[SOLVED] Several issues with cloning & booting Win10

[crashdummyplus]

Hi, I ran into some problems cloning a Windows 10 partition to an additionally recently installed new NVMe M.2 drive in a free slot on a relatively new DELL Precision 7760 from 2021. I am no BI expert user but i used BIBM for MBR disks over then 10 years now and I am used to Bootit in general. However, I try to hold the big story short...

The original Dell settings :
Just one NVMe M.2 PCIe 3.0 drive with the preinstalled Windows 10 on GPT disk format...
containing following partitions: EFI sytem, Microsoft Reserved, Basic Data (OS partition), WINRETOOLS partition and a DELL Support partition.
BIOS: UEFI BIOS, RAID ON, SecureBoot enabled

I want to use this Laptop for my business and therefor I need to boot multiple Win10/Win11 Partitions with different Software/Applications installed.
So I decided to buy the BI Collection and use the BIU for cloning & booting those Win10 OS's in this UEFI system.
Another reason to clone the OS was the slower speed of NVMe M.2 PCIe 3.0 (Gen3) drive on which Windows was installed and this Dell Laptop was shipped. The Interface supports NVMe PCIe 4.0, so i decided to buy a NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen4 (x4, 2280) and put the original M.2 into the first one of those 3 free additional slots, which only supports PCIe Gen3 up to 1TB per slot, to have more speed in reading and writing for my multi OS config.

The Installation of BIU 1.33 was successful. BIU installed itself to the current EFI directory and is managing the boot files.

My Tasks and Issues:

1. After BIU installation I tried to follow the instruction in the Warning (BI Install Guide) to disable FastBoot in the OS drive's properties in Partiton Work. Unfortunately there was no button to disable the Windows FastBoot option. There was only the button "Details", i pushed it and it said "Unable to mount file system" or something like that. In the partition properties window it says "Bootable: BitLocker". I searched this forum and found out that i have to disable BitLocker in Windows for this drive. The Windows 10 partition starts normally out of the BI's Boot menu. No problems/errors occurred. Then in the Bitlocker configuration in Windows it said that Bitlocker is deactivated for this drive (hmmm). Then i found a workaorund to disable FastBoot for this OS in the Windows power settings. The system boots with no problems after this.
2. The next thing i did was to copy the Win10 partition to the new NVMe. I just copied the OS partition, but not the other partitions like "Microsoft Reserved" or WinRE partiton, with the option to add it in Boot menu. After copying it to the drive i tried to boot the clone. It boots but on loading, the Windows User Login screen starts to flicker and it hangs there. The Windows Task bar is sometimes displayed for a second before it disappears again... blackscreen. Back in BIU I checked everything according to the properties of the source OS.
3. In BIOS I also switched from RAID ON to AHCI mode to see if that solves the problem. I didnt really understand why Dell activates this option, but there was no RAID configured of course. I used the method with the Windows command line :

   Code: Select all

   bcdedit/set safeboot minimal

   then restarting and remove it again with :

   Code: Select all

   bcdedit/deletevalue safeboot

   It worked, i didnt have to reinstall Windows 10 after changing to AHCI. Windows boots normal.
   Once again I copied "the still working" original Win10 partition to the new drive. Same problem... it loads basically, but on Login screen it hangs.
   After that i deactivated "Secure Boot" in BIOS just to make sure its not the issue... but same problem.
4. Another problem i encountered was the BCD edit in BIU partition work. If clicking on the button it says "No BCD store"... so i m not able to deactivate Windows Recovery and change the partition paths like in BIBM on a MBR system, if u decide to disable Recovery and copy the \boot directory to Windows root dir and update the link path. Therefor you are not forced to keep any of the additional partitions and just have one bootable Windows10 OS partition which can be copied/cloned for further purposes.

Would could it be? I mean if the Windows 10 "clone" basically boots to that point, where is the problem then...
I am relatively new to UEFI and its configs. I appreciate any help. And sorry for my english

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

If you have IFW installed in Windows you can also use TBI Notify to disable Fast Startup.

Are you sure BitLocker is turned off? Does it still show BitLocker for the partition? If it's Windows Home, then you would need to turn off Device Encryption in Settings (it's not normal BitLocker). If Windows Pro then should be able to tell easily in BitLocker Settings if it's turned off (decrypted).

How are you copying the Windows partition (BIU partition copy, IFU, etc.)? What options are you selecting? Is your boot menu item configured correctly (correct booting file, correct Windows partition, etc.)?

When trying to edit the BCD Store, are you selecting the EFI System partition? This should be the same partition where BIU is installed.

Regarding deactivating Windows Recovery and move the booting files to the Windows partition, that is not supported on GPT disks. All the booting files must be on the EFI System partition. The following KB article has some examples of standard GPT disk layouts for Windows:
https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/kb ... gpt-disks/

[crashdummyplus]

Hello Paul, thank you for your help!
I have following answers to your questions...

