Replace failing SSD

TheVisitor said:

Have almost got all my apps re-installed/configured. Just realized that when I put the new drive in and used MCT to re-install windows that it did not create a 'Rescue Partition' . There is a 100mb EFI system partition and a large 460gb NTFS 'C' drive.
I was reading about creating a rescue partition and it was noted in the article that Maricum can create a rescue partition under the 'other' tab.
I'm a bit hesitant as I don't want to 'undo' all I've done re-installing/setting up my apps.
I was always under the impression that you had to partition first then install, but perhaps my perceptions are wrong.
Can someone please advise ? Maybe I don't need a 'Rescue Part' since I have a MCT.
Thanks again for any help.

Click to expand...

You don't need a recovery partition. Just be sure to create an image of the drive. See the link below for more details.

glasskuter said:

Nope. No cloning for me either. I know a clone is supposed to be a direct copy but I've done it twice and had issues both times. I've also restored a Macrium image to a new disk twice and had no issues. In another thread I saw another regular member who did not do it either (don't remember who) so there are at least 3 people in the world who don't clone.

Click to expand...

I don't think I'll ever understand why cloning a drive works for some users and not for others. I do know that restoring a Macrium image to a new drive has never failed for me. I never tried it with any of the other backup software I use.

TheVisitor said:

Just checking in. Ended up with the WD Blue 570 (they were out of the 550)
My Sandisk clone booted fine under the old drive, but would not start up at all after I put the new SSD in, what a hassle teeen-tiny screw.
Ended up using the MCT (Microsoft create tool) and just reinstalled Win11.
Took some time fighting to get it activated, then do all the updates.
Now having the 'fun' of re-installing all my apps. Very slow going.

Click to expand...

Just being curious. Is there a reason you didn't try making an image of the old drive and restoring it to the new drive? Or did using an image fail also? Like I posted I've never had a cloned drive work without having to fix the boot loader.

Winuser said:

Just being curious. Is there a reason you didn't try making an image of the old drive and restoring it to the new drive? Or did using an image fail also? Like I posted I've never had a cloned drive work without having to fix the boot loader.

Click to expand...

Truth is I did not know how to use the Macrium image and I did not ask. I was not sure that image would do a complete repair keeping programs intact or exactly what the image did. I just started using Macrium a few weeks before I dived in and replaced the failing SSD. I thought the 'clone' would be nice easy way out. The clone was booting just fine from the USB Sandisk thumb-drive but when I really needed it after installing the new
SSD it failed me and was not recognized. Thankfully I had created a MCT USB drive.
Lesson learned and more learning is in order.

Maricum can create a rescue partition

Click to expand...

I don't think it can. If you want a rescue partition, it is not difficult to diy.

I have done many clones and image restores, hundreds. It is a question of using the most suitable tool for the particular job.

TheVisitor said:

Can someone please advise ? Maybe I don't need a 'Rescue Part' since I have a MCT.
Thanks again for any help.

Click to expand...

If you run "reagentc /info" in a command prompt with admin privileges, I think you will find that you do have a Windows Recovery Environment enabled.

NavyLCDR said:

If you run "reagentc /info" in a command prompt with admin privileges, I think you will find that you do have a Windows Recovery Environment enabled.

Click to expand...

Thanks, this is what I see:
C:\Windows\System32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 9d33df8c-86e4-11ed-adcd-da92385d7037
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


C:\Windows\System32


Now should I need it how do you use or access the file. Is that used through 'System->Recovery' Reset ? or Advanced Setup ?
Please forgive me for questions, this is the first time I'm really dug into trying to update a drive or recover from a failure. Past years (thought I'm not rich by any means) I would just throw up my hands and go buy a new system.

Winuser said:

Just being curious. Is there a reason you didn't try making an image of the old drive and restoring it to the new drive? Or did using an image fail also? Like I posted I've never had a cloned drive work without having to fix the boot loader.

Click to expand...

Just recently I used Macrium v8 to clone a 1TB drive to a 2TB drive. First time to do it as I just restore an image usually. It let me resize the Windows partitions and it just worked. No boot repair necessary.

TheVisitor said:

Thanks, this is what I see:
C:\Windows\System32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 9d33df8c-86e4-11ed-adcd-da92385d7037
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


C:\Windows\System32


Now should I need it how do you use or access the file. Is that used through 'System->Recovery' Reset ? or Advanced Setup ?
Please forgive me for questions, this is the first time I'm really dug into trying to update a drive or recover from a failure. Past years (thought I'm not rich by any means) I would just throw up my hands and go buy a new system.

Click to expand...

Check the website listed below.

TheVisitor said:

Truth is I did not know how to use the Macrium image and I did not ask. I was not sure that image would do a complete repair keeping programs intact or exactly what the image did. I just started using Macrium a few weeks before I dived in and replaced the failing SSD. I thought the 'clone' would be nice easy way out. The clone was booting just fine from the USB Sandisk thumb-drive but when I really needed it after installing the new
SSD it failed me and was not recognized. Thankfully I had created a MCT USB drive.
Lesson learned and more learning is in order.

