Questions regarding Win10 Digital License and Cloning

Megahertz said:

I also have Windows + Linux. It will make a disk image or clone.
Is your disk Legacy - MBR or EFI - GPT?

Sorry, I made a confusion about the drag and drop. I think it was during a image restore and I drag and drop the partitions. But I'm not sure if it was with Macrium.

Hi Megahertz,

Given the age of the laptop (bought in Dec 2008) I wasn't surprised to see it was MBR (UFEI / GPT isn't even an option in the BIOS)

Art

- - - Updated - - -

Okay so an issue.

In BIOS the boot priority is set as follows:

1st Device - External Device
2nd Device - Internal Optical Drive
3rd Device - Internal Hard Disk

I plug the Macrium Rescue USB stick into the pc & re-start

I get the GRUB menu and if I select Windows it boots to my normal desktop not the USB stick and Macrium Reflect as I was expecting.

Any ideas??

Art

- - - Updated - - -

Okay ... Issue #2

Boot the pc to windows using old SSD in the laptop.

Launch Macrium Reflect.

Connect the new SSD via a USB caddy.

The new SSD doesn't show up.

Launch EaseUS Partition Manager

The new SSD doesn't show up.

Launch Disk Management

It says that Disk 1 is not Initialised, I click to initialise the disk and get an error - 'The Device is not Ready'

Disk 0 is the internal SSD, Disk 1 is 'Unknown' and 'Not Initialised'



When I right-click Disk 1, and click on Initialise Disk I get the same error message:



I open up an Administrator Command Prompt and type in DISKPART then list disk

DISKPART only shows me one disk:



So, I leave the external SSD plugged in and restart the pc.

I open Disk Management

I get asked about initialising Disk 1, I say yes, get the error message.

Now when I right click Disk 1, the 'Initialise Disk' option is greyed out.

I open up an Administrator Command Prompt and run DISKPART list disk again.

Now I get two disks showing - but despite this I still can't initialise Disk 1 in Disk Management:



Interesting that it says the drive is 'Online' but the size is 0Gb!

Okay - so I take the USB caddy and swap the USB cable over (you never know).

I take it to another pc.

Same thing. Disk Management says it needs initialising then says 'The Device is not Ready"

EaseUS Partition Manager can't see it either.

DISPART shows the disk as 'Online' but size 0Gb as shown in the secnd DISPART screenshot above.

So - is this 'brand new' straight out-of-the-box SSD faulty??

An online Google search suggests this is the most likely explanation.

HELP!

Art

Hi Megahertz,

So you don't think the new SSD is faulty?

Megahertz said:

- How did you make the Macrium Rescue USB stick? Was it from a ISO file?
The Rescue USB was made from inside Macrium Reflect (Create Rescue Media Wizard > Select Flash Drive > Build)

Use the following Diskpart CMD
diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
active
exit (to exit diskpart)

Mount the iso,
Mount which iso & how? Not sure the program/application on the Rescue USB is an iso image - I'll have to check
I re-ran the Rescue Media Wizard and put it onto a CD (using the Win PE 10 (WADK) WIM. I tested the disk and the pc boots from the CD into Macrium Reflect. So I'm getting there!
Re-reading this I guess by 'mount' you mean run the Macrium Reflect s/ware??

select all files and folders and copy to the root of the USB drive (and which files and folders do I copy - from where?)
Again, re-reading I guess you mean the partitions I want to copy across to the new SSD?

It now boots as Legacy.

During POST launch the boot menu and select the USB drive.
BIOS on the laptop in question is already set to the following boot order: 1st External Device, 2nd Internal Optical Drive, 3rd Internal Hard Disk.

- The new SSD is RAW - it hasn't been initialized. You don't have to initialize it as Macrium does it for you (it clean the disk and then initialize)

Thanks for all of your help so far.

Art

- - - Updated - - -

UPDATE.

Ran an Admin Command Prompt.

Ran DISKPART

List Disk



Select Disk 1

"Disk 1 is now the selected disk"

Clean

"DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk"

convert mbr

"DiskPart has encountered an error. The device is not ready. See System Event Log for more information."

(I have two jpeg images of what happened but for some reason, I can't upload them!! Odd, because as you can see, I've already put a jpeg into this post!! - now sorted - see below)





Error code was 80070015@02070008 *shrugs*

Looking (to me at least) as if this brand-new SSD is faulty.

Opinions??

Art

Hi Me Ed.

I have another caddy that I can try. I've already swapped the USB cable and tried the caddy in a different pc but get the same 'Device is not ready' error.

Before swapping the caddy over, I tried a different hard disk (a Toshiba MK5075GSX) which opened in file explorer and also in Disk Management.



This seems to indicate that the Samsung SSD is 'dead on Arrival' ?

Most odd.

UPDATE:

I've also tried plugging the external USB caddy into a different USB port on the pc

So, in summary, I've tried the following steps. In all cases USB means the USB caddy with the Samsung SSD attached.

Removed the USB and re-inserted.

Inserted the USB and re-started the pc.

Swapped over the cable between the USB and pc.

Plugged the USB into a different port on the same pc.

Plugged the USB into a different computer.

Used DISKPART > list disk > select disk 1 > clean > convert mbr

and each time got the same error 'The Device is not ready".

I dug out a different USB caddy, connected that and went into Disk Management

I got the message that the disk was not initialised and did I want to initialise as MBR or GUID.

Chose MBR partitioning scheme:

External (new SSD) drive now 'Online' and Unallocated':



Just running Macrium Reflect cloning process now.

Looks like there was an incompatability issue with the first USB caddy I tied - despite it working with a different hard disk!

UPDATE 2:

Well, the clone process has finished and anti-virus scan is currently in progress. Once finished, I'll extend the Windows partition into the free space at the end of the drive using EaseUS Partition Master (I thought you should have that option in Macrium Reflect - but I couldn't see it) and then swap the new drive into the pc and see if it will boot.

Art

Hi again,

Just to clarify, I put the new SSD in the pc, then boot the pc off the Rescue Drive and do a boot repair?

I’m glad that the new SSD isn’t faulty but I was getting more and more convinced that it was.

Turns out that for some reason, the first USB caddy was incompatible with the SSD but swapping it for a second, seemingly identical unit and it was detected, could be initialised and cloned using Macrium

Art