Can Not Boot from Cloned M.2 NVME SSD

Question

I installed a 1TB Samsung 980 NVMe SSD into the dedicated PCiE SSD slot on the motherboard of my new Vostro 14 3400. Note there is not Samsung driver for the 980 SSD, only for the 970. I have read the windows drivers work fine, but am not sure…

I cloned my 1TB HDD using Macrium Reflect and rebooted changing the boot sequence to the new SSD which all worked fine, with the SSD now becoming my C: drive and the HDD my drive.

At this point it was recommended I clean and repartition my HDD drive. I DID NOT DO THIS STEP, assuming I could do it later.

Thanks, Al

Then I booted using the Macrium Recovery USB drive I had created and followed steps to fix the boot structure. When I did this it showed the WDC HDD as my choice. When I selected it, I was given the option of using my HDD or my SSD as the primary boot drive. I selected the SSD and rebooted.

Now, no matter what I set the boot sequence to, the system always boots from the HDD now showing as the C: drive. The SSD shows as my drive.

Some forum posts have suggested unplugging the drive after cloning and before booting for the first time from the SSD.

I really would like to get the system to see the SSD as the C: drive and boot from it going forward as it boots in half the time. Any help would be appreciated.

albonito · Accepted Answer

Problem solved. BEWARE of Bitlocker Encryption. I followed all steps which worked perfectly except for ‘Fix Boot Problems’ in Macrium Rescue. This process did not work leaving me in a bind with no BCD (Boot Configuration Data File) so my laptop would not boot from the SSD nor the HDD which had been Cleaned. Apparently when I booted from the new cloned SSD, data was encrypted by Bitlocker. Luckily, When I booted from the Macrium rescue media, I was able to go into CMD mode (bottom left corner of window) and manually decrypt my new C: drive using the ‘manage-bed’ command. After doing this, my cloned drive worked fine & system booted up with no issues. Note that I did switch of the SATA interface in the BIOS before decrypting my now new SSD C: drive.

jphughan · Answer

@albonito I'm a bit confused here. You say that you cloned your HDD to your new SSD and afterward successfully booted from the SSD. Then even though it was working, you decided to boot into Reflect Rescue Media to "fix" it -- basically ignoring the age-old wisdom of, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

At this point, what I would suggest doing is physically removing your HDD (or disabling its storage interface in the BIOS if your system supports that), then booting into Reflect Rescue Media and running Fix Boot Problems while the SSD is the only device present. If you get that working, you should be able to reintroduce your HDD and continue booting from the SSD, at which point you can clean and re-initialize your HDD. If that doesn't work, have you tried booting from the SSD by using the F12 one-time boot menu? That might work even if you don't see the SSD in the regular BIOS boot menu because the F12 one-time boot menu works in a slightly different way on UEFI-based systems.

albonito · Answer

Thanks for your response. Booting into Macrium Reflect Recue Media was done as recommended to update the boot sequence and keep the system from reverting to the HDD. My mistake, I think, was to not clear the HDD at this time which was also recommended. I thought I could do that later.

Vostro

Can Not Boot from Cloned M.2 NVME SSD

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