Cloned SSD on my Aspire XC 603 won't boot.

PeteGL44
PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

Tinkerer

edited November 2021 in Aspire and Veriton Desktops
I have Aspire XC 603 BIOS version P11-BO. Under Boot sequence 1st Boot Device is Windows Boot Manager. The computer stills boots from the old HDD. Any suggestions please. I am not too technically minded!

​//Edited the content to add model name.   ​

Best Answer

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    I am always leery of doing anything unrecoverable... :) Let's try a different cloner instead of Acronis. Last one I did I used Easeus instead.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.

Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer
    Check to make sure the F10 boot menu is enabled in the BIOS, then use F10 to bring that menu up. Choose the SSD and it should boot from there. Once you are up with it as the boot drive it should default to that, but to be sure you can then wipe all the partitions off the old HDD and create one big empty data partition.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • StevenGen
    StevenGen ACE Posts: 12,142 Trailblazer
    PeteGL44 said:
    I have BIOS version P11-BO. Under Boot sequence 1st Boot Device is Windows Boot Manager. The computer stills boots from the old HDD. Any suggestions please. I am not too technically minded!

    Take the old HDD out and boot with the cloned new SSD only as the XC-603 desktop will always prioritise the old HDD to the new as and if you cloned the new SSD drive properly then it should work 100%. Btw, I speak from personal experience as initially and when I did my first clone (about 4 years ago) from a 2.5” spinner HDD to a 2.5” SSD the same happened and when I removed the old spinner boot HDD and only allowed the new SSD to boot it worked perfectly.


  • johnsonj
    johnsonj Member Posts: 10

    Tinkerer

    billsey said:
    Check to make sure the F10 boot menu is enabled in the BIOS, then use F10 to bring that menu up. Choose the SSD and it should boot from there. Once you are up with it as the boot drive it should default to that, but to be sure you can then wipe all the partitions off the old HDD and create one big empty data partition.
    If you don't know your boot menu key, visit List of PC Brands with Their Corresponding Hot-Keys
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    SSD is the only drive fitted. So no choice available on f12 POST. Still doesn't boot.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer
    The the clone process wasn't successful. Put the HDD back in, fire up Disk Management and show us the partitions on both drives.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Billsey thanks, Busy next couple of days, will reply later.
  • ttttt
    ttttt Member Posts: 1,947 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    @PeteGL44

    When you say it won't boot, does it give you error message?
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Billsey. partitions on old  and new drive:

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer
    Boy, those are really weird... :) Was it setup for Linux at some point? It looks like disk 0 is the original and disk 1 the clone. The 1GB data partition and the 14GB New Volume are what makes the least sense, but it shouldn't get in the way of booting. Normally the EFI partition is 100MB, yours is 300MB but it looks like the clone process didn't change it much. The 600MB Recovery partition should hold the software used to do a recovery and again it doesn't look like it got tweaked. The 840MB partition should be the recovery image and it's a bit smaller than normal. What is likely happening (when booted on just the SSD) is the system looks at disk 1 and sees the 600MB partition, notices it's not EFI and stops there, rather than looking at the rest of the drive for that second partition. Less likely but still very possible is the EFI partition on the SSD is corrupted in some way, that usually only happens if the cloning process changes it's size. If the data in that partition doesn't match what's supposed to be there boot will fail. You can usually get around that by either adding the .efi file from there to the list of supported files or by disabling the secure boot option in the BIOS. Unless you are actually using them, I'd delete the D : and G: partitions and possibly use a partitioning utility to move the 600MB partition into the 1.02GB unallocated space. That will give you the 300MB EFI as the first partition, the system partition second, the 600MB recovery third and the 849MB recovery fourth. Then redo the clone process and it should give you the same structure on the SSD, but with unallocated areas removed and only the C: partition resized.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Thanks for such a detailed reply. I will follow your suggestions and let you know how I get on. I did change the size of partitions some time ago as they didn't seem right. Perhaps did more harm than good!
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Thanks, I have deleted D and G, but can't work out how to move the 600Mb space to the other side of C: I tried recloning, without doing this and just get blue screen with choice of language and boot managet, Advanced options etc, but no bootup.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer
    So there are tools out there that allow moving partitions around on the drive. One popular one is MiniTool Partition Wizard Free and IIRC it does allow that level of change. What are you using to do the actual cloning? It may be there's a better choice...
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,679 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    edited November 2021
    Did you answer the questions and let Windows setup ? 
    As you'll get a bootable disc. Your cloned data should still be intact but your store bought programs will have to be re-install with the original disc. 

    Or reformat the SSD, do an F10 with it the only drive hooked up, then copy paste your data from the old to the SSD and re-install your store bought programs and apps. 

    Edited tour store to your store
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    I tried MiniTool Partition wizard, but the move/resize tool didn't seem easy to work with partitions not adjacent. I have been using the Acronis True Image for Crucial SSD.
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Billsey. I am thinking of making a new recovery flash drive and deleting the recovery partition. What do you think? Also see my earlier comment.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer
    Answer ✓
    I am always leery of doing anything unrecoverable... :) Let's try a different cloner instead of Acronis. Last one I did I used Easeus instead.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • PeteGL44
    PeteGL44 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Billsey. Took your advice and cloned with another cloner, Macrium Reflect. Hurrah! It boots with the new SSD. Just need to put the cover back on! 
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,206 Trailblazer
    Sweet! Some of the cloners take a special kind of mindset to get working right, though at least it's possible with all... I've found Macrium Reflect to be easier to do than some of the rest.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.