Windows cant boot on 2nd volume after SSD clone

[ocelotmbady2]

So here is my issue : 

i have a laptop with a 500gb ssd with 2 partitions with 2 different Windows 10 64Bit installs 

 

i needed more space (or a 3rd windows install) so i got myself a 1TB ssd and cloned it with acronis (both were sandisk ssds) 

 

now i dont get the Windows 10 selection window before the start where i can pick which Windows i want to launch. i now get a black/white screen (Windows-Start-Manager) where i can choose between 2 images called Windows, the problem is that both lead to the same Windows installment. i cant launch into the other one anymore. both volumes are the correct type as far as i can tell. 

 

if i go thouth the extended restart, both options are also called windows and both apparently on Volume 4, leading to the same one. 

 

anyone got any advice on what to do ? i really dont want to reinstall everything

[Bombastinator]

50 minutes ago, ocelotmbady2 said:

So here is my issue : 

i have a laptop with a 500gb ssd with 2 partitions with 2 different Windows 10 64Bit installs 

 

i needed more space (or a 3rd windows install) so i got myself a 1TB ssd and cloned it with acronis (both were sandisk ssds) 

 

now i dont get the Windows 10 selection window before the start where i can pick which Windows i want to launch. i now get a black/white screen (Windows-Start-Manager) where i can choose between 2 images called Windows, the problem is that both lead to the same Windows installment. i cant launch into the other one anymore. both volumes are the correct type as far as i can tell. 

 

if i go thouth the extended restart, both options are also called windows and both apparently on Volume 4, leading to the same one. 

 

anyone got any advice on what to do ? i really dont want to reinstall everything

Do these two installs use the same or different keys?

you cloned one partition of a 500gb onto a 1tb?

 

Assuming ftm you’ve got the old 500gb with two partitions and the new drive with 1 partition, ftm pulling the 1tb seems like a workaround.  This would at least get it back the way it was.  I’ve seen the two screens you are talking about.  One is a GUI and the other is command line.   They will be different programs.  

[MrCommunistGen]

I'm not in an IT department per se, but I do run a special purpose computer lab and deal with cloning, backing up, and restoring images to dissimilar hardware and doing P2V conversions (physical to virtual -- in other words: converting physical machines or disk images into virtual machines).

 

The only direct advice I can give is: 

If you're having trouble with Acronis, you might try Macrium Reflect.  I've had a lot of success with Macrium over the years.  I run into some really odd hardware and software in my job, and sometimes, for whatever reason Acronis doesn't work.  Macrium has a free version that I've had a lot of success with -- and they even have a special Free commercial license, though I think there's some stipulations about using it for free in a corporation.  My only gripe is that sometimes, the disk cloning process is really slow for what seems like no reason -- I'll be cloning between 2 SATA SSDs over USB 3.x on a Haswell machine and the process just takes FOREVER... but it ends up working in the end.

 

 

As for getting more advice from others, I can say that people will probably want more info.

What's the rest of your environment?  What kind of laptop is it?  What version of Acronis did you use?  Are either/both of the Windows installations the original install from the laptop manufacturer or were they both installed by you?  Was your original boot drive GPT?  I've had scenarios in the past where disk cloning converted an MBR drive to GPT or vice versa.

 

Anecdotal experience (why more info about your environment might help)

I had a weird situation once with an Acer tower where the BIOS expected a non-standard boot partition.  Trying to clone the existing disk to a different sized drive or trying a clean Windows install would render the system unbootable. 

 

We were trying to do a clean OS install and upgrade the system to an SSD from a 1TB 5400RPM.  Cloning the original drive would only work if you cloned it to an identically sized drive, but we didn't want to throw a 1TB SSD at it (this was several years ago when 1TB was like $300). 

 

I ended up having to do a clean Windows install on the original disk by ONLY erasing the C: drive and not erasing or resizing any of the other partitions.  The only other way I was able to get the system to boot was by leaving a USB flash drive with GRUB installed on it -- but it was going to the finance department, and I could see someone inadvertently pulling out or reformatting the drive and bricking the system, so I opted not to go that route.

 

Knowing more about your environment might help uncover a weird scenario like this.

 

[ocelotmbady2]

5 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Do these two installs use the same or different keys?

you cloned one partition of a 500gb onto a 1tb?

 

Assuming ftm you’ve got the old 500gb with two partitions and the new drive with 1 partition, ftm pulling the 1tb seems like a workaround.  This would at least get it back the way it was.  I’ve seen the two screens you are talking about.  One is a GUI and the other is command line.   They will be different programs.  

they use different keys

 

i cloned both partitions of the 500gb drive into the new one, the partitions got squeezed over the 1gb drive so theyre both bigger now. 

 

ive tried using bcdboot D:\Windows (C boots fine, D not) now i can select the D drive to boot but i get a BSOD with critical_process_died... 

tried using bootrec /rebuildbcd but that one weirdly only finds the windows install on C:...

[ocelotmbady2]

6 minutes ago, MrCommunistGen said:

I'm not in an IT department per se, but I do run a special purpose computer lab and deal with cloning, backing up, and restoring images to dissimilar hardware and doing P2V conversions (physical to virtual -- in other words: converting physical machines or disk images into virtual machines).

 

The only direct advice I can give is: 

If you're having trouble with Acronis, you might try Macrium Reflect.  I've had a lot of success with Macrium over the years.  I run into some really odd hardware and software in my job, and sometimes, for whatever reason Acronis doesn't work.  Macrium has a free version that I've had a lot of success with -- and they even have a special Free commercial license, though I think there's some stipulations about using it for free in a corporation.  My only gripe is that sometimes, the disk cloning process is really slow for what seems like no reason -- I'll be cloning between 2 SATA SSDs over USB 3.x on a Haswell machine and the process just takes FOREVER... but it ends up working in the end.

