Megahertz,

The clone operation worked up to a point. The SSD would not boot. :-( I re-installed Windows 10 from scratch and I am now in the process of extracting the files and settings that were...

Megahertz,

"Right now I'd {spit}* on a spark plug if I thought it would help!"

* I changed the word from that "War Games" quote.

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I have found a solution, but not the...

Megahertz,

"Repair" is one of the options on the Windows Boot & Repair DVD that I made when I first got the Dell XPS 8920 desktop computer (2017). Once I get Windows 10 working again, I should...

fireberd,

Glad to see you on this! You are correct that I had to tweak the Windows registry to upgrade to Windows 11 on that drive. I also suspected that EasyBCD was the culprit, since nothing...

Megahertz,

I detached Drive 2 (Windows 11) because the system kept telling me that "Windows cannot be installed on this device" or something to that effect. Drive 1 "D" is a data drive and drive 5...

Megahertz,

The Repair backup files are on Drive I, a USB external drive. They are:
I:\Do_Not_Delete\USMT\migstore\apps\USMT.MIG 151Mb
I:\Do_Not_Delete\USMT\migstore\files\USMT.MIG 188GB...

Megahertz,

You asked: Some questions:
- Did you cloned the Win 10 drive 0 to the drive 2 and then upgraded Win 10 to Win 11?
- Why do you have 3 partitions without a letter assigned and have no...

Megahertz,

The absolute worst time to work on any problem is when you are tired and frustrated. By the time I made the initial post, I did not know what I was looking at. The file (screenshot)...

Megahertz,

If the Windows 10 drive is plugged in at boot time, it will launch the Windows 10 Setup program for that drive. (Windows 10 Setup fails, since there are no files for it.) I assume that...

My Dell XPS8920 is set up to dual-boot Windows 10 and Windows 11 on separate hard drives. There is no BIOS method to select which hard drive will boot. I use NeoSmart Technologies EasyBDC to switch...

What I read from other current and former Intel Optane Memory users, they either love it or hate it. It does its job, providing a noticeable speed increase, but it is about as popular as the Ford...

Pejole2165,

The Seagate DiscWizard Rescue disk (DVD) is Linux-based. At some point, it asked me to find other Linux-based software to address the problem. ("Could not lock Drive C")

Downloading...

Winuser,

I gave some thought to using the Imaging technique. If the source drive had errors, it is possible that the image would carry corrupt or incomplete information. I knew it would take me...

Megahertz,

The 'new' drive is not a M.2 SSD, but another Seagate 2 TB SATA HDD. The Intel Optane Memory Module is in the M.2 slot (put there by Dell when the system was built). I may change it...

Sorry to say, but the clone operation was a dismal failure. I wound up "Reset"ing the 'new' hard drive and installing all of my software, doing Windows preferences, and Windows Updates the long way....

Many thanks again for your help! I started in computers when DOS was king. (Well, Windows 3.1 was out then, too,) Everything I knew back then came from printed manuals.

My intent to upgrade the...

Pejole2165,

Many thanks for your patience, and for that of the others. Remote tech service is tricky, since you don't know what else I did to my system. Not seeing the Optane files on the HDD...

I still have no idea how Optane works with the HDD, but my system came with Optane "Enabled" and running. Perhaps Optane puts its goodies in an unspecified place, at the end of the hard drive, but...

Pejole2165,

You asked, "Does DiskWizard have the option to create a system image rather than cloning? Does it allow the creation of a USB/ DVD boot recovery disk?"

I did mention that I used the...

Update 2 July 2021

The 'new' HDD (Seagate ST2000DM008, 2TB) that I ordered from Amazon was actually a "Recertified Product" (translation: "Used"). It arrived 1 July 2021.

I first disabled...

jumanji,

Many thanks! I can use all the advice I can get! I did post this question on the Intel Community forum, and got some great advice there, too.

From n_scott_pearson:
"You need to...

Pejole2165,

Thank you for the quick reply. I was not sure whether the pairing information was kept on the hard drive, or somewhere in the Optane memory. Since Dell was big into the Intel Optane...

I have a Dell XPS 8920 (circa 2017) with the Dell OEM 1TB HDD as boot drive (Drive C), and with Optane Memory enabled ("paired" to the boot drive). I also have a second internal drive, 2TB HDD....

jbcarreon123,

Since Microsoft SNAFU'd Windows 10, I am using my Windows 7 computer to run the Windows Vista mail client (WinMail.exe). From what I see, Windows 11 is just a FUBAR edition of...

I bought my Dell XPS 8920 (pre-loaded with Windows 10) in July of 2017, yet the "PC Health Check Tool" claims that it is "3 years old". The web page generated by the "Learn More" button warns "This...