Clone HDD, the boot from external

[kraftwerkturbo]

I used EeaseUS to make a clone of my Windows 10 hard drive onto external SDD drive. 

In BIOS, I selected BOOT USB. 

Restarted. 

Getting screen

"GNU GRUB version 2.02"

"grub>"

Does it mean my cloned version is not working, or just not working to boot from external drive (plugged into USB-C, it is a SDD in USB-C enclosure). 

[WAWood]

@kraftwerkturbo 

GRUB is installed by Linux distros NOT by Windows.  The presence of that error message means the device you're booting from once had a Linux distro loaded onto it, and the most common situation is a dual-boot scenario where someone has BOTH Windows and Linux and then removes the Linux distro without FIRST, repairing the boot process.

I've used EASEUS products myself and NOT run into this issue -- so it's not that product, per se.

You need to erase the contents of the external drive completely and redo the cloning process.

[kraftwerkturbo]

Which partitions of my existing (500gb in computer) drive should i 'clone over' to the new drive (1 TB, in usb-c enclosure)?

To 'test', is if successful, is it valid to go into bios and change to 'boot from usb', or better to stick new SSD into laptop for quick test? 

[kraftwerkturbo]

Tried again, this time put cloned drive into computer. same message "GNU GRUB version 2.02"

with TAB I see list of linux commands. 

How can I find the partition that holds this linux boot? 

[kraftwerkturbo]

I found the windows10 key on the old hard drive. 

Made a 'restore' package on usb stick and did a clean install on the new harddrive. 

That seemed to have worked. 

Windows10 now running on new harddrive. 

Still not sure how Linux got onto the drive. Previous owner (who did a new install of windows 10 before he sold computer to me) did NOT install Linux. Could it be that it came with the WD m.2 harddrive?

[WAWood]

@kraftwerkturbo 

Sorry I did not get back to you sooner ...

With UEFI machines both inserting and removing boot code is a lot more difficult than with the older BIOS PCs, and unfortunately, I don't have hands-on experience with doing either.

The ONLY way that GRUB got into the boot record on a UEFI machine is with a Linux install -- regardless of what the previous owner tells you.

Regardless ... it's good to see you got it sorted.