Laptop won't boot after SSD upgrade

So I installed an SSD on my laptop and I couldn't boot from it, nor another boot source ... It just shows a black screen with a small white cursor (fixed not jumping) while SSD installed....

What I tried with no luck:

• formatted the SSD to NTFS
• tried flashing windows and Ubuntu to a flash drive (with both options GPT & MBR; one each time)
• cloned my HDD to the SSD (witch is working properly when I put it back)
• disabled/enabled legacy mode on BIOS
• changed boot order for both if the main list and secondary

nb:

• the SSD works properly when tested with an external case
• the SSD in, everything freezes, except bios menu
• nothing inserted (nor HDD or SSD) booting working perfectly if I insert flash drive or DVD

What's the problem? 😅 Am I missing something?

PC: Asus K551LB SSD: Fujitsu F500s 512GB System: my fully functional HDD have Windows 10/Deepin dual boot

And I am trying both of them via flash drive (trying to boot with them)

1 Answer

If Windows was installed in UEFI, non-CSM mode, with Secure Boot enabled, you must ensure those same options are set (UEFI with Secure Boot enabled, Legacy Boot disabled).

Once that's done:

1. Boot a Windows Setup USB, as the WinRE partition on the disk likely won't boot since you cloned it, versus properly setting it up with the tools Windows natively provides to image a drive.
   1. Once the GUI Welcome window loads, press SHIFT+F10 to open a terminal
   2. Issue the following commands:
      1. bootrec /fixmbr
      2. bootrec /fixboot
         • This will likely fail, as the EFI boot partition is not accessible to users to protect it from malware or modification.
      3. bootrec /rebuildbcd
         • You will be asked to add a Windows install if one is found, please do so. If none are found, that's okay too.
2. Reboot by closing the GUI setup Welcome window

3. If Windows still does not boot, you will need to back up the C:\ partition on the cloned drive, unless you still have the original drive you cloned from, then:
   1. Boot to Windows Setup and open a terminal as in 1.1
   2. Issue the following commands:
      1. diskpart
      2. lis dis
      3. sel dis X
         • Where X is the # of the SSD
      4. clean
      5. convert gpt
      6. cre par efi size=100 offset=1024
      7. format quick fs=fat32 label=EFI
      8. cre par msr size=16
      9. cre par pri size=665 id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
         • WinRE partition must have 320MB free (WinRE.wim is ~300MB in size)
      10. gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
      11. If wanting:
          1. Rest of the disk as the system partition:
             1. cre par pri id=ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
             2. format fs=ntfs quick label=System
          2. To create additional partitions after the System partition
             1. cre par pri size=256000 id=ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
                • Creates a 250GB System partition, with the maximum size required being ~300GB if storing User Data directories on a partition other than C:\
                  (i.e %UserProfile%\Documents, %UserProfile%\Downloads, etc.)
                  which is recommended
                • Multiply the size you want by 1024 (i.e. 250*1024=256000)
             2. format fs=ntfs quick label=System
   3. Close terminal and proceed through Windows setup
   4. Select the 4th partition you created to install Windows to (partition from 3.2.11)
   5. Once setup reaches the "Installing Features" step, cancel the install
      • Setup can likely be canceled sooner, however, I'm not sure at which point it configures the EFI partition with the boot files, which is the only reason you're utilizing Windows Setup, since the EFI partition cannot be set up manually by the user on Windows 10.
   6. Properly Capture and Apply the System partition from the previous disk, utilizing the commands in this answer under Commands: Windows >=8, changing /Compress:Max to /Compress:Fast if you're not saving the captured image to an SSD.
      • Before applying the WIM of the system partition to the SSD, format the System partition on the SSD (partition #4 from above): format fs=ntfs quick label=System