Cloned hard drive won't boot? Try these 3 methods to make a cloned hard drive bootable

Updated by Linda on February 17, 2022, categorized in Disk/Partition Clone | How-to Guides

Please provide the English content you want translated, and I'll do my best to translate it into Chinese.

This page explains why your cloned hard drive or SSD won't boot and offers practical solutions to help you easily make the cloned drive bootable on Windows 10/8/7, etc.

These methods also apply to fixing issues like cloned Windows 10 hard drive won't boot, cloned SSD won't boot, cloned m.2 SSD won't boot, Samsung SSD clone won't boot, or Windows 7 won't boot after cloning hard drive. Read on to find the reason and easily solve this issue on your computer.

How to make a cloned hard drive bootable?

"I cloned my 250GB disk to a Seagate 520GB one, hoping that my Windows 10 laptop would run more smoothly with a larger hard drive. The cloning process was successful, and I could see all the files on the cloned disk when it finished. However, when I inserted the hard drive into my laptop, Windows failed to boot from it. I'm confused why the cloned hard drive won't boot and how to make the cloned drive bootable. Can anyone help?"

The issue of a cloned hard drive not booting is a common problem that plagues many users. In such scenarios, the question of how to make a cloned drive bootable becomes a hot topic. To resolve this issue, you should first identify the possible reasons that might be causing the error.

Here's a list of reasons why a cloned hard drive or SSD might not boot:

< li > 1. The source disk contains bad sectors, resulting in an unbootable cloned disk. < /li>< li > 2. Incomplete cloning (only the system drive is cloned, but the boot drive is not). < /li>< li > 3. Disk partition style conflict, for example, the source disk is MBR while the target disk is GPT. < /li>< li > 4. The boot drive is not changed in BIOS, so the system still boots from the old drive. < /li>< li > 5. The computer motherboard does not support UEFI booting from the cloned GPT disk. < /li>< li > 6. The computer lacks the required drivers to boot the cloned SSD (such as M.2). < /li>

If you are unsure what might be causing the cloned disk to fail to boot, do not worry. Try the solutions provided below, and you will get the cloned disk booting on your computer again.

Preparations

Before we begin, here are some preparatory tips for you:

#1. Prepare a new disk that is the same size or larger

If the new disk is smaller than the used space on the source disk, the clone might not complete, or only some of the data will be cloned to the new disk.

To create a complete disk clone, make sure your new disk is the same size or larger than the source disk.

#2. Choose a reliable disk cloning software

To clone hard drive to new HDD or SSD without any trouble, the most important thing is to choose a comprehensive disk cloning software for assistance.

Here, we recommend using the advanced and flexible Disk Copy tool that offers 7*24 technical support. It can help you clone the hard drive and make the cloned drive bootable on all Windows operating systems.

When you're ready, you can try to fix the “cloned hard drive won't boot” problem on your own using the methods below.

Note: The earlier the fix, the more effectively it can solve the problem of “Cloned hard drive won't boot”.

Method 1: Restart the disk cloning to make the cloned disk bootable

Applies to: Resolving issues where a cloned disk cannot boot due to bad sectors on the disk or incomplete cloning.

If the source disk has bad sectors, or if the cloning program performed an incomplete clone (one that cloned only the system drive and not the boot drive), you won't be able to boot Windows from the clone.

The best way to resolve this is to restart the cloning process using reliable disk cloning software. Tool Disk Clone Software - Disk Copy provides a straightforward solution to help you clone a disk to another SSD or HDD easily and efficiently.

To ensure a smooth disk cloning process, please activate the software first. You can obtain an activation key instantly by clicking on this button:

1. Clone the disk to a new one.

First, you'll need to wipe the drive clean, leaving it entirely empty. Then connect the new hard drive or SSD to the source computer as a secondary drive, and proceed as follows:

Step 1: Download, install, and run a disk cloning tool on your computer.

Click “Disk Mode,” then select the hard drive you want to copy or clone. Click “Next” to continue.

Step 2: Select the target disk.

Note: If you are copying or cloning a source disk, the target disk should be at least as large as the source disk, or even larger.

If prompted to erase the data from the target disk, click OK.

Step 4: Check and edit the disk layout.

If the target disk is an SSD, check the box next to “Target is SSD.”

Click “Proceed” to begin the hard drive cloning process.

Step 2: Make the clone bootable

Once the cloning process is complete, remember to change the boot order in your computer's BIOS to boot from the new disk.

Step 1: Leave the new disk in your computer.

Step 2. Restart your computer and press F2, F12, or Del to enter the BIOS.

Step 3. Go to the Boot section and change the boot order to set your computer to start from the newly cloned hard drive.

Change the boot order of disks

Step 4. Save the changes and exit the BIOS, then restart your computer.

Your computer should now automatically boot from the new disk.

