Need help after cloning my OS to my SSD

So I've made the SSD my primary boot up device in order to have the Recovery process solely affect the SSD but I'm constantly greeted with a message stating that a recovery environment couldn't be found

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SIW2 said:

$Recycle.Bin
Documents and Settings
efi
boot
Program Files
Program Files (x86)
ProgramData
Recovery
Users
Windows
bootmgr

Do you know the specific directories that need to be kept within Program Files and (x86)?

dalchina said:

Thank you again for your reply.

You're asking entirely the wrong question. If you want to wander around deleting folders at random- well- it's your PC.


Post a screenshot of this message.
What action prompts it?

Then post a screenshot of your partitions..
To post a screenshot use the icon above your post - 'Insert Image'.

Tutorials available on posting screenshots.

Disk 1 is the SSD

dalchina said:

You appear to have 2 Windows installations in your PC, both with an active (bootable) partition.

Why? That's a fundamentally bad idea.

Is disk 0 your HDD, and disk 1 somehow derived from it as you described?

Post a screenshot of that but use a 3rd party partition manager, ensuring all text is clearly displayed. This can show information Disk Management does not.

I don't know what sort of method you used to derive Disk 1 from Disk 0, if that's what you have done, but it's not cloning.

Literally all I did was clone my HDD to my SSD using MiniTool Partition Wizard with the goal being to simply have the OS on my SSD without losing anything

dalchina said:

That's clearer- you didn't include the Recovery partition when you 'cloned' the O/S, which is what your error message is indicating.

Your source disk has two- only one will be active.

So what should my next step be?

dalchina said:

You could try copying the active recovery partition from your HDD to your SDD and seeing if you can enable that.

Hey, so the restoration option basically did exactly what I wanted so thank you for that

The only issue I currently have is that all the existing directories still think Drive Letter C is my old HDD when it is now Drive Letter E resulting in old programs not being able to open, etc

Any idea how can I quickly change the directories for everything by changing the Drive Letter? I know I can do it manually via properties but I'd have to do that for each and every single one

Ghost Prodigy said:

I could still use your alternative and wipe the SSD with a fresh install of the OS but the reason I avoided this is simply my concern for keeping my "User" folder. Doesn't everything in the Users folder pertain to your account on Windows along with AppData, pictures, videos, etc?

I thought migrating the OS would be a simple solution but as I stated earlier, the process just cloned over the entire HDD instead

Edit: Basically my goal is simply to have the operating system on my ssd without losing any data

Not really. If you are keeping the files locally, you can just copy them. When I do a clean install of Windows, I just copy the data folders (Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos) into the same folders in the new installation.

That doesn't preserve application data. I also have to back up contacts, and the data files for my email client (Mozilla Thunderbird).

If you retain your original HDD for a while, that will allow you to recover from some forgotten saves.