Clone to SSD - stuck on BIOS logo?

Hi all,

I have a friend's all-in-one Dell Inspiron 24 here. They asked me to upgrade the RAM and the hard drive for them. RAM is in and is working fine, but I was upgrading their current 1TB HDD to a 1TB SSD. Before I continue, I should mention that the Win10 install on the original hard drive was working fine and booted no problem before I did the clone. It was shut down correctly, etc.

I used Clonezilla to clone the original hard drive to the 1TB SSD by putting the SSD in a USB hard drive adapter I have. According to Clonezilla, the clone completed successfully. I used the 'disk-to-disk' clone to make sure it got every partition and the MBR, and whatever else it needed, etc.

I opened the computer up, removed the original hard drive and installed the new SSD with the clone on it into the same spot. Being an all-in-one, there is only one SATA plug, so the SSD is in the EXACT same spot the HDD was in.

However, when I try to boot, I get to the BIOS screen that shows the 'Press F2 to enter Setup, press F12 to enter Boot Menu". etc and the Dell logo as normal. After this, it should go to the Dell logo Windows loading screen with Win10's little spinning loading symbol at the bottom.....but it doesn't. It just sits there at a blank screen with nothing but the Dell logo and the Win10 loading symbol never comes up...i.e. I see this and nothing happens:


Any ideas how to get my clone on this SSD booting again? Thanks! :)

Have you entered BIOS/UEFI setup by pressing F2?

I CAN enter setup, yes, and have gone in to check settings, but I haven't changed anything since before it was booting with the old hard drive. The settings are exactly as they were when I picked the computer up from them / before I tried the clone.

The BIOS does detect the new drive, it's set to AHCI rather than ATA as it should be, Secure Boot is turned on and 'Windows Boot Manager' is the first thing in the boot order.

OK, I let it clone all over again all day today from the original drive to the SSD for the hell of it while I was at work in case it didn't work right the first time. Put the SSD back in the computer...same issue, i.e. on boot it sticks at the Dell logo and never starts loading...?

As mentioned, I can enter setup, I didn't change any BIOS settings since I picked up the working computer from them when it still had the original hard drive and the settings seem to be correct? Could it be an issue with the MBR? ...or maybe I have to somehow convert the MBR from the original disk to a GPT for the new SSD...?

Suggestions would be appreciated! :)

Install Macrium Reflect Free:
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Create a Reflect rescue USB flash drive with it. Boot the computer from the flash drive and under the restore menu will be a utility to Fix Windows Boot problems. Try running that utility.

OK, created a Macrium Reflect recovery USB - booted the computer with only the new freshly-cloned SSD connected in place of the old HDD and booted into the flash drive, ran the 'Fix Windows Boot' tool, which said it completed and prompted a restart.

Restarted and....nada. Same issue, sitting at the Dell logo with no Windows loading symbol.

Hi Snooker - not really sure what you mean? I can find that setting in the BIOS, it's currently set to AHCI (which it should be, right?) There is no RAID option and this is not a RAID hard drive install, so it shouldn't be that.

I just tried changing it to ATA and it still fails to boot, same issue - Dell logo screen, Windows never starts loading.

I switched it back to AHCI, which it was on before and it does the same - Dell logo screen, Windows never starts loading.

The Windows install is fine as it was closed from a functioning, booting install of Windows on the other hard drive. I am thinking this has to do with the MBR, or GPT or something like that...? Do I need to convert the MBR to GPT when cloning to an SSD rather than another HDD maybe?

If we could see a screenshot of disk management for both drives, it would help:
Disk Management - How to Post a Screenshot of | Tutorials