I recently did a fresh install of Windows on my 4TB Samsung 990 Pro M.2 and installed some programs. Then, I decided to clone that drive to a 2TB WD Black 8100 M.2, since I only had 185GB used on the Samsung. After the cloning process, I put the WD Black into the primary M.2 slot, leaving the Samsung disconnected. Unfortunately, I can't boot from the WD Black now. In the past, switching from UEFI to CSM boot partition helped, but I tried that this time, and now I can't even access the BIOS. Instead, I'm just seeing a black screen with a message saying to insert a boot disk. My motherboard is an MSI MPG x870E Carbon, and I'm using a 9800X3D CPU. Both drives are NVMe. All the necessary drivers were installed on the Samsung before cloning. Why did this cloning not work as expected?
1 Answer
It sounds a bit confusing! I'm wondering why you installed Windows on the Samsung only to clone it to the WD. Why not just install Windows directly onto the WD? Also, did you have any other drives connected during the original installation? It's important to ensure the boot partition ended up on the right drive.
The WD had some data I wanted to back up first. In the UEFI of my MSI, I can only choose to boot from a UEFI hard disk, but not specify which one.