I'm having a real tough time with my computer. I just upgraded from an HDD to a 1TB NVMe SSD (Crucial P310) to improve my loading times, and to do that, I cloned my HDD using Acronis. At first, everything seemed fine—I even rebooted successfully. But then, I encountered a blue screen error with the message **INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE** when I tried to access the BIOS to change my boot settings. Now, I can't boot from either the SSD or the original HDD, and I'm completely at a loss. I've tried using the Windows Media Creation Tool for auto repair and even attempted to rebuild the boot loader through bcdboot, but nothing has worked. I'm worried about losing my data, and I'm wondering if there's a way to recover my boot from the HDD without having to reinstall Windows. I'm also considering unplugging the HDD and reinstalling Windows on the SSD, but I'm scared that doing so might create even more issues. If anyone has faced this before or has any advice on how to resolve this, I'd really appreciate your help!
3 Answers
It sounds like you might have messed up some boot settings trying to fix this. The best route after cloning is usually to unplug the original HDD, boot from the SSD, and check if everything works. If you keep switching drives and settings, it could complicate things more than they already are. Honestly, it might be easier and cleaner to just start fresh on the SSD. Install Windows there, and once that’s running, plug your HDD back in to retrieve your files. Just be sure to wipe the HDD after you've retrieved your data to avoid confusion. Your BIOS can get confused with two drives having Windows installations like that!
Honestly, I think the cloning went fine but trying to boot with both drives connected is messing things up. Once you start fiddling with the BIOS and boot order, it can lead to issues, especially if the SATA settings are different for each drive. Just unplug the HDD, do a clean install on the SSD, then plug the HDD back in to salvage your data.
That’s what I was thinking too! Just go for a clean start with the SSD; hopefully, that clears up the issue so you can get to your files.
Have you checked the BIOS settings to ensure they're correct? Sometimes the storage controller setting can get flipped. You mentioned it’s set to AHCI, which is good, but if you play around with it (like switching to RAID), it could cause problems if Windows was installed under a different controller type. Also, try to remember when you got that blue screen. Was it during the BIOS or afterward? That could hint at what's going wrong.
Definitely keep it on AHCI, changing it might lock you out. If you need to switch settings, make sure to do it one at a time and try to boot in between to see if anything's working.
I get that! My concern is that if you have both drives connected after reinstalling, it might just lead to the same boot issue. But it’s crucial you backup your data first before wiping anything!