Migrate OS To SSD Troubleshooting

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Migrate OS to SSD is one of the most popular Paragon Software products that is also represented as a part of Hard Disk Manager and Drive copy. It rises popularity day to day because of flexibility and reliability that is highly recommended by users. As every computer has its own unique hardware and OS configuration, unfortunately problems could still appear. Most of such problems appears due to wrong settings that could be changed before migration to provide flawless process without future boot problems.

NOTE! It’s highly recommended to look through the product manual before starting migration.

What should be done before migration.

1) The OS should be scanned for possible errors and bad blocks that could corrupt migration process. In most cases, CHKDSK utility finds all problems and provides sufficient error fixing.

2) The target disk should be analyzed as far it is suitable for migration and fits all requirements.

The most common problem is migrating to different layout disk that effects on OS booting on target disk. There are two types of disk layouts – MBR and GPT – that have different partition tables and Windows boot configuration. If the OS was installed to MBR disk then it should be migrated to MBR disk (and same for GPT). Next picture describes how to find all necessary information and convert to suitable layout.

3) It is recommended to delete all partitions on the target disk leaving only unallocated space without any partitions. The most reliable way – deleting with diskpart. It is more radical but it ultimately erases all data.

Run Command Prompt as Administrator (right click on “Start” – “Command prompt (admin)”)
Type “diskpart” to run utility.
Type “list disk” and all available disks will appear.
Find your target SSD disk and remember its number in list.
Type “select disk * ” (type number of your disk instead of *). Type “list disk” to make sure you selected disk you need ( it will be marked with *)
Type “clean” to delete all on selected disk.
Type “convert gpt” or “convert mbr”

4) It would be useful to prepare recovery media in case of boot problems or some OS service errors. Most common are VSS service errors – it also appears due to disk bad blocks or some service wrong settings.

5) If you’re attempting to migrate a system with a third-party boot loader (e.g. Linux-based). As a result, Windows OS will be migrated, but with reset to the default Windows-based boot loader.

6) If your Windows boot files are located on one hard disk, while OS on another, as result, boot files are not transferred to the target SSD.

7) If you’re attempting to migrate a multiboot system (two or more OSes). As a result, only one system will be migrated to the target SSD.

8) Sometimes vendor’s recovery programs have some problems after migration. It depends on restore algorithms of recovery partition. Its association with disk\ID of partitions\changing location of partition could cause problems with factory restoring after migration.

What should be done setting the migration:

9) If the “Users” folder is not located on C:\ or you have excluded it from the migration process. As a result, Windows OS does not start up on the target SSD.

NOTE! It is strongly recommended not to exclude system folders that could effect on OS configuration!

10) Migration to MBR modifies boot parameters automatically but migrating to GPT it is required to additionally mark “create new EFI boot entry” proceeding the migration setting. This operation modifies EFI boot parameters to make target disk bootable.

What should be done after the migration.

11) First off all it’s required to check if the migrated OS is bootable and migration succeed.

If you change source disk with target manually switching between, it’s recommended to connect target disk to the same SATA port as source was connected to. It’s always has great importance for GPT disks.

In addition, to have bootable OS on target disk it must be connected via SATA or IDE. The SSD\HDD could be connected via USB (also, it is recommended to use USB 2.0. because sometimes there could be some problems with USB 3.0. detecting in Bluescreen) while migration process but before booting to Windows it should be switched to SATA\IDE.

NOTE! There is no technical possibility to boot OS from device connected via USB.

Turn on or restart your computer and watch for a message during the POST (before booting OS) about a particular key, usually Del or F2, which you’ll need to press to enter SETUP. Press this key as soon as you see the message.

Then we need to change boot order to set target SSD as disk that OS should boot to. Navigating to Boot Options set your target disk as first in boot order. Save changes with F10 default and check if it’s possible to boot OS.

The most reliable way to find out if target disk is bootable is manually disconnecting source one leaving only target connected to computer.

12) Sometimes there could appear some problems booting to target disk. We already have reliable tools to correct any problems that may occur with already prepared recovery media (point 4). Booting with recovery media we have Boot corrector Wizard. The most useful are next:

Correct EFI parameters makes available to specify the required bootable device in the EFI boot entry if it wasn’t performed setting migrations previously (point 10)
Correcting the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) to automatically correct the BCD of a Windows 2000+ system in case of corruption.

NOTE! Before performing any operations, it is recommended to contact technical support team. Also it would be very helpful for support engineer if log files and screenshots will be attached to support request as well as detailed description of the problem.

13) If you’re encountering “Bad parameter or function” error that prevents completing the migration it is probably caused by VSS warning, event ID: 12348

It can be fixed as described there:

Event ID 12348 — Volume Shadow Copy Service Operations

Migrate OS to SSD
Tags: howto, issue, migration, windows