Windows 10 help cant merge c:\ partitions

trying to move my C:\ drive to a new SSD, tried easeus clone but pc wont boot from ssd after clone, used easybcd 2.3 to fix boot sector on ssd, didnt work, tried bcdboot C:\Windows /s E: in shell/admin said boot files copied, ssd will boot to a recovery screen with error cant load system32/winload.exe, starting to get annoyed, so after research on easeus seems clone doesn't work now it used to in the old days could clone c: and bam ya was good to go, ok so now with easeus ya have to use system clone to do this but my new ssd is a 960mb since it was a GOOD deal compared to 1TB one and easeus says target drive to small since my C: is a 1TB , so go into disk management and make a new partition with the windows since the used space on my c: is less than 960mb so made new partition, now back into easeus to system clone to ssd says needs to delete partition on new ssd and when say ok it shows new drive as having 2 partitions same as c: source now, I really don't want 2 partitions on the new drive since after going back to disk management I cant merge the 2 back into the 1 I had before on my original C:, even tried easeus free and when click merge you can click them both and it shows the new drive as 1 paritition like I want but the ok button is greyed out and the ! message up top says "system partition or boot partition can only be set as destination". The option to delete either partition on c: is greyed out also in easeus and also windows disk management. so does anyone know how to make my new ssd boot with the windows that it got on the initial clone I have tried everything I can think, and or also how can I merge my 2 partitions on c: back to one?