Windows 10 Windows 10 boot loader problems

[Cka1799]

So I have a Windows 10 partition I want to save and migrate to an m.2 ssd. This is sort of a play build so I've had 4 operating systems on the dive at various times, 2 windows and 2 Linux. I've been able to remove the Linux systems and restore the boot but when I try to remove the the windows 8 system it has all the boot loader info and wont. I've cloned the drive to play with it and I was able to convert it from MBR to GPT and that allowed me to delete the windows 8 partition. I've used clonezilla and windows to create system images. I can get the clonezilla image to restore and all the data is there but the drive won't boot. Trying system image repair from a windows 10 usb or windows 8 dvd both fail. says it can't mount the drive, I've made sure the disk is set as the system disk and I've set it as #1 in bbs in bios setting. (bbs might not be the correct abbreviation) Right now I'm in my MBR drive and using bcdboot c:\windows /s c: fails. When look at the Disk-management image you can disregard disk 1. I'm just playing music off that drive atm.
Disk 0 is the target drive and as you can see windows 8 is at the beginning of the hard I am only concerned about partition C: and want to save it.
Disk 2 is the clone of Disk 0 it has been converted to GPT I've been taking all my images from the GPT clone mainly because I need to get the drive under 500gb for a SSD.

My goal is to clean up the drive and put Windows 10 and the begining and remove everything else

 

[Cka1799]

I'm going to try a system image for both the windows 8 and windows 10 if it works I can convert it to GPT and then remove the windows 8 later... Hmm will have update in .... 7 hours haha

In the mean time if anyone has suggestions or can tell me why the GPT image wont restore in windows that would be great. I originally started a windows 10 install to get the correct layout and they proceed to restore the image. Windows restore could not restore when the drive was blank or if I had the clonezilla image restored. Seems like it should work. I feel like I'm missing something that should be obvious.

 

[Neemobeer]

My personal view would be to back up your data and just clean install Windows 10 rather than try and sort out that mess of partitions. You would have been done in an hour.

 

[Cka1799]

My personal view would be to back up your data and just clean install Windows 10 rather than try and sort out that mess of partitions. You would have been done in an hour.

Yeah I know it's a mess. But that windows 10 system has several thousands of dollars in programs from school I'd like to keep. All the programs were stored on an external that was only used for backups. Felt pretty safe until my dog was a little to happy to great me and pulled the drive off my desk. Thus it's dead. Didn't look much data but the programs and all of the install info was on the external.

I'm trying to defrag with better software now. If I can get the 2 systems small enough to fit on a 500G drive I can work it out. GPT and grub can handle the crazy layout and once it's on SSD the 1T drives will be storage and backups.

Is there a way to transfer the programs to a new working drive.. if so I will scrap this plan and just clean install. Mainly need to save rhino and Adobe programs.

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[Neemobeer]

It's possible sure, but that would also be a lot of work.

 

[patcooke]

Why not:

1. Wipe the drive to clean things up.
2. Run a clean install of Windows 10 to set up a clean Win 10 infrasructure.
3. Use an image of the Windows 10 partition for the original drive (without any system partitions) to run a restore to drive C of your newly installed Windows 10.

 

[Cka1799]

Why not:

1. Wipe the drive to clean things up.
2. Run a clean install of Windows 10 to set up a clean Win 10 infrasructure.
3. Use an image of the Windows 10 partition for the original drive (without any system partitions) to run a restore to drive C of your newly installed Windows 10.

That might be a possibility. If I run an image from the
GPT drive. I know the mbr drive will force me to copy both the win8 and 10 systems even if I've removed win 8 from the boot. I can't delete the win8 partition on the mbr drive, I think because it stores the mbr. I also can't shrink the 2 systems enough to put them on a 500g hard drive.

I will try to restore the image to a clean install. Only problem I've had is windows can't seem to start the restore process with that image. I did let the windows 10 install start the install to get a drive layout, maybe I should have let it finish the full windows 10 install.

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[patcooke]

With something like Macrium Reflect you could back up individual Win 10 partition to restore to a newly created Windows 10 install.

 

[Cka1799]

With something like Macrium Reflect you could back up individual Win 10 partition to restore to a newly created Windows 10 install.

Thanks, Macrium Reflect worked first try. My system booted. It took a little longer than normal and I'm going to need extend C: to the left partition, but it's a good start. I'm hoping Macrium can do it, but there are a few other programs I've read about if not.



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[Cka1799]

With something like Macrium Reflect you could back up individual Win 10 partition to restore to a newly created Windows 10 install.

After my success with Macirum I started looking for ways to move the partitions around. I was able to use AOMEI partition assistant to move my windows 10 to the beginning of the hard drive. This fixed the speed issue on the 7200rpm HD and now I have my windows system on my SSD.

Just a note for anyone needed to do something similar in the future.
- convert the drive to GPT (if you have a Linux system you should remove it before converting)
- remove the windows systems you don't need
- move everything to the beginning of the drive with AOMIE partition assistant
- Image drive and restore to new disk with Macirum Reflect

I couldn't get windows image recovery to work. After using Macirum Reflect and AOMIE partition assistant everything went smooth. I was able to isolate a 300+G windows system and put it on my 240G SSD for testing. I will test the system for awhile and make sure everything is running smooth but so far no problems.

I've attached an image from disk management to show how much I was able to change my windows system. I will merge the unallocated space. Pretty amazing this started out as a 1T HD with 4 systems and numerous partitions.

Thanks for getting me pointed in the right direction. Much appreciated.

 

[patcooke]

And thank you for the feedback and information which I'm sure any will find useful.