Cloned drive won't boot – How to fix it?

You've just cloned your old Windows drive, but your PC fails to boot from the new SSD or NVMe clone. Here's why this could happen and how to fix it.

What you might see when a PC can't boot from a cloned drive

When the Windows OS couldn't boot from your new cloned SSD or NVMe drive, you will usually see one of the following:

Immediate jump to the BIOS/UEFI:

• Clone drive does not appear in the Boot menu or
• Clone drive is present but does not have the "Windows Boot Manager" label

Black screen with a white text error like:

• No bootable devices found,
• BootDevice not found,
• Reboot and Select proper Boot device,
• Operating System not found
• Error loading operating system
• Just blinking underscore cursor ( _ )
• Loading dots, spinning indefinitely

Blue screen of death (BSOD) with an error code:

• INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
• 0xc000000e,
• 0xc0000225,
• 0xc0000034

The BSOD may also contain a text description of an error:

• "The selected entry could not be loaded"
• "A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed"
• "The application of operating system couldn't be loaded..."

Guide: What to do when your cloned drive won't boot

In this guide, we will move from the easiest solutions to the most complex ones, following the "Hardware > Firmware > Software" logic.

If a step solves the problem, and Windows boots correctly, you don't need to perform any of the subsequent steps. If it doesn't, try the following step.

Step 1: Fix the physical connection

1. Unplug the original (old) drive if it is still connected.
2. Plug the clone directly into the motherboard if you were using a USB adapter. If it is not possible (for example, on a laptop), keep the drives connected as they were and go to Step 2.
3. Check the physical connection of the new drive's data and power cables (SATA SSD) or the drive itself (M.2 NVMe). Reconnect the new drive or the cables.

If it doesn't help, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Check the BIOS/UEFI settings

1. Reboot and enter the BIOS/UEFI by pressing Del, Esc, F2, or F10 (depending on a PC brand).
2. Check if your new drive appears in the BIOS/UEFI boot menu.

• If not, it indicates a hardware or connection issue. Check the physical connection, BIOS storage settings.

Example of UEFI/BIOS Boot Menu

3. Change the boot order, moving your new drive to the top of the Boot menu.

Example of the UEFI Boot Order section

4. Check if your new drive has the "Windows Boot Manager" label in the Boot menu.
5. Check if the BIOS/UEFI is set to UEFI boot mode or Legacy / CSM (Compatibility Support Module) boot mode. Remember it or write it down. Do not change the boot mode yet.

Checking the boot mode in the UEFI/BIOS

6. Disable Secure Boot.

Disabled Secure Boot

7. Save and exit.

The PC should reboot.

If it doesn't help, proceed to Step 3.

Step 3: Fix the boot issues from Windows Recovery Environment

1. Boot in Windows Recovery Environment:

Windows Recovery Environment

• During installation, Windows creates a special hidden partition containing the Recovery Environment (WinRE).
• If the operating system fails to boot three consecutive times, WinRE should launch automatically. You can also trigger WinRE launch by powering down the PC during startup three consecutive times.
• If your drive clone lacks the recovery partition and WinRE cannot launch from your SSD, you should boot from Windows installation media (USB or DVD) instead and choose the "Repair your computer" option during the startup procedure.

2. In WinRE, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Repair.

Troubleshoot option in the Windows Recovery Environment

Advanced options in the Windows Recovery Environment

Startup Repair in the Windows Recovery Environment

• Startup Repair is a native Windows recovery tool that can fix certain system problems that might prevent the OS from starting.
• It scans your PC for the problem and then tries to fix it so your computer can start correctly.

3. Check and match partition style (MBR or GPT):
   1. In WinRE, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.
      

      The Command Prompt in the Windows Recovery Environment

   2. Check if your drive has MBR (Master boot record) or GPT (GUID partition table) style by running the following commands (type and press Enter):

      diskpart
      list disk
      exit

      Command	What it does
      diskpart	Launches the native diskpart utility for managing drives, partitions, and volumes.
      list disk	Displays a list of all physical drives connected to the PC, and their attributes, including partition style.
      exit	Exits the diskpart utility.

      Look at the gpt column:

      • If it has asterisk (*) next to your drive, the drive uses GPT (GUID partition table).
      • If not, the drive uses an older MBR (Master boot record).
      

