Clone to a new USB hard drive

1cdorli

1cdorli

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I want to use Macrium reflect 8 to clone my current SSD to a new 1TB ssd.
Will Windows 10 Pro operate from the new drive?
 
Thanks, it's just that I watched a MR tutorial and right at the end it states that Windows won't boot from an external USB drive?
 
No idea!! I will obviously have to change the Bootup sequence in the BIOS, but why that would prevent Windows from operating baffles me
 
Oh, sorry. I've been given a SanDisk 1TB USB drive. I want to clone my current SSD to the new one, then use the new one as my only drive. Hope this makes sense
 
1cdorli said:
Oh, sorry. I've been given a SanDisk 1TB USB drive. I want to clone my current SSD to the new one, then use the new one as my only drive. Hope this makes sense
Click to expand...
Not sure about running windows from a USB drive though. But if you are going to replace it in your machine it will work just fine.

:popcorn:
 
Crowley said:
But why?
Click to expand...
Because just after IML (initial microcode load) and before USB drivers are loaded the NT Executive in Windows queries BIOS and scans all directly-attached storage volumes and partitions; once these are enumerated Windows continues the boot process from the first enumerated primary active bootable partition and then marks any other partitions as not bootable (as it must, because no system can have more than one enumerated primary active partition).

This is inter alia why you should never reboot your Windows system with the source and target cloned boot partitions still connected to storage controller (eg SATA). First remove the clone target drive and make sure you have only one bootable drive attached when you reboot, otherwise one of them will be marked non-bootable and you won't be able to use it as your primary active bootable drive, even though in all other respects it's an original or clone of a bootable partition.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the heads up. Although it is a portable drive, I intend on mounting it inside the box.
 
1cdorli said:
I want to use Macrium reflect 8 to clone my current SSD to a new 1TB ssd.
Will Windows 10 Pro operate from the new drive?
Click to expand...
I've cloned a 128gb SSD to a 512gb SSD with macrium reflect 7 a few years ago, worked fine.
 
Well, I've booted from an external USB drive too, but that wasn't the same one that I'd cloned with Macrium... I don't see any reason why OP can't clone the drive and boot from it through it may take a bit of fiddling.
 
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