Setting up Windows boot manager to boot from SSD as secondary drive

NavyLCDR said:

Bcdboot E:\Windows
Change the E: to whatever drive letter the new Windows partition gets. Then reboot.

Actually it's A: so I would use Bcdboot A:\Windows
If anything screws up, will I be able to restore BCD to boot Windows from old drive?

Edit: so I used bcdboot twice to update boot manager
bcdboot A:\Windows
bcdboot C:\Windows

Code:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path                    \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-us
inherit                 {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess         Yes
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {601b1f59-e1a1-11e8-87b9-54bef771218b}
displayorder            {current}
                        {601b1f58-e1a1-11e8-87b9-54bef771218b}
                        {55a648fa-2d93-11e5-84ab-806e6f6e6963}
                        {55a648fb-2d93-11e5-84ab-806e6f6e6963}
                        {55a648fc-2d93-11e5-84ab-806e6f6e6963}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader <== on old HDD
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description             Windows 8.1
locale                  en-us
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
badmemoryaccess         Yes
isolatedcontext         Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {601b1f59-e1a1-11e8-87b9-54bef771218b}
nx                      OptIn
bootmenupolicy          Standard
detecthal               Yes

Windows Boot Loader <=== on SSD
-------------------
identifier              {601b1f58-e1a1-11e8-87b9-54bef771218b}
device                  unknown
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description             Windows 8.1
locale                  en-us
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
badmemoryaccess         Yes
isolatedcontext         Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice                unknown
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {601b1f57-e1a1-11e8-87b9-54bef771218b}
nx                      OptIn
bootmenupolicy          Standard
detecthal               Yes

and in system advanced properties (startup and recovery), I changed the default OS to the Windows on SSD which is second entry.
It's not bootable, boot menu is lost and I must switch to different OS by F9, then I'm able to at least boot from old drive.
This seems that just cloning the system partitions to second drive and making new boot manager entry for it is not enough.

Anakunda said:

Oh I didn't understand what you mean by clone UEFI drive.
I think the bootmgr entries are now valid, just the clone is not adjusted to operate on different physical drive.
So if I ask so, Is it possible to make system partition clone with all adjustments to run from different drive?
(I really want to keep the old system for a while as a boot alternative for safe return)
I think Paragon HDM offers P2P adjust which is exactly what I need, but can't use it together with SSD connected.

I've done this with Macrium, more than once. Save system Image and restore it to other drive. Booting is still from original, second system was added by Macrium boot fix.

If/when you resolve hardware problems, try something like this. Cloning could bring you problems (like others stated).

Edit: this goes for @gobigkahuna too. Don't use clone, Use Image and restore.

gobigkahuna said:

That did it, I now have identical drives that I can boot from. Awesome thanks! I spent 2 weeks going back and forth with Macrium and Microsoft tech support and never got an answer that worked. My first post in this forum and I get awesome help with a solution! Thanks again!

Glad it worked!