I migrated an existing Windows 10 Enterprise installation from a 1 TB SATA HDD (MBR/Legacy BIOS) to a 250 GB NVMe SSD (GPT/UEFI) using Macrium Reflect X.
System configuration:
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Laptop: Acer Aspire E5-575G
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Original drive: 1 TB SATA HDD, MBR, Legacy boot
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New drive: 250 GB Intenso NVMe SSD, GPT, UEFI boot
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OS: Windows 10 Enterprise
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Cloning software: Macrium Reflect X Home 10.0
What I did:
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Created a 200 MB EFI System Partition and a 128 MB Microsoft Reserved Partition on the SSD.
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Cloned the original Windows C: partition from the HDD to the SSD and expanded it to use the remaining space.
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Macrium reported that the clone completed successfully.
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Used Macrium’s “Fix Windows Boot Problems” tool to configure UEFI boot on the SSD.
The problem:
After booting from the SSD, Windows displayed a completely black screen with a movable mouse cursor and a spinning loading indicator. The login screen never appeared, even after waiting several hours.
The same issue occurred:
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With the original HDD disconnected
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After rebooting several times
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In Safe Mode
Troubleshooting results:
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UEFI boot configuration and Windows Boot Loader were verified.
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CHKDSK found no file-system errors.
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DISM /ScanHealth reported no component-store corruption.
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Offline SFC could not complete its scan.
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Resetting the old C: drive-letter entry alone did not resolve the issue.
The cloned Windows installation’s Application event log showed repeated crashes of:
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LogonUI.exe -
dwm.exe
Both reported KERNELBASE.dll as the faulting module with exception code 0x8000FFFF.
The original Windows installation on the HDD still booted normally.
Question:
What can cause Windows to reach a black screen with a cursor after cloning an MBR/Legacy installation to a GPT/UEFI NVMe SSD, even when the boot configuration is correct?
How can this be fixed without reinstalling Windows or losing installed applications and settings?