Click to expand...

To do an image of your drive you need a drive to save the image to and you should also have a Macrium rescue drive. I recommend using a USB Hdd for the image and a USB flash drive for the rescue drive. There are two ways to restore the image. One is adding Macrium to the boot loader and the other way is with a Macrium USB rescue disk. The rescue disk is a must if you can't boot to the boot menu. I'll use the rescue drive method. Plug the rescue drive and the HDD with the image into the computer then start the computer. Hit the key to enter the BIOS. It's usually one of the F keys or the Delete key. In the Bios, select the flash drive as the boot drive. then exit the bios. Once Macrium starts it's just a matter of selecting the image you want to use and then pointing Macrium to the drive you want to restore to. You will have to ok a few selections and when finished, Macrium for do the restore and when it's finished your computer will restart. If nothing went wrong, your computer will boot into windows. Unplug the drives and you should be good to go. Even if you don't want to try restoring your old drive image to you new drive, you should learn how to do an image restore. Having an image is not going to be very helpful if you don't know how to use it.

Fabler2 said:

Just recently I used Macrium v8 to clone a 1TB drive to a 2TB drive. First time to do it as I just restore an image usually. It let me resize the Windows partitions and it just worked. No boot repair necessary.


View attachment 48735

Click to expand...

That's the thing I don't understand. Cloning works ok for some but not for others. You can resize the partitions when doing an image restore too. If I remember correctly, you have to delete the partitions on the destination drive then use the drag and drop method.

TheVisitor said:

Have almost got all my apps re-installed/configured.

Click to expand...

Please post an image or share link of disk management.

Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste all at one time:



type
ctrl + a
ctrl + c

Past into this thread typing ctrl + v

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.963]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\System32>
C:\Windows\System32>
C:\Windows\System32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {9d33df8a-86e4-11ed-adcd-da92385d7037}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 11
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {9d33df8c-86e4-11ed-adcd-da92385d7037}
displaymessageoverride Recovery
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {9d33df8a-86e4-11ed-adcd-da92385d7037}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

C:\Windows\System32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 9d33df8c-86e4-11ed-adcd-da92385d7037
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


C:\Windows\System32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.22621.1

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: PC (name removed for privacy)

DISKPART> lis dis

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 465 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 931 GB 0 B *

DISKPART> lis vol

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 0 F DVD-ROM 0 B No Media
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 465 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System
Volume 3 E My Passport NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy

DISKPART> sel dis 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> det dis

WD Blue SN570 500GB
Disk ID: {20E77F3C-19D5-44DB-AE43-26CAB118EA56}
Type : NVMe
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1D00)#PCI(0000)#NVME(P00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : Yes
Pagefile Disk : Yes
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : Yes
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 465 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 System 100 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 Reserved 16 MB 101 MB
Partition 3 Primary 465 GB 117 MB

DISKPART> sel par 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 1
Type : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 2 FAT32 Partition 100 MB Healthy System

DISKPART> sel par 2

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 2
Type : e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 105906176

There is no volume associated with this partition.

DISKPART> sel par 3

Partition 3 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> det par

Partition 3
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 122683392

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 1 C NTFS Partition 465 GB Healthy Boot

DISKPART> sel par 4

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel par 5

The specified partition is not valid.
Please select a valid partition.

There is no partition selected.

DISKPART> det par

There is no partition selected.
Please select a partition and try again.

DISKPART> sel dis 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> det dis

WD My Passport 259F USB Device
Disk ID: {33B1567E-6582-409C-9581-4D5E80039E68}
Type : USB
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 3 E My Passport NTFS Partition 931 GB Healthy

DISKPART> lis par

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 931 GB 1024 KB

DISKPART>

DISKPART>

I cloned three drives on three different computers in the past 3 weeks without fail. I've also succesfully cloned on my computer several times. Macrium just works.

I just cloned mine a few days ago , replaced a 250 gb m.2 with a 1TB.

I purchased the m.2 SSD along with an m.2 NVMe ssd enclosure adapter tool, both purchases from Amazon came in at under $90 (U.S.).
First put the M.2 into the enclosure adapter securely , plug the enclosure adapter into a usb port , now, before you do anything , make sure you initialize the drive first then use Macrium to clone your existing drive.
After cloning is completed, you may have to use a partition tool to move partitions around to join any free space left over after cloning as Macrium will take leftover free space on the new drive and leave it unallocated on the end of the drive after cloning, but that it is easy enough to do.
After all that is completed , unplug the NVMe enclosure adapter tool and remove the m.2 drive, shut down your pc , swap the old drive with the new and boot, you are good to go. The entire process probably didn't take me more than 30 minutes.

It probably took me longer to get the microscopic damn screw back in that holds the drive down to the mother board then the entire cloning process.

Windows recovery environment is enabled on the data partition.
Ordinarily Windows creates a separate recovery partition in case there are problems with the data partition.
If there are problems with the data partition then a bootable Windows Media Creation Tool (MCT) (Windows iso) could be used.
Alternatively a Windows recovery partition could be created.