Volume 6 F Boot Drive NTFS Partition 926 GB Healthy
Volume 7 G NTFS Partition 2633 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 8 H FAT32 Partition 400 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 9 I NTFS Partition 2195 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> sel dis 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> det dis

Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB
Disk ID: {94D4D665-7841-11ED-A261-1418C3AC82D9}
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1700)#ATA(C00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : Yes
Pagefile Disk : Yes
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : Yes
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 E System Rese NTFS Partition 500 MB Healthy
Volume 1 C Sata SSD NTFS Partition 231 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 NTFS Partition 657 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 547 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 500 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Primary 231 GB 501 MB
Partition 3 Recovery 657 MB 231 GB
Partition 4 System 100 MB 232 GB
Partition 5 Recovery 547 MB 232 GB

DISKPART> sel par 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 1
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 0 E System Rese NTFS Partition 500 MB Healthy

DISKPART> sel par 2

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 2
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 525336576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 1 C Sata SSD NTFS Partition 231 GB Healthy Boot

DISKPART> sel par 3

Partition 3 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 3
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : Yes
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 248688672768

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 2 NTFS Partition 657 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> sel par 4

Partition 4 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 4
Type : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 249378635776

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 3 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System

DISKPART> sel par 5

Partition 5 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 5
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : Yes
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 249483493376

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 4 NTFS Partition 547 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> sel par 6

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel dis 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> det dis

WDC WD10EZEX-08WN4A0
Disk ID: 8F4C2397
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 2
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1700)#ATA(C02T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 5 D Local Disk NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 931 GB 1024 KB

DISKPART> sel par 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 1
Type : 07
Hidden: No
Active: No
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 5 D Local Disk NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy

DISKPART> sel par 2

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel par 3

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel par 4

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel par 5

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel par 6

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel dis 2

Disk 2 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> det dis

Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB
Disk ID: {FA14B320-2817-03B2-C82C-85FE058AEC00}
Type : NVMe
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(0600)#PCI(0000)#NVME(P00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 6 F Boot Drive NTFS Partition 926 GB Healthy
Volume 7 G NTFS Partition 2633 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 8 H FAT32 Partition 400 MB Healthy Hidden
Volume 9 I NTFS Partition 2195 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 926 GB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Recovery 2633 MB 926 GB
Partition 3 System 400 MB 928 GB
Partition 4 Recovery 2195 MB 929 GB

when I went to the BIOS, the boot option for my new SSD is no longer there.

Click to expand...

bios should normally find \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI on efi system partitions.

There might be a way of adding it in your bios settings.

Alternatively you can use something like this to add the boot file from within windows



click ADD




this window will pop up, then select the other esp partition in the dropdown



then EFI folder ( you won't have all those other folders on your esp partition, that is my stuff )




inside EFI folder is the microsoft folder



inside microsoft folder is boot folder




inside boot folder, scroll down to the little feller




The diskmgmt screenshot you posted:






Which is partition H that your bcdedit refers to ?

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.963]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=H:
path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {f7a3070e-7844-11ed-a261-1418c3ac82d9}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 5

Click to expand...

SIW2 said:

bios should normally find \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI on efi system partition of disk2.

There might be a way of adding it in your bios settings.

Alternatively you can use something like this to add the boot file from within windows

View attachment 48498

click ADD

View attachment 48499


this window will pop up, then select the other esp partition in the dropdown ( you will be looking for the esp partition on disk2 )

View attachment 48501

then EFI folder ( you won't have all those other folders on your esp partition, that is my stuff )

View attachment 48502


inside EFI folder is the microsoft folder

View attachment 48503

inside microsoft folder is boot folder

View attachment 48504


inside boot folder, scroll down to the little feller

View attachment 48505

Click to expand...

This fixed it!

Disk Genius clearly shows a second Windows Boot Manager entry for the new drive so I have no idea why it still won't show in the BIOS, but creating a new one like you showed seems to have worked. I even shut down my PC a couple of times to see if it continues to stay functional and it looks like it does.

Thank you so much.

Please post a new image of disk management and post results for these commands: (copy and paste all at one time)

bcdedit
reagentc /info
diskpart
sel dis 2
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par

Nice work SIW2.