Cloning Windows 11 and Getting it to Boot: Difference between revisions

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Oddly, this article is focused on the latter part of the title.

There are a myriad of different ways to clone Windows to another HDD / SSD, etc. Software (Acronis, Linux based, etc.) and Hardware (USB drive bays that have cloning ability) based. This article is about getting it to boot on another piece of hardware (or in a Virtual Machine). And yes, there are many automated ways of doing it with Acronis Universal Restore, etc. This article is for when the 'automatic stuff' doesn't work.

If your interested in reading about the boot process of a PC and how Windows boots (NTLDR / MBR and UEFI Style), Wikipedia has a ton of good stuff on it.

==First Things First (and where they are)==

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**Switching between RAID (Intel or other software based RAID), AHCI, IDE for SATA (or IDE / PATA) is much easier in Windows 11 (see below)

==Fast Boot==

==BCDBoot Command==

It seems like cloning software lives to not be able to clone the Boot Folder properly. Or Microsoft has done something to make it very difficult to clone the Boot (or EFI) Folder properly.

To fix a Partition's 'boot information' (not just the BCD File): '''bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-us /s c: /f ALL /v''' (choose the language of your choice, just to make sure the bcdboot command gets it right.)

*...right after the bcdboot command is the C:\Windows: This is where the 'source' files are (IE, what the bcdboot command copies to the destination)

*/s: The Partition / Volume where the information is to be written, as identified by a drive letter (If a Volume / Partition hasn't been assigned a drive letter, use the DISKPART command to assign a drive letter: https://winaero.com/change-drive-letter-windows-10/, or any other number of websites with a how to on the subject )

*/f: What BCD information to create / write (IE, MBR or UEFI or both (ALL))

*/v: Verbose, IE display the 'log file' as it's doing things. Don't worry about errors it displays, as long as at the end it says 'succeeded'.

...from: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di?view=windows-11

==Fast Boot (not to be confused with Ready Boost) and HiberFile==

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup

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Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Power\HiberbootEnabled (0 = off, 1 = on)

== RAID (Intel or other software based RAID) / AHCI / IDE for SATA (or PATA for that matter) ==

==RAID (Intel or other software based RAID) / AHCI / IDE for SATA (or PATA for that matter)==

The simplest thing to do is to let it crash and reboot a couple of times until it offers to boot into Safe Mode (which it should successfully do). Safe Mode now seems to include the ability to try various RAID / HDD / SSD / NGFF / NVMe / etc. drivers (or maybe it just loads all the drivers by default. Anyway, after booting into Safe Mode,

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<nowiki>*</nowiki> And of course the setting is under the "Choose what the power buttons do" even though it is no way involved with any power buttons. And for that matter, why is the word buttonS plural? For the life of me, I cannot think of a single computer that has multiple external power buttons (the exception being motherboards that have the power button mounted on the case, plus a button the motherboard manufacturer placed on the motherboard itself, and not counting the power SWITCH on the rear of a PSU).

== EasyBCD ==

==EasyBCD==

EasyBCD has some minor issues. The first that comes to mind is that it doesn't always decide on the correct BCD file if there are multiple partitions with BCD files. It gets it right about 98% of the time, but sometimes decides on the wrong one. So just to be sure, and to avoid frustration, double check by loading the BCD you want to edit.

Another issue it has relates to the "Metro" Boot Menu (see below). The checkbox for the menu just doesn't seem to ever match up with reality. Use BootICE or the Command line to control the "Metro" feature.

== Metro Boot Menu (from Windows 8) ==

==Metro Boot Menu (from Windows 8)==

Instead of the clunky Text based boot menu, you can have a cool Windows 8 "tile looking" boot menu. The down side is that it comes up later in the boot process than the text menu. So if there's an issue with any partitions on a disk drive, you might never make it to that menu to select an option before the computer crashes. Play it safe and keep the text based menu.

==Other Stop You in Your Track Issues and their Solutions==

There are many, many reasons Windows will find not to boot. Here are just a couple of odd solutions;

==== MBR and UEFI Motherboards ====

If you've got a BOOT and EFI Folder / Directory on a Partition, watch out for a common hole to fall into for systems that boot MBR and UEFI. Remember, both the BOOT (for MBR) and EFI (for UEFI booting) have BCD files. If you're trying to boot via MBR and haven't modified the EFI BCD File, a system might fool you into a frustrating situation if it's booting from the EFI BCD file instead of the BOOT (MBR) BCD file. Manually select the boot device (F12 key on many systems), just to make sure.

