Windows startup failure after cloning to new SSD: SOLVED

Winclone
1

I am using Winclone 8.2 on my 2012 Macbook Pro, running Mojave 10.14.4 and Bootcamp with Windows 10 installed. I purchased a larger SSD to upgrade the storage space on my macbook for both macOS and Windows. I cannot get Windows to run on my new SSD despite following instructions from several posts here.

Steps so far:

  • First I cloned macOS to the new SSD with SuperDuper via USB.
  • I partitioned the new SSD (with more space for bootcamp than original SSD but same block size) using MS DOS formatting for the bootcamp partition.
  • I used Winclone to create an image, saved to my old SSD.
  • I restored the windows image to the new drive connected by USB.
  • I tested booting from USB - new macOS working fine, windows give inaccessible boot device error.
  • I following instructions here to inject drivers successfully.
  • On rebooting, got past the inaccessible boot device error but after the windows icon loads for a period of time then a black and white “Windows Boot Manager” screen shows “Windows failed to start…” suggesting inserting the windows install disc and repairing windows.
  • Decided to see if installing the new SSD into the macbook would make a difference (as I understanding booting from USB is not so simple for windows bootcamp) but same “Windows failed to start” error message persists. Also, Windows on the old drive booted from USB now gives the inaccesible boot device error.

I didn’t use sysprep because it’s all the same hardware except for the SSD.

Feeling quite defeated. Last time I upgraded my hard drive I had to reinstall windows from scratch so I really hoped Winclone would make the process easier! Any suggestions what I should try next?

Thanks

Simon

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UPDATE:
So having installed my new SSD into the macbook, I deleted the non-functioning windows partition and this time used the Boot Camp Assistant to make a new partition and install a new version of Windows 10. Once up and running, I returned to macOS and used Winclone to restore the old image of my bootcamp over this new partition. I had to disable SIP (which I didn’t need to do when I was restoring via USB). The restored bootcamp works perfectly!

So I am not sure whether the solution was using Winclone to restore to an internal hard drive (rather than one connected by USB), or whether using Boot Camp Assistant to “prepare” the partition made the difference. Can anyone explain?

Thanks

Simon

2

I would really appreciate some advice even though I fixed this so that I know for next time. Was the problem that I was trying to use Winclone with a hard drive connected by USB?

3

Booting from USB requires Windows to have the drivers and recognize the bus and device. This can be very variable. When booting from the internal drive, the hardware is all apple so apple provides the drivers and is known.

tim

4

does your USB drive work in Windows without any 3rd party tools or drivers? I installed Windows to different USB drives and it works OK