The Windows installation appeared to vanish unexpectedly.
The Windows installation appeared to vanish unexpectedly.
Last night I chose to transfer my Windows install from the 2.5in SSD to a new m.2 drive. I cloned the installation and everything looked normal. Then I wanted to create a small Ubuntu partition on the old SSD just for experimenting, since I haven’t really worked with Linux before. After doing that, I realized I can’t boot Windows from the m.2 anymore. The drive shows up in my BIOS and boot menu, but it just stays frozen and doesn’t respond. I even left it there overnight to check if the issue was temporary. Have anyone faced this problem before?
You created a clone of the drive but did not duplicate the boot sectors.
That, unfortunately, wasn't the issue. That would have been nice and simple. So I ended up just giving up and reinstalling Windows to the 2.5 drive because the windows installer gave me grief over doing it to the m.2. For future reference, since I'd still like to move over to the m.2 in the future, how do I do this the right way in the future?
It’s best to start with the single drive (the new one) after cloning and disconnecting other drives. This ensures everything checks properly and allows the registry to reorganize automatically.