Cloned SSD will not boot computer

[DaSOB]

Howdy -

I'm a newbie on this board, but I'm fairly tech savvy. My real name is Sam, I'm retired (73 y/o), USAF veteran. I'm looking for some help getting my computer to boot from a cloned SSD.

Back story - I am running Windows 11 on a HP 260-p026 with 16GB RAM and a 256GB Kingston internal SSD (C Drive). I've still got about 100GB free space on it, but I decided to go ahead and replace it with a 512GB Crucial MX500 SSD (F Drive). I used Acronis to clone my current SSD to the Crucial SSD using an external USB hookup, but the computer will not boot from the cloned Crucial drive when I install it internally. I re-formatted F drive and re-cloned it three times, but my computer will not boot from it. I also used Macrium to clone it, but still without success.

I'm sure that the problem is that my boot order has the Kingston drive as primary, and that I need to change that to the Crucial drive. However, I'm hesitant to go into BIOS and start changing things around until I get advice from folks who are more familiar with this kind of situation.

Can I go into BIOS and change my boot order so that the Crucial drive is primary, then install it internally and re-boot? Would I need to leave it designated as F Drive, or can I change that to C Drive once the system is re-booted? Would that mess up any file associations, etc.? What other recommendations may anyone have?

Any help will be appreciated by this grasshopper!

[WAWood]

I have done what you are trying to do numerous times and my guess is that you are right -- the boot order is messed up.

I also use MR to do disk cloning -- for the same reason -- to replace a smaller drive with a larger drive.  So, I know that works.

Couple of things to try ...

First, after you have done the cloning, remove all other drives from the PC and see if it boots with only the new drive connected.  If it does, that will confirm the cloning worked properly.  If it does not, then  there is a second thing to try.

Sometimes, MR cloning does not work -- so using MR, create a rescue disk (USB stick). With only the new drive connected, boot from the USB stick and select the option to repair the boot.  That will rewrite the boot files to the drive you select.  After that, it should boot OK.

[DaSOB]

Thanks for the response. I have cloned the SSD with Macrium Reflect, Acronis and Active@. Each time, I have installed the cloned SSD into the PC, but it would not boot up. In discussion with some individuals on another forum, I have come to the conclusion that I need to go into BIOS and tell the computer to boot from the cloned disk. I will post about the result after I try that.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

If the cloned disk is the only disk connected, the PC should boot automatically from it.

Try that first.  If it still does not boot, then use the boot repair function of MR.  If it does not boot then, I don't know what else to suggest.