New Boot device add in UEFI BIOS

Always include exact PC model and version of Windows in your posts.

What's the intent here? Why do you want to boot from the "cloned disk"? 

Ron,

The PC is a Dell Inspiron 22-3265 with Windows 10 Home in UEFI mode.

The intent is to be able to boot from a faster SSD rather than the slow HHD existing currently in the computer sold by Dell.  Thus I would clone the contents of the HHD to the SSD.  Getting this particular Dell to recognize the SSD after a "successful clone" became a problem adding it into the BIOS permanently.  My original question stated above requested assistance from someone who understands the entries required to add a disk into the BIOS so that it can be booted from without having to press F12 and select the new drive each time even though to old drive is removed from the system to avoid disk signature collision and booting inhibition.

I particularly note that many dozens of folks on this forum are having problems cloning Dell HHD's to SSD type drives in UEFI mode.  I am hoping someone knowledgeable about "adding a drive" in the BIOS setup can offer the procedure to accomplish this task.  The manual for the specific Dell computer does not address this function in the BIOS. 

I'm confused...

You said: "Thus I would clone the contents of the HHD to the SSD." But then you said "Getting this particular Dell to recognize the SSD after a "successful clone" became a problem adding it into the BIOS permanently."

Have you already cloned the HDD onto the new SSD or not? If yes, how did you do that? The Inspiron 22-3265 only has room for a single 2.5" SATA drive. Did you image the HDD and save the image on an external USB drive, then swap in the new SATA SSD and copy your image onto that drive? Or some other way?

You shouldn't have to change anything in BIOS. Windows Boot Manager should always be first and it should automatically recognize the new SATA SSD with the image on it.

And if it doesn't automatically boot from the new SSD, with PC unplugged, and new SSD installed, remove motherboard battery and press/hold power button for ~30 sec. Reinstall battery, close up and see if it boots from the SSD now.

BTW: If the new SSD has larger storage capacity than the HDD, did you expand the size of the C: partition on the SSD when you copied the image onto it? If not, all the extra space will be unavailable/wasted...

The Dell Inspiron 22-3265 is an all-in-one desktop computer.  I has no battery--except the 3v CMOS one.  It has two SATA ports: one for the hard drive, one for the optical drive.  I temporarily used the CD-ROM SATA port for the second HD and an external power source as the installed SATA plug for the optical drive is of a smaller size.  I have done cloning on this system using Acronis True Image 2021.  I have done the cloning process four different ways attempting to get the cloned SSD drive to work in the system:

(1) connecting both HHD and SSD to the two SATA ports and using Acronis to clone HHD to SSD, 

(2) connecting the SSD to an Apricorn SATA-USB adapter and using Acronis to clone the HHD to the SSD,

(3) using Acronis to write a backup image of the HHD to an external HD (not an SSD) and then using the external HD with Acronis to write the image back to the SSD installed in the desktop on one of the SATA ports,

(4) wrote an image of the internal HHD to an external HD on SATA-USB Apricorn adapter using the Windows 10 image backup utility, and then restored that image to the SSD connected internally in the desktop to a SATA port.  

In between clones, the clean command in Diskpart was used to wipe the SSD of its GPT partitions.

In all this discussion, in my original question, I merely want to know about a configuration issue in the UEFI BIOS on how to add a new drive so that the BIOS always "sees" it in the same way the BIOS always "sees" the original HHD that Dell shipped with the system.

Sounds like a bad clone-job with that other program.

Better than cloning is creating an image-file of the old C-drive with Macrium-Reflect
(with Verify after creation enabled).
Swap drives and only have only new blank C-drive SSD installed/connected for now ...
Boot Macrium Recovery USB-Flash-Drive, and do a "bare metal" restore.
It's fast and easy.
If for some reason it's won't boot, use the "Fix Boot" option on menu of Macrium Recovery USB.

@Packetz  Would have been helpful if you'd included all those details in your OP...

Yes, I know the only battery is the one on the motherboard. That's the one I recommended you remove to reset BIOS to its defaults.

Have you tried booting from the new SSD when the original boot HDD is not plugged into the motherboard? If the original boot HDD is still connected to the PC, Windows Boot Manager will always boot from that drive, even when the cloned SSD is also connected.

You can also try booting from the SSD, with both drives connected, by powering PC on and tapping F12 when you see the Dell splash screen. When the menu opens, look for option to boot from the new SSD.

If either/both of those methods boot from the SSD, you will either have to disconnect the HDD so you can boot directly from the SSD or initialize the HDD (ALL FILES DELETED!) so you can use it for additional storage.

I also recommend you use Macrium Reflect (free) to image/clone the HDD onto the SSD. And be sure understand how to use Macrium to increase the size of the C: partition during the process so you can use all the available space, if the SSD is larger than the HDD.

Also keep in mind the SATA port that's normally used for the optical drive is only SATA 2 (3 GBPS) while the SATA port for the HDD (or SSD) is SATA 3 (6 GBPS). So performance of the HDD isn't going to be very fast, assuming you leave it installed and initialize it to remove the OS.

Ron, I will need to retrieve the Dell computer from my friend in the next 2-3 days so will start over on this cloning process---this time using Macrium.  I'll report back the results when done.

Tesla, thanks very much for your response.  I have recently purchased Macrium and made a bootable flash drive.  Now I have to get the Dell from my friend in the next 2-3 days and carry out your suggestions.  I'll report back with the results.

You could have used the free version of Macrium for this.

Let us know how things go...

To boot to UEFI or BIOS:
Open the firmware menus. You can use any of these methods:

Boot the PC, and press the manufacturer’s key to open the menus. Common keys used: Esc, Delete, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12. On tablets, common buttons are Volume up or Volume down (find more common keys and buttons). During startup, there’s often a screen that mentions the key. If there’s not one, or if the screen goes by too fast to see it, check your manufacturer’s site.

Or, if Windows is already installed, from either the Sign on screen or the Start menu, select Power (Power button icon) > hold Shift while selecting Restart. Select Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI Firmware settings.

From the firmware menus, boot to a drive or network while in UEFI or BIOS mode:

On the boot device menu, select the command that identifies both the firmware mode and the device. For example, select UEFI: USB Drive or BIOS: Network/LAN.

You might see separate commands for the same device. For example, you might see UEFI USB Drive and BIOS USB Drive. Each command uses the same device and media, but boots the PC in a different firmware mode.

Some devices only support one mode (either UEFI or BIOS). Other devices will only allow you to boot to BIOS mode by manually disabling the UEFI security features. To disable the security features, go to Security > Secure Boot and disable the feature.

Greeting,

Rachel Gomez