Cloned an SSD but it won't boot no more!!

onesolo · 21 Jan 2020

Hello,

I have a Sony Vaio laptop and it had an 128gb SSD. I decided that was time to have a big SSD. I made a clone from the ssd (can't remember what was software). At the first boots, there was no problem but after a few days it stopped to boot!! I can't not even use the recovery, laptop won't recognize the partition (but it's there). The thing is that I didn't made a backup of my old SSD so I used the old ssd on another PC.
I already used a linux distro and Win10XPE from here and from what I can see, everything inside (files and dirs) the partitions are all there.

Here's a pic from gparted:

Cloned an SSD but it won't boot no more!!-screenshot-2020-01-19-23-25-55.png

Does it look ok? Or does it misses something?! The order of the partitions are ok or it doesn't matter??
Is there any command or anything I can do to make the ssd boot again?!

Steve C · 22 Jan 2020

Create a Macrium Reflect USB boot drive on a working PC, boot the USB drive on your laptop then select the option Fix Boot Problems

onesolo · 31 Jan 2020

Thkx, I'm going to see if it works...

Compumind · 31 Jan 2020

Just in case...

How to clone a disk with Macrium Reflect 7.x

onesolo · 02 Feb 2020

Tried the Macrium Reflect USB boot drive to fix the boot problem, didn't work 100% but I advanced a little... after the fix I get the famous error:

The boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors.
File :\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD
Error code: 0xc000000f

I tried to search an answer on google and I almost got it, specially on this tutorial How to Repair Broken EFI Bootloader in Windows 10, 8.1 | Windows OS Hub.
When doing the diskpart I found out that my C: is the first partition, sda1 the one labeled as SONYSYS. So I assign my sda5 to C: and after all the steps taken from the tutorial, I reboot and still nothing... when I enter again on diskpart I eventually find out that all the assigns of drive letters did revert back and sda1 is back on C: and so on... it was just like it didn't do anything.
I also tried using the Win10XPE and renamed the drive letters on AOMEI Partition but no deal...
Can anyone help me?! Why the drive letters don't change permanently ?!
I bet that if I can changer permanently the drive letter, the windows will boot from drive with no further help on that tutorial...

topgundcp · 02 Feb 2020

Normally you should only have 1 EFI System partition. From Gparted I see that you have 2 EFI System partitions (sda1 and sda3) and I am not really sure if Sony set up in such the way that one EFI partition (sda1) used to boot to recover the image from Sony and the other to boot into Windows.
Please run diskpart as follows:
diskpart
select disk 0
list par
exit
Copy and paste the output so I'll know exactly the layout of the partitions then I'll be able to help you further.

SIW2 · 02 Feb 2020

Those will only change the letters assigned in the boot media. Not in the installed OS.

When doing the diskpart I found out that my C: is the first partition, sda1 the one labeled as SONYSYS. So I assign my sda5 to C: and after all the steps taken from the tutorial, I reboot and still nothing... when I enter again on diskpart I eventually find out that all the assigns of drive letters did revert back and sda1 is back on C: and so on... it was just like it didn't do anything.
I also tried using the Win10XPE and renamed the drive letters on AOMEI Partition but no deal...

onesolo · 03 Feb 2020

topgundcp said:

Normally you should only have 1 EFI System partition. From Gparted I see that you have 2 EFI System partitions (sda1 and sda3) and I am not really sure if Sony set up in such the way that one EFI partition (sda1) used to boot to recover the image from Sony and the other to boot into Windows.
Please run diskpart as follows:
diskpart
select disk 0
list par
exit
Copy and paste the output so I'll know exactly the layout of the partitions then I'll be able to help you further.

Here's the layout:

Cloned an SSD but it won't boot no more!!-image.png

I think vol 3 is where EFI is located. I already changed the letters and entered there and EFI directory was there.
Volume 5 is the usb pen of winpe.

topgundcp · 03 Feb 2020

By comparasion the partition sizes of the output between Gparted and diskpart, They match ie. sda1->sda6 are the same as partition 1->partition 6.
As mentioned above, there should be only one EFI System partition used to store the Boot code (BCD) to boot into Windows.

Partition 3 is the 260MB EFI System partition.
Partition 5 is your 202GB Windows OS. When boot into WinPE the drive letter changes from C to D and it does not matter.

Here's what we need to do:

Boot up WinPESE and run diskpart:
diskpart
select disk 0
select par 1 ===> This is the first EFI System partition labeled as SONYSYS
set id=EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 ===> This will set partition 1 as a normal NTFS partition. This will not erase the content of the partition
select par 3 ===> this is the 260MB EFI System partition
format fs=NTFS quick ===> Format this partition
assign letter=Z ===> assign letter Z to this partition to be used to rebuild the BCD on next step.
exit
Again, from admin command prompt, we will rebuild the BCD code for the EFI System partition. Note that under WinPE, D: drive is your Windows OS. Type:
bcdboot D:\Windows /s Z: /f UEFI ====> This will rebuild the BCD
mountvol Z: /D ===> Remove letter Z: from EFI System partition. We no longer need
Reboot the PC. You should be able to boot into Windows. If not, that means there's something else is wrong with Windows OS itself.

NOTE: Each step above must run successfully. Watch for the spaces in between each command.

Stigg · 03 Feb 2020

You should always clone all partitions when cloning system drives.
People may debate that, but that is the safest way.