I have cloned my C drive to SSD.

Via F12, I can select to boot up from the SSD. Works fine. Problem is, on restarting, it will boot up from the C drive.

In F2 or F12, cannot select the SSD as the default boot drive.

Hope some friends can help. Hate this Dell BIOS, not as friendly and useful as the rest.

Thanks.

What software are you using for cloning the image? Read somewhere via Google Search result recommend using Macrium Reflect. If I'm not mistaken there's some option to point the boot record to the SSD instead to the HDD

Used Minitool shadow maker. Think the cloning went ok as I can start up on the SSD. But it is not as default on SSD.

Before Win 10 (or 8?), it is a lot easier, just go to the BIOS and list the boot order. Now with UEFI, it is more complicated.

Maybe I have to remove the HD (it is still connected in my PC) so that there is only 1 OS for it to boot up.

Last time I try cloning my HDD to WD SSD using the WD Acronis and end up same as you. Too much headache and end up clean install the OS instead

have you tried this ?
https://winaero.com/blog/change-default-os-...ou%20are%20done.

That's the problem with cloning
I really don't understand all this hoopla is about when it comes to cloning
Installing Windows 10 is very fast, even more so when you're using SSD
And with that SSD, even installing the software afterwards will take no more than 1 hour

This is why I always tell people to do a clean install instead of cloning or dirty upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10

Many thanks. Will digest it and try.

Saw so many cloning to SSD with successful boot up in youtube.

Why this problem with me? Ha.

Dell bios has changed to a few systems/vendors from what I saw on the web in trying to fix this. Annoying. Been using Dell for 20+ years. Will change to a different brand in my next purchase.

There is always risk when it involves cloning
Just because it works for other users, it doesn't mean it'll work for you

Clean install on the other hand will always work perfectly

Thanks.

I hate reinstalling all the other programs, settings etc which I went through when my old dell failed and got a new dell. A clean OS will mean repeating that journey.

Used Macrium to clone. Because my SSD is smaller than the HD (but used GB in HD is smaller than the SSD), Macrium cloning was not as straight forward as Minitool (Minitool did everything by itself).

Managed to clone it.

But still could not boot using SSD as default.

Being an IT illiterate guy, afraid to make changes in BIOS as that can make a big mess later. Decided to take a chance, created a file in BIOS and selected that as default.

Bingo! It works!

There should be instructions for this BIOS change. IT guys know that but people like me have to try this and that. Finally!

Now another problem. Want to use the HD as data HD. Cannot delete/format it due to WIN OS files in there.

I have tried clearing the partitions, formating it etc using disk management, minitool partition. No luck.

Already deleted the window folder via changing the folder to window.old and then using disk cleanup to delete that folder. But there are other OS files in there eg pagefile.sys etc.

Appreciate help on how to format an OS drive into a non OS drive.

Thanks.

An update on formating my OS HD.

A friend in a forum suggested that I use Gparted (Linux) to delete the partitions and reformat it. Gparted is Linux based and can bypass Win security protocol in deleting the partitions, I think. Was getting the USB ready to download Gparted and linux live, I learnt about the pagefile.sys and how to deactivate it.

Tried deactivating pagefile on my HD (not on my SSD), deleted the pagefile.sys, reformatted the HD. Now the HD is my OS backup and data drive.

Finally. Ha.

I think so. But I may have to reinstall win10 later if I disabled the secure boot. Since win 8 (or win 10), MS has changed the bios.

Missing EFI partition on the SSD.

There's a step most web don't talk about. Before you clone, create a recovery drive, be it CD or USB. If you have cloned, boot into the old drive to create the recovery drive. If the old drive has been wiped or no longer working, create the recovery drive at someone else windows, preferably the same type of windows.

Boot into the recovery drive and fix the boot record. Depending on bios, uefi, MBR or gpt, the steps to fix the boot record differs.

Cloning same size hard disk usually has no problem. It's when the size is different, like 240 to 500, or 500 HDD to 480 ssd, that the boot record usually corrupts. Or when cloning, you resize or rearrange the partitions. Sometimes when you clone from HDD or sshd to ssd, the boot record also corrupts.