M.S SSD replace with cloning and get Bad Image error - Predator G6-710

Stonepillow

Hi,

I have Predator G6-710 with M.2 SSD 128GB for the boot drive.

I made M.2 SSD 240GB clone device using EaseUS Partition Master and replaced 128GB original one with this cloned 240GB SSD.

I could start Windows but got following error.

AcerDriveProxy.exe - Bad Image ...... Error status 0xc000046e.

Could someone let me know how I can fix this problem?

It seems that the Windows itself is running after I click OK on the error window.

Thanks,

Stonepillow

Stonepillow

Before the backup and recovery, the Tech of Easeus suggested me to do some solutions.

None of them did not work but during those trials, I managed the problem accidentally.

If I do not remove old SSD, then the error does not come. So, I left the old one and assigned a different letter on it. This solved my problem.

I am not sure if this solution is right, but I could make more free space on the C drive and no error message is coming. My purpose has been reached.

Anyway, I thank you all.

Stonepillow

billsey

Yup, that's exactly it. The size change from 100MB to 99MB on the EFI partition makes it fail the tests to verify the boot data is correct, giving the bad image error. When you have the old SSD in place the system sees the good EFI partition there and starts the boot from it. If you redid the cloning process, but forced the cloning software to leave the partition sizes alone (or better yet have it resize only the C partition) you'd be good to go with only the new SSD. Right now you are relying on both drives to boot, which increases the odds of a boot failure.

brummyfan2

Hi,
I think it's better to backup and recover the image on to a new SSD than cloning, I would suggest you to backup the image on  128GB drive to an external HDD, create a bootable USB disk, then backup the disk image to a HDD, boot with the USB you have created and recover the image on to the new 240GB.
You can use either Macrium Reflect free or EaseUS PM(I am not familiar with this).

billsey

Likely some of the partitions were resized incorrectly during the cloning process. You need to configure the cloning to only resize the C: partition or else you will run into weird errors like this. Just redo it with the different parameters and it should work fine.

Stonepillow

Hi,

I will try the backup and recovery first. I am not sure but it seems that the original SSD has a problem. I tried the cloning twice using 2 new SSD but the result was the same. The same error occurred.

Stonepillow

Before the backup and recovery, the Tech of Easeus suggested me to do some solutions.

None of them did not work but during those trials, I managed the problem accidentally.

If I do not remove old SSD, then the error does not come. So, I left the old one and assigned a different letter on it. This solved my problem.

I am not sure if this solution is right, but I could make more free space on the C drive and no error message is coming. My purpose has been reached.

Anyway, I thank you all.

Stonepillow

billsey

What's likely happening is you are booting from the old drive, but using the new one for the C: partition.

Stonepillow

That's good point.

New cloned SSD has C drive letter and "I" for the old. I confirmed that the default drive was C. OS and APPs in C are used.

C is used by Windows/APPs and there is no error when I boot. Also the "C" drive has enough free space. Of course the documents in C are used as the default.

Without old SSD, the Windows shows "Bad Image" error. This is the only problem and I do not mind if the old SSD is attached.

Or do you think it should be a problem in the future?

billsey

Probably won't be a problem unless you forget and try to replace the old SSD. If you look at the two disks in Disk Manager you should see a 100MB EFI partition on both and a likely 1GB recovery partition on both. If either of those is a different size (especially the EFI partition) it will not succeed when trying to boot from it. I'm guessing since the new drive is about double the size of the old your partitions will be close to 200MB and 2GB.

Stonepillow

The sides are:

EFI Old 100MB -> New 99MB

Recovery Old 500MB -> New 499MB

Data space Old 118.54GB -> New 222.98GB

I can boot without the old SSD and use Windows10 but get Bad Image error. If I attach the old SSD as an additional disk (this is current environment), no error occurs. Could you kindly let me know your opinion why the error disappears when the old SSD is attached (I also doubted that the old one was used but Windows in the new SSD was used) and relation with the mystery sides of EFI/Recovery?

The old one is a M.2 SSD attached on the board and new one is a SSD attached by a SATA cable.

Anyway, I will keep these 2 SSD until next upgrade as you suggested.

 

Thanks

billsey

Yup, that's exactly it. The size change from 100MB to 99MB on the EFI partition makes it fail the tests to verify the boot data is correct, giving the bad image error. When you have the old SSD in place the system sees the good EFI partition there and starts the boot from it. If you redid the cloning process, but forced the cloning software to leave the partition sizes alone (or better yet have it resize only the C partition) you'd be good to go with only the new SSD. Right now you are relying on both drives to boot, which increases the odds of a boot failure.

Stonepillow

Thanks, I understand.

As it is running, I leave it as it is. I do not want to go to the deeper world to fix the real problem why the EaseUS failed to make EFI cloning.

Next time, I will use other tool or use Windows backup/recovery to upgrade the system disk.