      Drives with the GPT partition style have an asterisk next to them

   3. Match UEFI/Legacy Mode:

      Remember your UEFI/BIOS boot settings. UEFI/BIOS must be set to:

      • UEFI boot mode for GPT disk. Switching to Legacy may prevent Windows from starting.
      • Legacy/CSM for MBR disk. If you cloned a drive from a system using MBR to one that boots in UEFI mode, your cloned drive may not boot because UEFI requires GPT.
   4. Convert MBR to GPT without modifying or deleting data on the disk:

      In WinRE, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt and run the following commands (type and press Enter):

      diskpart
      list disk
      exit
      mbr2gpt /validate /disk:#
      mbr2gpt /convert /disk:#
      exit

      Command	Comment	What it does
      diskpart		Launches the native diskpart utility for managing drives, partitions, and volumes.
      list disk		Displays a list of all physical drives connected to the PC. Remember the number of your new drive.
      exit		Exits the diskpart utility.
      mbr2gpt /validate /disk:#	Where # is your disk number from the list disk command above.	Runs the MBR2GPT utility that converts a disk from the Master Boot Record (MBR) to the GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition style without modifying or deleting data on the disk. /validate option is used to check whether the disk is eligible for conversion. /disk:# specifies the disk number that needs validation.
      mbr2gpt /convert /disk:#		Performs the disk validation and proceeds with the conversion if all validation tests pass.
      exit		Exits the command prompt.

   5. Important: After converting the disk from MBR to GPT, you must restart the computer, enter the BIOS/UEFI settings, and switch the boot mode from Legacy/CSM to UEFI. Without this change, the system will not be able to boot from the converted GPT disk.

4. Create a fresh boot configuration:
   1. In WinRE, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.
   2. Assign the letter to the EFI (bootloader) partition by running the following commands (type and press Enter):

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
list volume
select volume #
assign letter=S
exit

Assigning the letter to the volume with the diskpart utility

3. Write a new boot configuration to the EFI partition by running the following commands (type and press Enter):

cd /d S:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd
exit

5. Recreate the boot configuration of the EFI System Partition using the bcdboot command:
   1. In WinRE, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Command Prompt.
   2. Assign the letter to the EFI (bootloader) partition as shown above in Step 3, paragraph 4-B.
   3. Check the letter of your actual Windows drive. WinRE often temporarily changes the letter of your OS volume to D:, E:, F: or other. To check the letter of your Windows partition, run the following command (type and press Enter):
   4. Check the letter of your Windows drive by running the following commands (type and press Enter):

      diskpart
      list volume
      exit

      Command	What it does
      diskpart	Launches the native diskpart utility for managing drives, partitions, and volumes.
      list volume	Displays a list of all partitions (volumes) of all drives.
      exit	Exits the diskpart utility.

      

      In this example, the Windows partition is Volume 1 with the letter D and the OS label

      Look at the table:

      • The Label column: your Windows partition is often named "OS" or "Windows".
      • The Fs column: Look for NTFS file system.
      • The Size column: your Windows partition often has the large or even largest size.
      • The Ltr column: The letter of your Windows partition. Remember it, you'll need it later.
   5. Create a new EFI System Partition by running the following command (type and press Enter):

      bcdboot D:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI
      exit

      Command	Comment	What it does
      bcdboot D:\Windows /s S: /f UEFI	Where D:\ is the actual letter of your Windows partition (see Paragraph 5D above).	bcdboot is a native Windows utility that recreates boot entries on a drive with the volume letter S, including boot files to support a UEFI-based computer. D:\Windows - Specifies the location of the Windows directory to use as the source for copying boot files. If needed, change the D:\ to the actual letter of your Windows partition. /s S: - Specifies that the system (bootloader) partition is the one with letter S (we've assigned it earlier). /f UEFI - Specifies the firmware type as UEFI, which is default for UEFI/GPT-based systems. You can also use /f ALL or /f BIOS for BIOS/MBR-based systems.
      exit		Exits the command prompt.

How to prevent the "Cloned drive won't boot" issue in the future

Before cloning

1. Turn off the BitLocker.
2. Make sure that your disk partition style (MBR or GPT) matches the BIOS/UEFI boot mode (MBR requires Legacy/CSM, GPT requires UEFI):
3. Check disk partition style:
   1. In Windows, press Win + X and choose Disk Management.
   2. Right-click your disk and select Properties.
   3. Go to the Volumes tab and check the Partition style field.
4. Check the BIOS/UEFI boot mode:
   1. In Windows, press Win + R, type msinfo32 and press Enter.
   2. Look at the BIOS mode line.
5. If you're cloning a system drive with MultiDrive free cloning software, go to Clone > Options and toggle off the option called "Mount target drive upon task completion".

This way Windows doesn't get confused about which of the two identical drives to boot from.

MultiDrive Clone Options - Mount target drive upon task completion

After cloning

1. Turn off the computer and physically disconnect the original drive.
2. Turn on the PC and enter the BIOS/UEFI settings.
3. Open the Boot menu.
4. Make sure that your drive with the "Windows boot manager" label is at the very top of the boot list.
5. Disable the Secure Boot option temporarily (you can turn it back on after OS boots successfully from a new drive).
6. Save and exit the BIOS/UEFI settings.
7. The PC will reboot and start the Windows OS normally from your new drive.

Conclusion

Using the methods described above, you can successfully fix the issue then your PC won't boot from the drive clone and prevent this problem from happening in the future.