Installation copy to SSD – starts up but issues arise
Installation copy to SSD – starts up but issues arise
Hey there! You managed to upgrade your PC from an HDD to an SSD, right? From what I understand, you checked the partition sizes, used Clonezilla to clone the Windows partition, set up an EFI partition and a recovery partition, and adjusted the bootloader with BCDboot and BCDedit so Windows would start properly. The boot process worked fine until after the Windows logo loading circle appeared. Now you're stuck with a black screen—SSD is detected (LED light), mouse shows the loading circle sometimes—but the login screen won't appear. You tried several fixes: rebooting with the old HDD, disabling Fast Startup, uninstalling Kaspersky, running chkdsk and sfc, connecting the SSD to let Windows load drivers, using SAM file to reset accounts, cloning the HDD again, and booting into safe mode on the SSD. You also noticed the mouse pointer disappears every few seconds, then reappears with the loading circle. Someone might have a solution for this? Booting from the SSD works, but starting Windows seems problematic. Thanks!
Get Hiren's BootCD PE file and create a bootable media. Start it then launch "AOMEI Partition Assistant". Click the HDD, select "Copy Disk", pick "Sector-By-Sector-Copy", choose your SSD, and click Apply in the top left. The download link is available here: https://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/
I understand your question. It seems you're wondering if it's necessary to use a recovery partition when creating an EFI boot file from the Windows partition. The process can indeed be done without it, though the recovery partition is often used for troubleshooting.