I’m trying to migrate an existing Windows 10 installation from a 2.5” SATA SSD (an old install originally created on a different PC, cloned multiple times over the years, MBR/Legacy) to a 1TB NVMe drive on a Dell OptiPlex (5055 series).
The goal is to keep the same Windows installation (apps/settings) and boot from NVMe.
Hardware / context
- Source: 2.5” SATA SSD with Windows 10 (MBR/Legacy).
- Target: NVMe 1TB (953GB).
- Machine: Dell OptiPlex, UEFI available in BIOS.
- The original SATA drive is known to work (tested on other PCs). The issue is booting the cloned system from NVMe on this machine.
What I have tried (multiple times with different tools)
Cloning
- Clonezilla Live (device-to-device).
- Hiren’s Boot / WinPE: repeated clone/copy attempts using several tools available there (e.g., AOMEI, EaseUS Partition Master, DiskGenius, etc.).
In general: multiple re-clones from scratch.
UEFI / Boot
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Manually created a 300MB FAT32 EFI System Partition on the NVMe and assigned a drive letter.
-
Rebuilt/repaired UEFI boot multiple times:
bcdboot ... /s S: /f UEFI -
Inspected/edited BCD with bcdedit
-
Also tried enabling Safe Mode via BCD (safeboot) and then removing it.
-
Added a boot entry manually in BIOS (Add Boot Option) pointing to EFIMicrosoftBootbootmgfw.efi.
-
Tried several BIOS combinations:
-
UEFI vs Legacy (when available)
-
Secure Boot ON/OFF
-
SATA Operation AHCI vs RAID (with RAID the behavior/error may change, but it still won’t boot).
Offline repairs
- chkdsk /f multiple times.
- Offline sfc /scannow.
- Offline DISM restore using the Windows USB install.esd as source (RestoreHealth completed successfully).
- revertpendingactions.
Current result
BIOS now shows Windows Boot Manager for the NVMe and the UEFI/BCD configuration looks consistent (points to winload.efi).
However, booting via Windows Boot Manager always hangs at the Dell logo with spinning dots and never reaches the login screen.
Question
After multiple re-clones, UEFI/BCD rebuilds, and offline repairs, what is the recommended “standard” troubleshooting approach to diagnose and fix a boot hang after migrating an installation to different hardware (SATA to NVMe) without doing a full clean reinstall? Specifically:
- How to diagnose what causes the hang when reliable boot logs are not being produced,
- Whether offline storage/chipset driver injection/enabling is the right next step (and how),
- Whether there is a recommended procedure (sysprep / repair install / redeploy) to make the installation more hardware-agnostic.
