Alienware 15 R2 failure to migrate OS to SSD

Hi all!

I recieved a crucial mx300 m.2 SSD yesterday and thought I could to the install and do migration using YouTube! Kinda epic fail on my part. The ssd came with Acronis 2015 true image HD serial and that is what I used.


I want to the backup feature in Acronis and began the clone process. - choosing to clone the C drive to the m.2 SSD drive which was already installed. I chose to clone all data.

After initializing it requested a system reset, upon which the clone disk commenced and 9 partitions were copied over.


Upon completion, the System shut down. Upon start up it went all the way to the windows 10 welcome screen, I could log in and was then greeted with a flashing empty desktop, with the alien background, none of my desktop items were present, and the system crashed with an error (something about critical process failed). It rebooted me due to the error, attempted to fix with Alienware respawn and then errored out again.

I decided to go into bios and the boot section. Under the boot area I went to Change the boot order. There are 2 "windows boot manager" present and 2 on board nic. When I selected the other windows boot manager I was then able to load to my desktop and everything was present as I last left it.


Question is what have I left unfinished that is disallowing me to boot from the SSD. Looking at a YouTube video there should be another option under boot option 1 (where the windows boot managers are) for the SSD boot, but I don't see one.


Under my initial Bios screen I can see the crucial SSD present - can someone help me put the final puzzle pieces together to get this up and running as a boot SSD?

 

I do not have experience with Acronis program, I have always used free EaseUS todo backup software. It sounds like something got mucked up with clone which is why I prefer to do a system backup then restore to new drive. Also after I do a system restore to a new drive I always disconnect the old drive after shutting down and boot one time with new drive. This will ensure the boot device in bios gets set correctly and also test to make sure your new drive did indeed restore correctly. Afterward you can shutdown and reconnect old drive then after reboot you should see it in windows as the D drive and be able to format the drive to use for data storage or do what you wish with it.

Steps to follow using EaseUS:
1. Make sure you are booted into the windows partition you wish to restore to the m.2 ssd. You can check the C drive make sure the size correlates to your HDD.
2. Create a "system backup" of the C drive with EaseUS and save the file somewhere on your C drive or external hard drive.
3. Run a system restore using the system backup file you created earlier, and restore it to the new M.2 SSD. You may need to format the M.2 SSD first if It has a correct windows image on it. This can be done in windows disk management.
4. If completed successfully you should now see a D drive in file explorer which is your SSD and will be able to view all the windows system files.
5. Shutdown and disconnect HDD. Reboot should automatically boot into windows from the SSD. The drive will have automatically been renamed to C drive in file explorer.
6. Shutdown and reconnect HDD. Reboot should still boot windows from SSD. Check file explorer you should now have your HDD listed as the D drive and can do whatever you want with it.

 

Thank you! If no one chimes in with Acronis Info I'll start from scratch this weekend using your recommendations! Much thanks for putting together a comprehensive and easy to follow instruction guide!!!

 

I also like the free EaseUS, I used it to change from a HDD to SSD from my laptop. After the clone, I disconnected on power off so not to confuse the laptop when I powered it on, worked great for me.

Good luck!

 

Do you have secure-boot enabled in BIOS? If it is, then it maybe the reason that you don't see the SSD on the boot order menu. I was trying to boot off an USB and wasn't able to until I disabled secure-boot.

Instead of cloning, similar to what Tony V pointed out, maybe try booting of an Acronis USB (you can create one through the program). Then do a back-up of HDD disk (all partitions) to an external drive. Then do a restore to SSD using Acronis itself.

I'll be attempting this later today and will try to update. In case it fails I am planning to do a fresh install to the SSD as the default installation of Windows is full of crap.

 

It seems like there are so many ways to go about doing the migration :/. I'll try the free download above first, after clearing and reformatting the SSD.

I was hoping not to have to open the laptop again but it seems like I don't have any choice, at least if I have to temporarily unplug the HDD.


Thanks all for the help, and hopefull oolon can update on his progress as well with some tricks that might help me witg
Mine!

 

Update - I've really managed to screw things up by unplugging the HDD. I did that because I thought I had successfully created a bootable media and back up onto a portable hard drive. I then powered up my laptop and it went into auto repair mode and keeps failing at the partition table. It won't load the image or bootsble media on my portable HD.

I then plugged my HDD back in so that I could at least use the laptop again. Upon rebooting into bios I now have only one "windows boot manager". How the heck do I get my second windows boot manager back or am I totally SOL here?

 

Further update - still can't get a valid boot from the HDD. Tried switching to legacy mode and disabling secure boot from uefi. Tried primary legacy boot from HDD and also from USB. Was hoping to load the ISO file from Acronis either from the USB thumb drive or portable HD. No dice either way. Says No OS Present.

Am I best off to call Dell and ask for support? At this point I would be happy just with my HDD loading and functioning properly with Windows 10....Still hoping for some community support.

 

Just start over. Only put the SSD in and install Windows 10.

 

My laptop came pre installed with windows 8 and I did a digital download from Microsoft store for Windows 10. I could care less about losing stuff since I have everything backed up into an external drive, but how do I start from scratch without a windows 10 cd?

 

You can download the windows 10 media creation tool. With that you can make an usb installation drive.

 

This is just totally awful stuff. I have no faith that I'll even be able to boot the file ( my OS and windows image file from Acronis couldn't be booted).


I'm Going to call Dell this afternoon and hope they have a fix to at least get my HDD back up and running my OS. What a mess

 

It is really not that hard. Just you didnt close the actual drive but only a partition of it. Thus leaving the MBR on a different drive. Only connect one drive in your laptop. Format that drive and start anew with a clean Windows 10 installation.

 

I would just restart windows install with just the SSD attached. If you go to the dell driver support page and put in your service tag there should be an option to download a windows recovery image. You need to put that on a USB drive. Then reset your bios to "optimized defaults".

 

Well I guess I'm
Not totally screwed, I
Held F12 at boot up and saw my HDD as a boot choice. Launching with HDD from the F12 gave me back full c drive access - back to normal. I'm left wondering how to proceed once again - copy my recovery file created with Acronis and put that on the crucial SSD?


Adter thinking about it I'll try the EASE US method recommended on the last page to recover everything to my SSD and then try the F12 boot using the SSD. Wish me luck :/

 

You couldnhave fixed it in 30 minutes. If you just reinstalled with an usb drive...

 

I did a system back up last night with EASE US but it won't let me do a system restore to my SSD - saying the sizes or format do not match. The collossal pain in they a$$ continues.


As for using a USB I have zero faith I wouls be smart enough to make it work. I just don't have the know - how and couldn't figure out any way to get a different boot option to work outside of my windows manager boot on bios or the HDD on my boot screen for start up.


I'll try to Acronis clone method tonight again since I now know how to force a boot via F12 feom my SSD. If that fails to wpen I am buying the paragon software!

 

Final update. I went back to Acronis and basically repeated my first attempt, identical start to finish with a clone. Upon resetting my computer and finishing the clone I popped off the bottom cover, disconnected the HDD , said a prayer, and turned on the computer. It zipped right to my widows log in, no issues. Then my desktop and everything was there as hoped. I have no idea why everything is suddenly booting as it should, no F12 start up required. I'm a bit afraid to plug my HDD back in for fear that things will get screwed up but everything is running perfect - and I was so bloody close to having this on my first attempt - I just neglected to disconnect my HDD and boot. Thanks all that contributed, I think I'm good from here!

 

You could format it in another PC and then use the second HDD back in your Alienware.

 

You could format it in another PC and then use the second HDD back in your Alienware.