Windows crashed following a cloning process to an SSD. Need assistance!
Windows crashed following a cloning process to an SSD. Need assistance!
Here’s a concise version of your story:
I upgraded to a 120 GB SSD and moved Windows from a larger 1 TB HDD. Since the SSD was smaller, I couldn’t clone it immediately. I used AOMEI Backupper to back up the HDD to an external drive, then reset Windows to shrink the drive. After reinstalling AOMEI and cloning, I changed my boot drive in BIOS. But the BIOS didn’t recognize the SSD, so I tried a system backup, recovered the HDD, and then cloned it again. Eventually, I restored everything from the backup. However, after rebooting, Windows crashed repeatedly—settings froze, Disk Management failed, and I got a corrupted Windows Defender alert. I tried fixing files but couldn’t. Eventually, I decided to revert to the original drive. When I booted back up, I was stuck on a recovery screen with no clear path forward. I’m seeking advice on how to get Windows to work or recover the HDD. Thanks for your help.
I created a picture of the drive and then restored it to my SSD, which allowed Windows to boot from it initially. However, during the restoration, some system files got damaged, causing Windows to malfunction. Additionally, I made a clone of the drive on my primary machine to an SSD, and it has functioned perfectly ever since with no issues.
I understand it's usually preferable to start over, though I've successfully moved OS setups before without problems. It was only necessary when using trusted tools like Paragon or Acronis.