Hi,
I recently bought a new Dell Inspiron 7559 laptop, and installed an SSD in the computer's m.2 port. I then cloned the existing HD to the SSD, changed the SSD to the default boot in BIOS, and then re-formatted the HD.
Everything worked fine for the first few days - I restarted the computer a lot, as I was updating a lot of drivers - however at some point the computer started failing to reliably boot. The Dell logo appears, and then nothing happens. Interestingly enough I can workaround the issue by booting from a USB that has Windows 10 installation on it, and then cancelling the install, which boots through to Windows without issues, but otherwise it just hangs on the Dell logo.
I've got a feeling that the problem lies in my Bios settings - I tweaked these a little when changing the boot order, and here's how they look at the moment:
Intel Speedstep - Enabled
Virtualisation - Enabled
VT for Direct I/O - Enabled
Integrated NIC - Enabled
USB Emulation - Enabled
USB Powershare - Enabled
USB Wake Support - Disabled
SATA Operation - AHCI
Adapter Warnings - Enabled
Intel Software Guard Extensions - Disabled
BIOS Recovery from Hard Drive - Enabled
No passwords set
Computrace - Deactivated
Firmware TPM - Enabled
Boot List Option - UEFI
Secure Boot - Disabled
Load Legacy Option Rom - Disabled
Boot Option 1 - SSD (C:EFIBootootx64.efi)
Boot Option 2 - Windows Boot Manager
Boot Option 3 - Windows Boot Manager
Boot Option 4 - Onboard NIC (IPV4)
Boot Option 5 - Onboard NIC (IPV6)
The other thing I've tried is to run Startup Repair, which failed. Here's the log:
Startup Repair diagnosis and repair log
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Number of repair attempts: 1
Session details
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System Disk =
Windows directory = C:Windows
AutoChk Run = 0
Number of root causes = 1
Test Performed:
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Name: Check for updates
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 0 ms
Test Performed:
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Name: System disk test
Result: Completed successfully. Error code = 0x0
Time taken = 78 ms
Root cause found:
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A hard disk could not be found. If a hard disk is installed, it is not responding.
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Is there an obvious solution here, or is this something that would be best served by a reinstall? I've no idea why startup recovery doesn't detect the hard drive if the install workaround allows the computer to boot as normal.
Cloning from a HDD to a SSD, or M.2, can cause issues, because it is best to clone a drive, when you are coping to another same model hard drive. In your case, it may not be booting to the SSD due to a number of factors.
I've used the System Image software that comes with Windows, and I haven't had any troubles when restoring an image to another hard disk. I used to work for a school and would clone hard disks for every PC due to every computer being the same model, however, some of the cloning didn't work correctly, especially in computers that were the same model, but had different hardware. The system would bluescreen every time. Installing a clean copy of Windows fixed the issue.
Going from a HDD to the M.2 drive may be to big of a change to where it's possible the UEFI is reading it as an inaccessible boot device, especially if the M.2 drive uses a different protocol for connecting to the Motherboard.
If you can successfully boot again, I suggest you back up your data and reinstall Windows.
Also, if the M.2 drive is smaller than the original HDD, that can cause issues.
Let's also hope your new M.2 drive isn't failing
Hi Imanake - I've recently changed the boot order in the BIOS so that it's loading from "Windows Boot Manager" rather than the direct path to bootx64.efi on the SSD, which seems to have fixed things. Is this likely to have been the root cause or do you think there is something else going on here?Cloning from a HDD to a SSD, or M.2, can cause issues, because it is best to clone a drive, when you are coping to another same model hard drive. In your case, it may not be booting to the SSD due to a number of factors.
I've used the System Image software that comes with Windows, and I haven't had any troubles when restoring an image to another hard disk. I used to work for a school and would clone hard disks for every PC due to every computer being the same model, however, some of the cloning didn't work correctly, especially in computers that were the same model, but had different hardware. The system would bluescreen every time. Installing a clean copy of Windows fixed the issue.
Going from a HDD to the M.2 drive may be to big of a change to where it's possible the UEFI is reading it as an inaccessible boot device, especially if the M.2 drive uses a different protocol for connecting to the Motherboard.
If you can successfully boot again, I suggest you back up your data and reinstall Windows.
Hi jc175
The difference of MBR and GPT may also lead to the result of boot failure. If you clone the HDD with MBR type to the SSD with GPT type, the system might cannot active the SSD disk. You can simply convert the GPT disk to MBR disk with AOMEI Partition Assistant. It is free for Windows 10.
Best.
