11/23/20 – Strange USB Boot problem that I’m thinking is Windows oriented

Anonymous
2020-11-23T22:22:39+00:00

Something I’ve always done over the years is run weekly 100% mirror image bootable backup clones of the C-drive in my ThinkPad laptops…using spare USB cable connected SSD hard drives.  [ connect the drive, run ‘Acronis True Image’ cloning software that I use, done ]

From time to time I’d boot the laptop from a USB backup drive, always worked perfectly…but mostly I’d just make the weekly backups for peace of mind in case the C-drive should ever fail.

But discovered a pesky little problem as I’ve been setting up a new ThinkPad P52 to replace my older P51.  After I finished setting up the new P52 C-drive, I cloned it to a USB attached hard drive like I’ve done on the P51 a couple hundred times…and then just to be sure it worked, tried to boot the P52 back from the cloned USB attached drive.

Failed…blue screen error message: “Inaccessible Boot Device”.

TROUBLE SHOOTING SUMMARY SO FAR:

The P52 ThinkPad boots up normally / works perfectly from its internal C-drive.

All USB flash drives and/or USB cabled hard drives that I plug in all operate normally.

The P52 laptop sees them all, adds them to the list of other drives in the laptop (c, d, e, f, etc.).

I can read/ write to them business as usual, click open / look at content inside normally.

My cloning software works like always because I’ve taken cloned copies and physically installed them inside the laptop as the internal C-drive and the laptop comes right up normally / works perfectly, etc.  I simply cannot BOOT FROM a USB connected clone any longer.

I’ve spent hours over a few days Internet searching, trying this, trying that, no help.

I’ve tried different SSD hard drives, different cables, different USB ports, no help.

Ran a few check-disk kinds of scans and the SSD’s are rock solid as always.

Ensured all Lenovo ThinkPad updates are downloaded and installed.

Ensured all Windows updates are downloaded and installed.

Then started trying the approach of uninstalling Windows updates one at a time but it’s very time consuming and several of the "security related Win updates" wouldn’t let me uninstall them.

So I decided to go back and ensure everything sill worked OK on the original P51, and to my surprise it fails the same way.  Been quite a while since I actually did a USB Boot on the original P51 so I assume something must have changed during the past several months and I’m thinking the Win 10 Pro software is the common denominator.

Thought I’d check here with the Brain Trust and see if anyone might know of a specific Win 10 related finding / fix for this situation…thanks a lot in advance.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-28T03:54:37+00:00

    Wow, that's sounds encouraging...you have quite a high level of I/T knowledge & skill !

    It would be great if its as simple as 'setting a flag'...and also begs the question...why in the world didn't Windows offer that simple !

    Through all this work lately, I've come to realize that my latest copy of Acronis True Image is 2016, and I assumed that paying for it again every year it was being updated all the time...not so.

    So I just bought a new 2021 version in case it might offer more flexibility...waiting for it to arrive.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-11-28T03:15:45+00:00

    Hi,

    I tried the EaseUs program on that link, and believe it or not it works...

    It has two Clone features.. I'm not familiar enough with the difference, but one is specifically for Cloning Windows.. It has an "Advanced" feature with an option to make the External drive bootable as a "Portable" drive..

    It boots both from the USB connection and internally...

    I have had experiences with the term "Portable" before.. I think it was concerning flash drives though..

    My memory is that it somehow sets a flag which Windows recognizes as an acceptable boot drive..

    The flash drives were actually modified in their firmware.. I am not sure how EaseUs does it.. I am playing with that at the moment to try and figure out how it does it, and if it sets a flag, if the flag is maintained if another cloning program is used, or if it is a one time deal that needs to be done everytime..

    BTW.. Did you recently switch to True Image 2020 from an older version ?  I am now wondering if it may have reset some type of flag that was set by something else.. At the moment I am using a 2011 version of True Image to avoid anything that may have been changed in the 2020 version..

    I will let you know what else I may find..

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-11-28T02:51:09+00:00

    From everything I can tell, the P52 laptop has no such eSATA port, so looks like that approach won't get it done after all.

    A straight-forward plug & play using a docking converter sort of thing would certainly be easy enough to deal with...but in everything I've read about them, I couldn't get comfortable that the P52 laptop would still be able to "boot" a full cloned C-drive from an SSD.

    Had also found / read through that 'easeus' approach but couldn't get comfortable that it would boot a full blown clone of my C drive either.

    As an aside, for the life of me I can't understand why Lenovo and/or Microsoft do not provide what to me is an obvious beneficial capability...when after all, using USB "flash drives" to boot windows related capability is pretty common place.

    I've spent hours with a variety of Internet searches on the simple issue of being able to USB Boot a copy of the C-drive and so far, nada...I just shake my head.

    Anyway, as always, hats off to you for taking time to try and help...wish there was some way I could return the faor

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-11-28T01:59:25+00:00

    Hi,

    This company claims that their product has the ability to create a portable USB Windows drive..

    Something like that may work for you, but I don't know if it will make the drive unusable as a internal drive.. https://www.easeus.com/backup-recovery/make-external-hard-drive-bootable.html

    I may try it myself out of curiosity..

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-11-28T01:41:23+00:00

    Hi,

    It completely slipped my mind that this is a laptop... There is no way you will be able to boot Windows from a USB drive.. I was thinking you had a desktop and could run a external SATA connection, which is what I do..

    From what I could find, your machines do not have the needed eSATA connector.. Correct me if I am wrong..

    The only possibility that I can think of for you to be able to boot Windows from an external drive would be to use a dock with the laptop, and even then it may not be possible if the dock does not have a SATA connection of some type..

    Sorry if I got your hopes up for something that may not be possible..

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