Cloned Drive Won't Boot (Windows 10)

I cloned my C drive onto a USB external drive (J) with Macrium, choosing Clone.

As shown, this was done, and I had an extra 240GB free.

But my computer won't boot when I select both the USB 3 drive option, and also when I select the USB Widows Boot option.

What have I done wrong?

Thanks.

First, we need to see what partitions are really on disk 5. Open a command prompt with admin privileges and run:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 5
list part
exit
exit

Post the results. Then you will need to assign a drive letter to the 100 MB EFI System partition on disk 5:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 5
select part # <-replace # with the actual number for the EFI System Partition
assign letter=w
exit
exit

Then you will need to write the proper BCD to the EFI System Partition:

Code:

bcdboot J:\Windows /s W: /f UEFI

NavyLCDR said:

First, we need to see what partitions are really on disk 5. Open a command prompt with admin privileges and run:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 5
list part
exit
exit

Post the results. Then you will need to assign a drive letter to the 100 MB EFI System partition on disk 5:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 5
select part # <-replace # with the actual number for the EFI System Partition
assign letter=w
exit
exit

Then you will need to write the proper BCD to the EFI System Partition:

Code:

bcdboot J:\Windows /s W: /f UEFI

So it should be partition 2 in the commands listed.

NavyLCDR said:

So it should be partition 2 in the commands listed.

I get an error, saying the operating system failed to start. Should I re-do the clone? It's confusing why a cloned drive doesn't really mean a clone, needing commands as u have instructed.

It's probably because you are trying to boot from a USB external drive. You can do a clean install to the USB drive and run Windows from it. But I think taking Windows already installed on an internal drive and trying to move that to an external drive is problematic.

NavyLCDR said:

It's probably because you are trying to boot from a USB external drive. You can do a clean install to the USB drive and run Windows from it. But I think taking Windows already installed on an internal drive and trying to move that to an external drive is problematic.

so it matters that the SSD is connected via USB vs a SATA connection?

jimlau said:

so it matters that the SSD is connected via USB vs a SATA connection?

Yes.