From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Tue, 1/6/2026 8:23 PM, Steve wrote:   
   > On 1/4/2026 4:47 PM, Steve wrote:   
   >> The holidays are over and I should have time to continue the project I was   
   working on 2 weeks ago.   
   >>   
   >> I'm trying to switch to my new Samsung 870 EVO SATA 2.5 inch drive. The   
   paper in the box said to use Samsung Magician to clone the data. I'm starting   
   to believe that it doesn't work with a SATA drive!   
   >>   
   >> People suggested I use a different cloning tool. I dismissed that idea   
   because, certainly, Samsung Magician would work after I got my computer to   
   recognize the new drive. Well I did that. It's now showing on File Explorer as   
   drive (J:) and I have    
   formatted it. I tested it by copying a file with several pictures inside to   
   (J:). It went right in and the pictures opened just fine. I formatted again to   
   empty it.   
   >>   
   >> I looked at you tube videos about using Samsung Magician. They all showed a   
   ssd that did not look like my SATA drive.  Samsung Magician seems to have 2   
   ways to get to "Data Migration". One way pops up a message that the drive   
   isn't compatible. I    
   originally feared that it was warning me that the new drive wasn't compatible   
   with my computer. Going in the other way, it shows my C: drive as the source   
   drive but it prompts me to connect the Samsung SSD. It doesn't see it even   
   though it IS there and    
   it works.   
   >>   
   >> What cloning software is going to work with my SATA SSD?   
   >   
   > OK, here's my update:   
   > I downloaded Macrium Reflect and used that, because several people   
   recommended Macrium. I have now cloned all of my Drive C: onto the Samsung SSD.   
   > Back when I was still trying to get Samsung Magician to work, something I   
   read said just shut down and swap drives and Windows should boot right up from   
   the new drive.   
   > Both drives are already in the computer so, while it was shut down, I   
   unhooked the old hard drive and started it up. I didn't really expect it to be   
   that easy and of course it wasn't. As it tried to start up, it listed my DVD   
   drive (E:), followed by    
   the SSD (J:). Then it moved on to a screen that was blank except for a dash   
   line in the upper left corner.   
   > I plugged the old drive back in and waited for it to slowly start up so I   
   could get back here again.   
   > I notice in File Explorer the drives listed are...   
   > (C:)   
   > Factory image (D:) (Which is probably a copy of Windows 7) (I did not clone   
   (D:) onto the new SSD.) It's on the old drive as a partition.   
   > DVD RW E:   
   > System (J:)  (J:) I had labeled as SSD (J:) before something changed it.   
   "This folder is empty" comes up when I click it.   
   > (K:) It shows the same list of files as when I click (C:). Why is that?   
   >   
   >   
   >   
      
   If you have the original disk handy, try this by itself.   
      
   Start Macrium, select   
      
       Backup : Backup Windows   
      
   at the top. I believe what this utilizes, is it starts with the letter C:   
   and it analyzes the critical items which are partners of C: at the moment.   
      
   On mine, doing this displays the following, where the fifth item certainly   
   has the GPT Attribute marking the partition as Critical, but if the program is   
   not going to be offering to backup Win10AMD, then there is no point in doing   
   the SystemReserved to the right of it.   
      
                                     A tag team of partitions        A tag team   
   of partitions   
                                    /------------------------\        
   /------------------------\   
       ESP      MicrosoftReserved   W11Home     SystemReserved      Win10AMD        
   SystemReserved    DATA1       DATA2   
       100MB    16MB                116.36GB    ~1GB or less        NOT TICKED      
   ~1GB or less      NOT TICKED  NOT TICKED   
      
       TICK     TICK                TICK        TICK                                
   TICK   
      
   This tells me, that it did a good job on the four on the left, and lassoing   
   the fifth one is   
   "conservative" and not really hurting anything particularly. Commands such as   
   this one,   
   the identifying of "critical items to help C: " does not extend to multiboot   
   disks and ensuring they   
   get copied. It is assumed by the various makers of these softwares, that   
   "multiboot users know   
   the importance of ticking the boxes for themselves" :-) The second tag team is   
   not essential   
   to my project, but in fact, it might be if I expected both OSes to work. You   
   proceed by analogy   
   when seeing the pattern above, and add ticks (like Win10AMD) as you feel   
   appropriate.   
      
   With the original hard drive in place, and booted off it, and using the   
   Macrium installed on that hard drive, you can carry out this test, and   
   see which tick boxes got ticked.   
      
   OK, having recorded your observations for later (snippingtool.exe can help   
   you),   
   when you go to use the Clone option instead, you can elect to tick the   
   critical partitions you discovered, while using that feature.   
      
   It is my suspicion, that your unnamed partitioning method (GPT or MBR),   
   it needed one more partition to be complete, and the X:\boot folder   
   (where X: is the drive letter I don't know at the moment) was critical   
   and you missed it. If the original boot drive was able to boot by itself,   
   then the critical materials must all be on that disk.   
      
   My suspicion is, your disk is MSDOS partitioned, and you missed the Active   
   partition   
   (boot flag set 0x80 like the old days). That's about the easiest explanation I   
   can   
   think of. With GPT you can miss a lot of stuff and it still boots, but it   
   might not   
   be entirely happy. You would not have got to the "underscore" in the upper   
   left corner,   
   if the ESP had been missing from the clone. It's unlikely this is a GPT.   
      
   If you are not telling us about the other five hard drives in the   
   computer, then that is naughty. People like to install Windows while   
   five hard drives are in the computer, and critical materials can end up   
   spanning more than one disk drive (ESP on drive 5, C: on drive 1). This causes   
   untold misery later.   
   This is why the cardinal rule of OS installation is:   
      
      Only have the single hard drive present, intended for the installation.   
      
   That is how we hope to keep all our critical stuff, on the one rotating   
   spindle.   
      
   I'm not saying at this point, that this is the mistake made. There are   
   a ton of guesses I could make.   
      
   Just try the experiment:   
      
       Original drive only inserted.   
       Boot from original drive.   
       If it boots, run Macrium, do Backup : Backup Windows.   
       Read out the tick boxes. Unnecessary Data partitions won't be ticked   
   (they're not marked Critical).   
       Now, look at your clone and see if the tick box partitions are all present.   
      
   It's possible you need a Boot Repair, but that's an entirely separate post.   
   You cannot Boot Repair something that is "missing critical stuff". That's   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)