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Post by risman on Sept 7, 2019 11:23:26 GMT -5
I’ve removed the 1 TB SSD from a laptop that was running latest version of Windows 10 64-bit. I thought I’d be able to boot from it onto my PC (running same version of Windows) so that I could copy apps from it to a new laptop, but it won’t boot on my PC, although I changed the boot order to start with it. It’s formatted as NTFS, and I read somewhere that some USBs can’t be booted unless they’re formatted as FAT32. I obviously can’t reformat the SSD as I’d lose all its data. Is there some other solution?
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drcard
Software Review Panel
Posts: 580 
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Post by drcard on Sept 9, 2019 15:39:02 GMT -5
Hi risman, Taking a HDD from one PC and trying to use that HDD to boot another PC doesn't work for many reasons. You are partially correct about difficulty booting from a USB drive. I'll try to explain. When Windows installs on a PC it selects drivers that will allow Windows to communicate with the hardware on that PC. The drivers selected and Paths to those driver files is recorded in a file called the boot file. Thus, each time you boot that PC, windows loads the drivers it needs from settings in that file. Those settings won't work for the different hardware in another PC. Windows has to be installed on the PC that you want to use it on. Even in a dual boot situations both versions of Windows must be installed on the PC. Booting from a USB drive adds another roadblock in the boot process. Windows is designed to boot up from a fixed internal HDD due to the permanent location of the take over boot file on the HDD. With non-fixed (detachable) drives the location of the take over file changes. In order for Windows to boot from a non-fixed drive (external HDD or DVD) Windows must believe it accessing the take over file at that permanent location on that drive. This is accomplished by writing an ISO file for the detachable drive to handle the boot process. Writing an ISO file to a detachable drive will reformat the drive and you would lose the data that was on that drive. A bootable USB drive must be made bootable BEFORE Windows is installed on the drive and before data files are added to the drive. BTW: you can't "copy apps" from one PC to another. The apps won't work. Apps must be installed on the PC to work. What you want to do is called migration. There is software that will transfer data, programs, user profiles, etc. as you desire. The really good ones will cost about $50. Zinstall offers to perform the transfer for you with their trained technicians, but that service costs $199. I can't endorse one transfer software over another since I haven't used any of them myself. Google "Windows Migration Software" and check some out. Be sure to research the reviews and their support forums to help decide what's best for you. |
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