No boot device found for cloned SSD on external USB drive

Trying to install a new Samsung 960 EVO M.2 1 Tb hard drive on my Dell Latitude E7470 laptop with Windows 10, but my Dell won't recognize the old drive in an external USB 3.0 case. I intended to boot up with the old drive in the USB case, then clone the old drive onto the new Samsung using Macrium software. I already cloned the old SSD onto an external drive using Macrium and it worked fine (I also tried booting off the cloned USB drive but got same result: "No Boot Device found.").

Here's what I've done:

Removed the old 128 Gb SSD (SATA) and installed it in a Startech USB 3.0 to M.2 enclosure. Installed the new Samsung (PCLe) in the Dell laptop computer.

Checked the Startech USB with old SSD drive installed on my desktop computer, and the desktop recognizes the drive and shows all my files.

The Dell laptop also does show the new Samsung hard drive (PCle), so both hardware installations seem to be OK.

Booted up the Dell, went into bios settings (F2) and changed from UETI to Legacy settings, then went to the one time boot menu (F10) and selected USB as the primary boot drive.

I get two messages when trying to boot using the USB with old SSD:

PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent
No Boot Device Found, press any key to reboot the machine

There's nothing wrong with the USB cable (confirmed with desktop test), but I tried another cable just to be sure (same result).

I do have the Windows 10 media, and can reload, then load Dell settings, software, files, etc., but I am trying to avoid this by just cloning the existing SSD onto the new one.

Help!

Welcome to the forum. You need to boot from the imagine software DVD and then clone it that way you can't clone from within Windows only create a image

fred1015 said:

Booted up the Dell, went into bios settings (F2) and changed from UETI to Legacy settings, then went to the one time boot menu (F10) and selected USB as the primary boot drive.

You are trying to boot a drive that was set up for UEFI booting in a UEFI set to boot from legacy BIOS. That's why it says no boot device found. Because you don't have any legacy BIOS boot devices connected - you have a UEFI boot drive connected.

Your drive is set up with GPT type partitioning for UEFI booting. Legacy BIOS requires MBR type partitioning and a partition marked as active. UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes also require different boot files to be in the system partition.

NavyLCDR said:

You are trying to boot a drive that was set up for UEFI booting in a UEFI set to boot from legacy BIOS. That's why it says no boot device found. Because you don't have any legacy BIOS boot devices connected - you have a UEFI boot drive connected.

Your drive is set up with GPT type partitioning for UEFI booting. Legacy BIOS requires MBR type partitioning and a partition marked as active. UEFI and Legacy BIOS modes also require different boot files to be in the system partition.

OK, now I know maybe why it's not booting. But..is there a fix? Can I reinstall the old hard drive in the laptop and reset it to Legacy booting? There must be a way I can transfer Windows 10, program software, and data to the new hard drive?

You install the new drive into the USB enclosure and leave the old drive in the computer. Install the cloning software in Windows on the old Drive. Then you clone the old drive to the new Drive. And then switch the two drives around.

Samuria said:

Welcome to the forum. You need to boot from the imagine software DVD and then clone it that way you can't clone from within Windows only create a image

cereberus said:

This is not true - Macrium will happily clone from Windows to a new drive - done it many times.

MiniTool Partition Wizard will also clone from within the Windows that it is running from (as well as Macrium Reflect).

NavyLCDR said:

You install the new drive into the USB enclosure and leave the old drive in the computer. Install the cloning software in Windows on the old Drive. Then you clone the old drive to the new Drive. And then switch the two drives around.

Aha. I actually tried that first, but...it seems that the Startech USB enclosure supports SATA M.2 SSDs, but not the PCIe M.2 drive. After installing the new Samsung in the USB enclosure neither my laptop or desktop recognized the hard drive. Tried today to find an enclosure that will convert a PCIe SSD to USB 3.0, but without success.

Just a comment to those commenting about Macrium and Windows: Macrium Free works fine. I tested it by cloning the old 128 Gb SSD to a Seagate Backup Plus external 2 Tb hard drive through the USB 3.0 interface using Windows 10. So that is not the issue. I reinstalled the old SSD in the Dell Latitude, and its boots up fine. When I remove the same hard drive and install it in the USB enclosure, and change the boot sequence to Legacy with USB drive first, the computer will not boot.

First, why are changing to Legacy? Why not just set it to boot UEFI USB first?

Second, make a bootable USB flash drive of Kyhi's recovery tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

Boot the computer from that and it has Macrium Reflect on it and a couple other tools that you can use to clone. Then you can clone the old drive in the USB enclosure to the new drive installed in the computer.

NavyLCDR said:

First, why are changing to Legacy? Why not just set it to boot UEFI USB first?

Second, make a bootable USB flash drive of Kyhi's recovery tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

Boot the computer from that and it has Macrium Reflect on it and a couple other tools that you can use to clone. Then you can clone the old drive in the USB enclosure to the new drive installed in the computer.

I had to change to Legacy to be able to try to boot off the USB. Otherwise I could only boot off the hard drive (the new one, which was empty).

Yeh, I'll try making a bootable flash drive tomorrow. That might work, as I have multiple USB ports on the laptop. I can install the new Samsung, boot off a bootable flash drive (hopefully) on one USB port, then try to access the old drive through the Startech USB enclosure on another port. I've already installed Macrium and the Samsung Migration software on the old hard drive, but if this Kyhi's recovery tools has it as well, maybe I can get it to work. Tomorrow's project. Thanks!