====Plain Cloning via Acronis (or some other software) or using USB Duplicator Bay====

If Windows won't boot, use a boot CD to re-build / re-create the BSD information (MBR or U'EFI). The Windows installation DVD / ISO can be used. OR, one of several WinPE boot CDs out there (descendants of BartPE) like Hirem's Boot CD with a visual BCD Utility like EasyBSD or BootIce.

====Scenario: Multiple Windows installations on multiple Partitions on a single Disk (HDD / SSD / etc.)====

After Windows is imaged or installed on a 2nd, 3rd, whatever partition (IE, it isn't the only, nor the first Windows installation on a disk), and the BCD stuff has been taken care of to allow one to select any partition to boot from, it still might not boot. Solution? Edit and / or rebuild the BCD stuff on the partition of the Windows install that won't boot, then set that partition as active, see if it boots. If it does, go back to the original partition that was active, re-edit the BCD stuff, then set the original partition as active, reboot and see if selecting the new Windows install works then.

==Google Tirade==

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<br />

== Rough Notes (all the below can be ignored, it's just the rough notes this article was based on ==

==Rough Notes (all the below can be ignored, it's just the rough notes this article was based on==

https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/the-requested-system-device-cannot-be-found.html

Be prepared to fix BCD stuff (the BOOTREC command is next to useless. Imagine spinning around in a circle seven times, and then pinning the tail on the donkey, that's about the success chances of BOOTREC, IE nothing evil or bad, just sheer luck that it will work or not, which begs the question of how useful a feature it is.) with: BCDBOOT: https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/the-requested-system-device-cannot-be-found.html (Documentation from Microsoft: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di?view=windows-11)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+Oddly, this article is focused on the latter part of the title.
+There are a myriad of different ways to clone Windows to another HDD / SSD, etc.  Software (Acronis, Linux based, etc.) and Hardware (USB drive bays that have cloning ability) based.  This article is about getting it to boot on another piece of hardware (or in a Virtual Machine).  And yes, there are many automated ways of doing it with Acronis Universal Restore, etc.  This article is for when the 'automatic stuff' doesn't work.
+If your interested in reading about the boot process of a PC and how Windows boots (NTLDR / MBR and UEFI Style), Wikipedia has a ton of good stuff on it.
 ==First Things First (and where they are)==
@@ Line 23: / Line 29: @@
 **Switching between RAID (Intel or other software based RAID), AHCI, IDE for SATA (or IDE / PATA) is much easier in Windows 11 (see below)
-==Fast Boot==
+==BCDBoot Command==
+It seems like cloning software lives to not be able to clone the Boot Folder properly.  Or Microsoft has done something to make it very difficult to clone the Boot (or EFI) Folder properly.
+To fix a Partition's 'boot information' (not just the BCD File): '''bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-us /s c: /f ALL /v''' (choose the language of your choice, just to make sure the bcdboot command gets it right.)
+*...right after the bcdboot command is the  C:\Windows: This is where the 'source' files are (IE, what the bcdboot command copies to the destination)
+*/s: The Partition / Volume where the information is to be written, as identified by a drive letter (If a Volume / Partition hasn't been assigned a drive letter, use the DISKPART command to assign a drive letter: https://winaero.com/change-drive-letter-windows-10/, or any other number of websites with a how to on the subject )
+*/f: What BCD information to create / write (IE, MBR or UEFI or both (ALL))
+*/v: Verbose, IE display the 'log file' as it's doing things.  Don't worry about errors it displays, as long as at the end it says 'succeeded'.
+...from: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di?view=windows-11
+==Fast Boot (not to be confused with Ready Boost) and HiberFile==
 https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-windows-10-fast-startup
@@ Line 32: / Line 50: @@
 Registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Power\HiberbootEnabled (0 = off, 1 = on)
-== RAID (Intel or other software based RAID) / AHCI / IDE for SATA (or PATA for that matter) ==
+==RAID (Intel or other software based RAID) / AHCI / IDE for SATA (or PATA for that matter)==