 

 

As for getting more advice from others, I can say that people will probably want more info.

What's the rest of your environment?  What kind of laptop is it?  What version of Acronis did you use?  Are either/both of the Windows installations the original install from the laptop manufacturer or were they both installed by you?  Was your original boot drive GPT?  I've had scenarios in the past where disk cloning converted an MBR drive to GPT or vice versa.

 

Anecdotal experience (why more info about your environment might help)

I had a weird situation once with an Acer tower where the BIOS expected a non-standard boot partition.  Trying to clone the existing disk to a different sized drive or trying a clean Windows install would render the system unbootable. 

 

We were trying to do a clean OS install and upgrade the system to an SSD from a 1TB 5400RPM.  Cloning the original drive would only work if you cloned it to an identically sized drive, but we didn't want to throw a 1TB SSD at it (this was several years ago when 1TB was like $300). 

 

I ended up having to do a clean Windows install on the original disk by ONLY erasing the C: drive and not erasing or resizing any of the other partitions.  The only other way I was able to get the system to boot was by leaving a USB flash drive with GRUB installed on it -- but it was going to the finance department, and I could see someone inadvertently pulling out or reformatting the drive and bricking the system, so I opted not to go that route.

 

Knowing more about your environment might help uncover a weird scenario like this.

 

I'm sorry for not giving enough info 

 

both Installs were done by me, it is an older acer notebook (ivy bridge gen) 

under the boot menu of the Laptop i always only chose the SSD, later after the BIOS boot, the windows start manager (with the blue background) would let me pick between my windows installs 

 

My Acronis version is 2021 build 39200 

i think the issue is that Acronis "expected" that only the 1st partition would be used as a boot partition, and i dont saw an option to say the program that both cloned partitions will be bootable. i will look into other tools but i doubt those will have that option 

 

thanks for your input

[Bombastinator]

10 minutes ago, ocelotmbady2 said:

they use different keys

 

i cloned both partitions of the 500gb drive into the new one, the partitions got squeezed over the 1gb drive so theyre both bigger now. 

 

ive tried using bcdboot D:\Windows (C boots fine, D not) now i can select the D drive to boot but i get a BSOD with critical_process_died... 

tried using bootrec /rebuildbcd but that one weirdly only finds the windows install on C:...

If you’re getting “critical process died” there’s most likely something messed up with the data on D:  it may be that D: is totally horked.

[ocelotmbady2]

15 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

If you’re getting “critical process died” there’s most likely something messed up with the data on D:  it may be that D: is totally horked.

Okay so i just went into msconfig, then boot, then deleted the D: drive from boot, went into cmd typed in "bcdboot D:/Windows" got a succes message and i can now boot fine into the second partition too. Only small issue i have is the boot manager, i now get the XP Type boot manager (pic1) while i would like to get the windows 10 one, guess theres still some issues with which bootmanager is launched (can be seen when typing bcdedit info) 

[MrCommunistGen]

26 minutes ago, ocelotmbady2 said:

i think the issue is that Acronis "expected" that only the 1st partition would be used as a boot partition, and i dont saw an option to say the program that both cloned partitions will be bootable. i will look into other tools but i doubt those will have that option 

This is a bit more work, but since you're going to a larger drive, there's another possibility:

1. Clone the drive as-is.  Don't resize any of the partitions in Acronis.  Maybe even do a sector-by-sector clone to make sure everything is exactly as it was.
2. Make sure both partitions are bootable.
3. Use tools to resize (expand) your C: and D: drives. 
   IIRC EaseUS and AOMEI make tools for this that may or may not be free... and I know there's other tools out there, but I've never tried them.  Unfortunately, the Disk Management tool in Windows can only resize partitions if the free space is contiguous with the partition you want to resize.  It can't take free space from the "end" of the disk and add it to partitions in the "middle" of the disk.

 

[MrCommunistGen]

8 minutes ago, ocelotmbady2 said:

Okay so i just went into msconfig, then boot, then deleted the D: drive from boot, went into cmd typed in "bcdboot D:/Windows" got a succes message and i can now boot fine into the second partition too. Only small issue i have is the boot manager, i now get the XP Type boot manager (pic1) while i would like to get the windows 10 one, guess theres still some issues with which bootmanager is launched (can be seen when typing bcdedit info) 

Unfortunately, the last time I had to deal with anything involving bootmanager and multiple OSes on the same drive was back in the Windows 7 days about 8 years ago.  I don't really have any advice about how to fix this.  Sorry.

 

I guess the only idea I have is that you could try a different boot manager, like GRUB... but that could easily be a really bad idea and not at all be what you're looking for.

 

I hope someone else has some better suggestions.

[ocelotmbady2]

14 minutes ago, MrCommunistGen said:

Unfortunately, the last time I had to deal with anything involving bootmanager and multiple OSes on the same drive was back in the Windows 7 days about 8 years ago.  I don't really have any advice about how to fix this.  Sorry.

 

I guess the only idea I have is that you could try a different boot manager, like GRUB... but that could easily be a really bad idea and not at all be what you're looking for.

 

I hope someone else has some better suggestions.

So since my original goal was to get a 3rd windows running, doing that brought the windows 10 boot manager back, so now everything seems to be working fine, but going forward for anyone who wants to do anything similar, i would probably keep the same size as you mentioned and would then extend the partitions as you said. thanks all