1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
77
Inspiron 17-5770 - New cloned SSD won't boot
My 2018 Inspiron 5770 is running out of space on its 128Gb SSD C: drive, so I decided to upgrade it to 512Gb. I purchased an Integral 512Gb M.2 SATA SSD 2280 and an external enclosure. I have followed the cloning process to the letter using Macrium v8. The clone completes successfully and to all intents and purposes seems identical (see attached pic). My problem is that the new SSD will not boot up in the laptop. After the Dell splash screen, it goes straight to Dell Support Tools where it carries out a hardware check. This check completes without finding any errors and, on pressing Continue, the laptop displays the dreaded 'Blue Screen of Death'. Rebooting merely repeats the cycle.
What can I do to resolve this issue?
Geoff_W27
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2024 14:03
Update 23 July
Found the cause of the problem. Unsurprisingly it was a BIOS issue. Windows Boot Manager was trying to load from the old SSD (which wasn't there anymore). I had to Add a new boot profile and point the boot path to the new SSD. Works perfectly now and plenty of space for Windows to work in.
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
24.9K Posts
0
July 18th, 2024 14:22
When the cloning process was complete, did you make sure to completely shut the system down and swap the drives, not allowing the system to boot with both drives in the system?
You may also have to disable secure boot.
Geoff_W27
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
July 18th, 2024 14:52
@ejn63
Thanks for your reply. The system was fully shut down before swapping out the old SSD for the new one. There is only one M.2 socket in my 5770 and this is used for the OS. As the clone SSD has to be taken out of the external enclosure and fitted internally in the laptop, there is no way for both OS drives to be connected at the same time.
Secure Boot is Disabled.
FYI, my laptop is running Windows 11. Processor is an Intel i5 with 16Gb DDR4 RAM. Operating System is on a 128Gb Liteon SSD (CV8-8E128-11 SATA 128Gb).
PS. How can I check or change the boot order in the BIOS?
(edited)
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
24.9K Posts
0
July 18th, 2024 14:55
The question more exactly: was the system running Windows upon completion of the cloning (i.e., Macrium was installed on the existing boot drive)? Or was the system booted up to Windows after cloning with the USB enclosure attached?
If the former, Macrium Reflect has a "shutdown on completion" option you should have chosen so that the existing Windows install never saw the cloned drive.
Geoff_W27
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
July 18th, 2024 17:28
@ejn63 Yes, Macrium is installed on the existing boot drive and yes, Windows was running on completion of the cloning process. I didn't know that I should have chosen the "shutdown on completion" option.
I've just done a 'Sector by Sector' clone to see if that works (but not tried yet). On the new clone, the OS is in a partition marked 'OS (F:)' which is the drive letter of the USB in which the enclosure is mounted.
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
24.9K Posts
0
July 18th, 2024 17:32
You cannot allow the system to mount the drive after cloning -- when you do, the system is marked as a secondary drive. Re-run the cloning operation and shut down the system immediately after the process completes.
Geoff_W27
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
July 19th, 2024 10:28
@ejn63 That didn't work, still won't boot from the cloned SSD. As a matter of interest, how can I tell if the laptop is actually booting from the SSD? Attached are 3 pictures of the Boot Sequence part of my BIOS. I can't see any option to specify which drive is the boot drive.
(edited)
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
24.9K Posts
0
July 23rd, 2024 14:08
It will depend on how Windows was initially installed -- if it was from Dell, it should be using the Windows boot manager. Whatever it was before cloning, it must be left the same after cloning. If you change anything there, the cloned drive likely will not boot.
Geoff_W27
1 Rookie
1 Rookie
•
6 Posts
0
July 24th, 2024 14:46
@ejn63 The original Windows 10 was installed by Dell. I upgraded to Windows 11 about a year after that was released, to avoid all the 'first users' problems. As far as I am aware, the BIOS has always shown the Boot sequence to be Windows Boot Manager and that was the only option available until I created the new one.
ejn63
10 Elder
10 Elder
•
24.9K Posts
0
July 24th, 2024 15:29
What does "until I created a new one" mean? In cloning, it should be a very simple matter of doing a complete disc to disc copy, swapping the drives making sure NOT to boot the system with the original drive in it at first boot, and going from there. There is not (or was not) any reason to alter the boot sector of the drive. If you did, that is very likely why the imaged disc will not boot the system.