Getting the Boot MGR missing message after cloning

Ghost Prodigy · 22 Jan 2020

Hey, so I've cloned my HDD to my SSD and everything worked perfectly fine. I then wanted to switch back to my HDD as the boot device to see if I can fix some broken directories but was greeted with the "boot mgr missing" message. I'm not sure as to why this would be as I literally haven't touched anything on the HDD after the cloning process.

This is how everything looks in computer management

Getting the Boot MGR missing message after cloning-computer.png

Disk 1 is the SSD

Disk 0 is the HDD

Samuria · 22 Jan 2020

How and with what did you clone as the disk dont match up

Ghost Prodigy · 22 Jan 2020

Samuria said:

How and with what did you clone as the disk dont match up

I simply used the MiniTool Partition program and chose the "Migrate OS to SSD/HD" option so it cloned my HDD to an empty SSD

Getting the Boot MGR missing message after cloning-wizard-2.png

Samuria · 22 Jan 2020

If you pull the power on the ssd does it boot then?

Ghost Prodigy · 23 Jan 2020

Samuria said:

If you pull the power on the ssd does it boot then?

Would it change anything despite me trying to boot up the hdd via my bios? That's how I came across the "boot mgr" missing, I just went into the bios and switched my hdd back as the boot method to no avail

I just need to make sure as the PC is in a bit of an inconvenient spot when opening up

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Bump

topgundcp · 24 Jan 2020

2 problems that I can see.
On disk 0. You have 2 System Reserved partitions where the Boot Manager resides, the 100 MB System Reserved which only exists with Windows 7 upgraded and the 232MB was cloned from disk 1. However, both are not being used to boot from but from drive E: since it is marked Active.

You'd need to delete the 100MB System Reserved, Mark Drive F: as Active, then run BCDBOOT command.To do this, Open Admin command and type

diskpart
select disk 0
select par 4
active =======> This will mark F: Active
select par 1
delete par override =====> This will detlete partition 1
exit

Again from Admin command prompt, type:
bcdboot E:\Windows /s F: =====> This will create a new Boot manager in drive F: and make it boot Drive E: from boot manager in F:

Reboot your PC.

Once booted, you might get a dual boot menu since you have another Windows on disk 1. To make it boot independently.

Win+R -> msconfig->boot then delete the one that are not default.

Ghost Prodigy · 25 Jan 2020

Hey, so thank you so much for the help as it finally fixed the issue.

I just have one more question as you seem to be very knowledgeable. This whole problem stemmed from me trying to simply move my OS from my HDD to SSD.

Basically, my whole goal is to simply have my OS on the SSD and several other programs/games that I often use while having everything else on the HDD. I wanted to achieve this without losing any existing data. I then used a "migrate OS" option in a program called MiniTool Partition Wizard. This essentially just cloned my entire drive to the SSD. A guy on here then recommended me to perform a "Refresh Windows 10" process with the option to keep my files to achieve my goal. This in a sense achieved what I wanted BUT it created a ridiculous amount of problems. All the existing programs were broken as the directories revolved around the E hard drive having all the data which then became my SSD. I couldn't open many programs even after modifying the directory to the new HDD path letter, etc and had a million problems in general.

Is there any chance you have a recommendation for how I can simply move my OS to the SSD without having any issues whatsoever/lose data. If not then thank you regardless for helping me restore my PC to how it was beforehand.

topgundcp · 25 Jan 2020

When you clone from HD to SSD and can boot independently with the SSD. All programs and Data are also in your SSD. Just wipe out the HD, reformat then move all your data to the HD. Everything should work as before

Ghost Prodigy · 25 Jan 2020

topgundcp said:

When you clone from HD to SSD and can boot independently with the SSD. All programs and Data are also in your SSD. Just wipe out the HD, reformat then move all your data to the HD. Everything should work as before

I understand that as that's what I've done initially but it would only leave about 10GB left of space on the SSD. Is there any chance you can elaborate more on the whole "Just wipe out the HD, reformat then move all your data to the HD" portion thank you.

So clone the HDD to the SSD
Wipe the HDD
Then what?

topgundcp · 25 Jan 2020

So clone the HDD to the SSD ====> Make sure It'llt boot by itself.
Wipe the HDD
Then what? Move all data from C: Drive of the SSD to the HD. This should free up all the spaces in SSD.

A fully functional Windows should not take more than 30GB, that means you have a lot of data stored together with Windows.

My SSD for Windows is only 120GB with some frequent use programs installed and I still have 82GB left. All data is saved on another HD so make a habit of that. It will make backup/Restore so munch faster, around 2 min if I ever run into problem with Windows plus I don't have to worry about any data loss.

Additionally, Most people don't reallize that most programs can be made portable (No installation required) and can be put in other places, in your case, the HD.