If you have IFW installed in Windows you can also use TBI Notify to disable Fast Startup.

I probably don't want to use Image for Windows because i don't care about Windows malfunctions or corrupted OS data. I just want to have a "fresh" Win10 OS (plus Office and other standard apps) in stock in case something went wrong on this partition and it gets deleted in this case. I want to keep sensible data on mirrored Raid1 drives (I still have to evaluate this on my new Laptop). It would be too much effort for me imaging several partitions regulary. In the past I didn't have any "total" breakdowns with Win7/10. I keep my computers very isloated in customer networks or internet and have of course an AV and firewall on all OS.

Are you sure BitLocker is turned off? Does it still show BitLocker for the partition? If it's Windows Home, then you would need to turn off Device Encryption in Settings (it's not normal BitLocker). If Windows Pro then should be able to tell easily in BitLocker Settings if it's turned off (decrypted).

Yes i m sure as Windows tells me...

It's Win10 Pro and BIU tells me this...

...and no flags are set on this OS partition.

How are you copying the Windows partition (BIU partition copy, IFU, etc.)? What options are you selecting? Is your boot menu item configured correctly (correct booting file, correct Windows partition, etc.)?

I m copying with Partition Work in BIU. Partition actions "Copy" and then on the new GPT drive "Paste". Yes, BIU has created a new Boot item and EFI directory for this copy and afterwards I am able to boot this copy of Win10, i just replaced the drive to another slot, to have the one PCIe Gen4 slot free for my new M.2 PCIe 4.0 which supports it (the original Dell dirve is only PCIe 3.0 and much slower) and is the target destination.

When trying to edit the BCD Store, are you selecting the EFI System partition? This should be the same partition where BIU is installed.

OK I see, like in BIBM i tried it on the OS partition. Yes I can see now the the correct BCD store on the selected EFI boot item "\EFI\Microsoft.001\boot\.." and i can access the BCD menu from there.

Regarding deactivating Windows Recovery and move the booting files to the Windows partition, that is not supported on GPT disks. All the booting files must be on the EFI System partition. The following KB article has some examples of standard GPT disk layouts for Windows:
https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/kb ... gpt-disks/

I understand, so i have to create also a ESP partition and a "Microsoft Reserved" partition?
Does this mean i can have only one bootable Win10 clone on each drive and if not, do i need a MSR for each Win10 clone i want to boot?
Is there a Tutorial for creating the needed partitions for the OS clone?
I also want to upgrade a Win10 clone to Win11 so having multi OS on this drive, i guess this is not possible on GPT?

Best regards
Rainer

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

For the BitLocker issue, can you verify that IFU doesn't show "BitLocker" for the partition? Windows Disk Management should also show if it's encrypted. Also, when you check the partition details in Partition Work and IFU, does it show used space (it will not be able to determine this if encrypted)? I think it may still be encrypted when it shows that message (encrypted, but suspended). If it is, then you should be able to turn it off by running "manage-bde c: -off" from an administrator command prompt when booted to it. If it is encrypted, there's no point trying to figure out any of the other issues because things are not going to work correctly since the data can't be accessed normally.

You do not need to create an EFI System partition or Microsoft Reserved partition for the other Windows. All the booting files will be on the single EFI System partition and there is only one Microsoft Reserved partition per disk and it's handled automatically.

[crashdummyplus]

Yes you are right... it was encrypted by Bitlocker. I applicated ur command in cmd and now the Windows Disk Management tool shows only NTFS without the addition "Bitlocker encrypted". I cant belive it... what a sh*t show from Microsoft and/or Dell is this?

OK the partition is now decrypted.
I made a copy to the new drive and had a look into BCD store. Alot of things are pointing to the WinRE and DELLSUPPORT partitions of the other drive. Should i change there anything?

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

Many systems come configured that way now. It can certainly cause issues if not known or expected.

I wouldn't worry about those things in the BCD for now. However, depending on how you want the system configured, you might have a WinRE partition for each Windows or maybe just one (or only configured for one). Personally, I prefer to have WinRE available. Also, expect Windows updates/upgrades to sometimes make WinRE changes (resize and add partitions, etc.) regardless of whether or not one already exists.

[Brian K]

. what a sh*t show from Microsoft and/or Dell is this?

Dell did it...

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-a ... ll-systems

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-a ... te-the-key

[crashdummyplus]

Thank you Gentlemen for the clarification.

@Paul
I am thinking about to upgrade the recently made Win10 clone at first. So if Win11 upgrade is changing much in those partitions on the original drive, i think its better to deactivate the original drive in Bios (just to be sure nothing gets changed from Win11 upgrade there) and use the Windows Repair tool to create those ESP,MSR and WinRE partitions on the new drive and update the paths in BCD before the upgrade happens. I made a Windows Recovery USB Drive of the original Win10 partition before i installed BIU. I will keep another Win10 clone on this drive, which BCD refers to the original drive and see if it works that way for my multi OS config.