Boot USB Flash Drive before OS

[Sim1234]

Hi!

I have a  hp  15bs514nl laptop and I got a solid state hard disk M.2 to add to the standard hard disk equipement (which is a 1 TB HDD).

I had Clonezilla program installed on a USB Flash drive but i can't boot pc from the USB Flash drive.

I need to do this because i want to copy the OS and all the other programs on my laptop to the SSD M.2

Thanks for your attention.

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

@Sim1234

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

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First off, you simply might not be able to do this because other folks that have added an M.2 SSD to their PCs indicate there is no way to swap the hardware disk number so that the -0- disk is the SSD, and the -1- disk is the HDD.  And, since the PC is going to boot from the -0- disk by default, it won't boot from the SSD.

So, you should check your BIOS/UEFI settings to see if there is a way to change the "order" of the drives connected to the PC such that the SSD then becomes the -0- disk and the HDD the -1- disk

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Second, I understand your wanting to use CLonezilla, as I use this for my Linux distros all the time.

But for Windows, there is a better Free product known as Macrium Reflect ...

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) Free version
2) Shrink down the partitions on the hard drive until they are small enough to fit on the SSD
3) Follow the instructions in this link to "clone" the HDD partitions to the SSD : http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Cloning+a+disk

4) Reboot the PC but go into the BIOS/UEFI settings to change the disk order -- as mentioned above. Shutdown the PC when done
5) When you reboot, it should be to the SSD, not the HDD, and you can then remove the partitions you don't need from the HDD and repartition it to be a "data drive".

[Sim1234]

Hi!

I really thank you for your quick reply.

I liked the suggestions you made.

However, i'd like to give a try with setting the M.2 to boot first and at the present moment i'm struck because i can't manage to  boot the USB Flash Drive even if i got to the BIOS and apparently set the boot order in an appropriate way.

Could you help me out with this issue?

I have a F.37 Insyde BIOS.

[WAWood]

@Sim1234

I've had some problems with recent Clonezilla versions not booting from my USB sticks, so you should check to see that a different PC can still boot from that USB stick.

It could also be, due to some Secure Boot limitation in your PC, that it will simply not boot a Linux OS.  So, you would need to go into the UEFI settings and see how to disable Secure Boot.

Trying to use Linux stuff in new Windows PC is a major issue, which is one reason why I recommended switching to MR -- as that does not present the same problems.