Two Separate Drives and Win11 OS

[Friendly]

Let me give a brief summary.

If the Win11 partition is copied (BIU copy) to Free Space on a large SSD the copy boots normally. No problems.

If a small SSD is used the Win11 partition has to be resized smaller so the copy can fit in the small SSD. A BIU copy is performed and the copy boots normally only 2 or 3 times. Then a repair is requested on each further attempt. Copied Win11 no longer successfully loads.

This happens on two computers.

Fast startup is disabled on both drives.

Exactly to conform your summary.

[Friendly]

I could install Win11 on my 256GB Samsung SSD, then just copy everything over to my larger Samsung 512GB 860 and call it a day. That would work, but the problem causing the issue still wouldn’t be fixed, so I’d rather keep trying until it is.

[TeraByte Support]

Let me give a brief summary.

If the Win11 partition is copied (BIU copy) to Free Space on a large SSD the copy boots normally. No problems.

If a small SSD is used the Win11 partition has to be resized smaller so the copy can fit in the small SSD. A BIU copy is performed and the copy boots normally only 2 or 3 times. Then a repair is requested on each further attempt. Copied Win11 no longer successfully loads.

This happens on two computers.

Fast startup is disabled on both drives.

So you're resizing the source partition before the copy then copying with BIU with the add to boot menu option? Then after a couple of boots repair comes up but the main continues to work? Validate byte-for-byte used?

Reproducible by Friendly and Brian K.?

Chkdsk /f used after the copy?

What is the BSOD? (Disable automatic repair).

Does it do it if copied using the Imaging options and manually creating a boot item?

[Friendly]

Let me give a brief summary.

If the Win11 partition is copied (BIU copy) to Free Space on a large SSD the copy boots normally. No problems.

If a small SSD is used the Win11 partition has to be resized smaller so the copy can fit in the small SSD. A BIU copy is performed and the copy boots normally only 2 or 3 times. Then a repair is requested on each further attempt. Copied Win11 no longer successfully loads.

This happens on two computers.

Fast startup is disabled on both drives.

So you're resizing the source partition before the copy then copying with BIU with the add to boot menu option? Then after a couple of boots repair comes up but the main continues to work? Validate byte-for-byte used?

Reproducible by Friendly and Brian K.?

Chkdsk /f used after the copy?

What is the BSOD? (Disable automatic repair).

Does it do it if copied using the Imaging options and manually creating a boot item?

Yes, I resize the source OS partition before copying it, but after a reboot or two, Windows prompts for repair.

Brian says it works for him fine, but I haven’t had any luck despite so many tries. If that is of importance, I’ll need to disable automatic Windows repair when I get home and check the exact BSOD message.

If I copy the OS partition to a same size or larger drive, it works great, so the issue seems tied to resizing.
I’m not sure if Brian shared a manual boot creation guide, although, he has provided me with a ton of very useful steps and instruction, but after all the back and forth, I’ve either forgotten or missed it, and right now I'm not sure know how to do it step by step boot item creation.

Resizing the source would be ideal, rather than using a larger destination drive, but it seems impossible without causing something to break and create the problem.

[Brian K]

Friendly, when you get home put the BIU copy method on hold for a short time until you have tried the restore method on page #10. Make sure you delete the Copy boot item if it's present and delete any Win11 copy if it's present. Before starting.
A partition resize of Win11 0n the 8100 is not used.

More detailed instructions for fixboot.tbs are on page #16. Make a note of the Microsoft.### created as it will be used in the Boot Item.
More detailed instructions for creating a Boot Item are on page #18.

This method should work.

Any questions before you start?

[Brian K]

Reproducible by Friendly and Brian K.?

Not by me. BIU copy has always worked perfectly.

[Friendly]

I’ll be home in about 3–4 hours.
My question is, when should BootIt media be used and when should it be installed, and does the order matter?
As simple as this sounds, I’m ready to follow detailed step-by-step instructions so there’s no room for excuses

[Brian K]

Friendly,

Either. You can install BIU to a blank, empty drive or you can install BIU after the OS has been installed. Both results are fine.
You already have BIU Installed. That's fine.
Just out of interest, why don't you boot your BIU flash drive and select Reinstall BootIt. Then you know it's the latest refresh. I assume you have version 2.10 anyway.

[Friendly]

I have reinstalled few times upon option while I boot it from media. I was just curious if there is any specific way of doing it. I guess I remember you've mentioned in one of your posts

If it was my computer I'd uninstall BIU and use the BIU boot media to delete each partition on the 860 SSD except for the 16 MiB MSR. Restart and install BIU

Since this is the first time I'm actually using BootIt to this extend I wasn't sure and as I said I don't want to make excuses, so taking it step by step is my goal to follow
Yes, I have the latest version 2.10.

[Brian K]

Ok. It was just a thought. If you have reinstalled a few times recently, that's enough.