Unable to boot from USB Drive

[Charlie_Balogh]

I bought an HP Elite Mini 800 G9 and didn't figure the required storage correctly.  Now I need to put a new SSD in it.  In intend to make a disc clone using Acrnois and then replace the SSD and restore the image.  At this point, I cannot get the pc to boot from the USB drive.   I know that the USB drive works as I tested it on another Win 10 pc.

I uninstalled the Wolf Security suite and am using Windows Defender.   I disabled Secure boot and removed bitlocker as a last ditch attempt.  I am stuck and could use some assistance.

Regards,

Chuck

[DGroves]

new windows installs done from the MS installer for the past 6 or so months or so, have bitlocker enabled by default for new installs on internal drives and you need to manually turn bitlocker off to disable it

external usb storage devices are not bitlocker enabled by default and must be manually enabled to activate

if you had bitlocker disabled by default on a older windows installation, any new MS updates will not enable bitlocker

your HP system enables "GPT" by default if  you cloned the Mini 800 G9's internal drive to a usb drive then that drive should also be a "GPT" formatted drive

i strongly suspect that the image you made to the external usb drive is faulty due to a possibly bad setting in the imaging program

install the original ssd, reimage and check all imaging options or tyuse another imaging program

[Charlie_Balogh · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your response.  The bitlocker info was very useful.

I solved my issue - the bootable USB was NOT.  Out of frustration, I tried to boot to a Win 11 boot disc and one of the bootable usb.  They both worked.  I have a few Acronis bootable USB's over time and none of them worked.  I decided to create a new bootable USB and it did work.  

Thanks again for your response.  

[Bill_To]

Greetings @DGroves, @Charlie_Balogh 

So BitLocker was causing this problem.

I don't use BitLocker. I have no reason to use it.

I was thinking Wolf Security might be causing the problem.

Very interesting. Will make a mental note on this one.

Regards

[Charlie_Balogh]

I think that bit locker would have caused an issue but I had disabled it and it still would not boot.  The main issue was that my Acronis bootable disc was not bootable.  Once I created a new bootable disc, it worked.  

[DGroves]

bitlocker was/is not the cause of the posters problem it was as i posted a bad restore image that was corrupted/missing the needed boot files preventing the created restore image from working

the bitlocker info was given so the poster could understand it better and see why it was not related to the problem he was having

I'm simply going to assume that the poster is unfamiliar with the website and gave credit for the cause/solution to himself by mistake