 The simplest thing to do is to let it crash and reboot a couple of times until it offers to boot into Safe Mode (which it should successfully do).  Safe Mode now seems to include the ability to try various RAID / HDD / SSD / NGFF / NVMe / etc. drivers (or maybe it just loads all the drivers by default.  Anyway, after booting into Safe Mode,
@@ Line 38: / Line 56: @@
 <nowiki>*</nowiki> And of course the setting is under the "Choose what the power buttons do" even though it is no way involved with any power buttons.  And for that matter, why is the word buttonS plural?  For the life of me, I cannot think of a single computer that has multiple external power buttons (the exception being motherboards that have the power button mounted on the case, plus a button the motherboard manufacturer placed on the motherboard itself, and not counting the power SWITCH on the rear of a PSU).
-== EasyBCD ==
+==EasyBCD==
 EasyBCD has some minor issues.  The first that comes to mind is that it doesn't always decide on the correct BCD file if there are multiple partitions with BCD files.  It gets it right about 98% of the time, but sometimes decides on the wrong one.  So just to be sure, and to avoid frustration, double check by loading the BCD you want to edit.
 Another issue it has relates to the "Metro" Boot Menu (see below).  The checkbox for the menu just doesn't seem to ever match up with reality.  Use BootICE or the Command line to control the "Metro" feature.
-== Metro Boot Menu (from Windows 8) ==
+==Metro Boot Menu (from Windows 8)==
 Instead of the clunky Text based boot menu, you can have a cool Windows 8 "tile looking" boot menu.  The down side is that it comes up later in the boot process than the text menu.  So if there's an issue with any partitions on a disk drive, you might never make it to that menu to select an option before the computer crashes.  Play it safe and keep the text based menu.
+==Other Stop You in Your Track Issues and their Solutions==
+There are many, many reasons Windows will find not to boot.  Here are just a couple of odd solutions;
+==== MBR and UEFI Motherboards ====
+If you've got a BOOT and EFI Folder / Directory on a Partition, watch out for a common hole to fall into for systems that boot MBR and UEFI.  Remember, both the BOOT (for MBR) and EFI (for UEFI booting) have BCD files.  If you're trying to boot via MBR and haven't modified the EFI BCD File, a system might fool you into a frustrating situation if it's booting from the EFI BCD file instead of the BOOT (MBR) BCD file.  Manually select the boot device (F12 key on many systems), just to make sure.
+====Plain Cloning via Acronis (or some other software) or using USB Duplicator Bay====
+If Windows won't boot, use a boot CD to re-build / re-create the BSD information (MBR or U'EFI).  The Windows installation DVD / ISO can be used.  OR, one of several WinPE boot CDs out there (descendants of BartPE) like Hirem's Boot CD with a visual BCD Utility like EasyBSD or BootIce.
+====Scenario: Multiple Windows installations on multiple Partitions on a single Disk (HDD / SSD / etc.)====
+After Windows is imaged or installed on a 2nd, 3rd, whatever partition (IE, it isn't the only, nor the first Windows installation on a disk), and the BCD stuff has been taken care of to allow one to select any partition to boot from, it still might not boot.  Solution?  Edit and / or rebuild the BCD stuff on the partition of the Windows install that won't boot, then set that partition as active, see if it boots.  If it does, go back to the original partition that was active, re-edit the BCD stuff, then set the original partition as active, reboot and see if selecting the new Windows install works then.
 ==Google Tirade==
@@ Line 62: / Line 91: @@
 <br />
-== Rough Notes (all the below can be ignored, it's just the rough notes this article was based on ==
+==Rough Notes (all the below can be ignored, it's just the rough notes this article was based on==
+https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/the-requested-system-device-cannot-be-found.html
 Be prepared to fix BCD stuff (the BOOTREC command is next to useless.  Imagine spinning around in a circle seven times, and then pinning the tail on the donkey, that's about the success chances of BOOTREC, IE nothing evil or bad, just sheer luck that it will work or not, which begs the question of how useful a feature it is.) with: BCDBOOT: https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/the-requested-system-device-cannot-be-found.html (Documentation from Microsoft: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/bcdboot-command-line-options-techref-di?view=windows-11)