Method 2: Convert Disk to MBR/GPT and Restart Disk Clone

Applies to: Solving the issue where the cloned hard drive cannot boot due to MBR and GPT conflict.

When the source disk is an MBR disk, the computer only supports BIOS legacy boot mode. However, if the new disk is a GPT disk, the cloned hard drive will fail to boot. This is because a GPT disk requires UEFI boot mode, which is not supported by the computer.

Also, if the source system disk uses GPT, but the target disk uses MBR, you cannot create a bootable cloned disk.

The best solution for both scenarios is to convert the target disk to MBR or GPT, so that the new disk matches the partition style of the source disk (MBR or GPT).

Here's how to start.

Step 1: Check the partition styles of the source and target disks

Step 1: Connect the new drive to your computer as a second hard drive, using SATA data and power cables.

Step 2: Right-click the source disk in Disk Management and choose "Properties".

Step 3. Check the partition style of the selected disk.

Step 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 to check the partition style of the new disk.

Step 2: Convert the new disk to MBR or GPT

If the source disk uses MBR and the new one uses GPT, you'll need to convert the GPT disk to MBR.

If the source disk uses GPT, but the target disk uses MBR, convert MBR to GPT.

Here, you can try using the Partition Master Free Edition tool, which allows you to flexibly convert disks to MBR or GPT. Here's the process to convert from MBR to GPT:

This is an embed code for a YouTube video. On a webpage, it will display a 700 pixels wide and 410 pixels tall video player with options to play fullscreen, autoplay, write to clipboard, play encrypted media, use gyroscope, and enable picture-in-picture. The video ID is "HHLJCrG74P0".

If you need to convert GPT to MBR, repeat the above steps and right-click on the new disk and choose "Convert to MBR" as the conversion mode.

#3. Erase the new drive

Now, you need to delete everything on the target new disk, including partitions. If you need a quick guide, use Partition Master with its "Delete All Partitions" feature for assistance.

Make sure the entire disk is unallocated, as shown below, labeled “Unallocated” in Disk Management:

Step 4. Clone the disk again to make it bootable

Now, you can refer to Method 1 and clone disk with a reliable tool – Disk Copy.

Method 3: Use DISM to install drivers for the cloned drive to boot

Applies to: Resolves issues where the cloned hard disk fails to boot due to problems with the source computer's disk driver.

When you clone a disk to a specific new one, such as cloning to an M.2 SSD, and there's no M.2 SSD drive in your computer, the cloned disk will be unbootable.

Step 1: Insert and connect the cloned disk to your computer correctly.

Step 2: Open Device Manager, expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers section, right-click on the listed controller, and select Properties.

Step 3. Check the controller type on your device and then download the appropriate disk driver for cloning.

Step 4. Save the downloaded driver to a secure location on your device, and remember where you saved it.

Step 5: Search for “cmd,” right-click on it, and select “Run as administrator” on your computer.

Step 6. Type the following command and press Enter:

Add a driver to an image using the Dism command: /Dism /Image:E: /Add-Driver /Driver:"Y:\Z.inf"

• Replace E: with the drive letter of your Windows boot partition. • Replace Y: with the location of the disk drive where you downloaded the file.

Step 7. Close the Command Prompt when the process is finished.

After that, reboot the computer and configure it to boot from the cloned drive. Wait patiently as Windows starts up and runs from the new hard drive.

Tip: Avoid issues with unbootable cloned drives

To save your time and avoid the cloned hard drive not booting issue, we collect some useful tips for you. After analyzing all these causes, you can learn how to make a cloned drive bootable on Windows 10/8/7 as follows.

These tips apply to disk cloning and transferring the operating system to a new drive in Windows 10/8/7:

1. Acquire a reliable disk cloning software. (Disk Copy tool is recommended.) 2. Ensure that both the source and target disks are either identical MBR disks or GPT disks. If not, convert the MBR to a GPT disk or vice versa. 3. If cloning a GPT partitioned disk, make sure your computer supports UEFI boot mode. 4. Ensure that, in addition to the system partition (C drive), the System Reserved partition has also been cloned. 5. Set the cloned disk as the first boot drive in your computer's settings. 6. Verify if the clone was made using an MBR system partition. If so, you must enable CSM (Compatibility Support Module) in the BIOS to allow booting from UEFI and Legacy OPROM devices. 7. Remove the source disk and replace it with the cloned disk.

Conclusions

On this page, we discuss the reasons why your cloned disk won't boot and provide you with 3 practical methods to fix the "cloned hard drive won't boot" issue.

To start, we recommend that you try Method 1 and use a reliable disk cloning utility (such as Disk Utility) to clone the drive again.

If a disk partition style conflict prevents you from booting a computer like Windows 10 from a cloned drive, convert the target disk to MBR or GPT as shown in Method 2 first. Then, return to Method 1 and repeat the disk cloning process, setting up Windows to boot from the new disk.