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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.
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…and then just to be sure it worked, tried to boot the P52 back from the cloned USB attached drive. Failed…
You don't boot the computer from the USB-attached drive.
You boot the computer from Acronis' recovery drive; and in the Acronis recovery drive, you select the image you want to restore.
Hi,
I do not think this is a Windows 10 issue as my Widows 7 would not boot either..
Most of the articles you mentioned were concerning internal drives, not USB, so how much they apply is questionable..
I do know that there were changes made with either Windows 8 or 10 in regards to booting from flash drives under certain circumstances which I do not clearly remember.. It had to do with Windows in some fashion though... It had to do with a internal coding in the flash drives chipset and how Windows identified it..
With the normal coding the flash drive was detected as a "Removable" drive... For a period of time some manufacturer's were producing flash drives that were coded in such way that Windows recognized them as a "Local" drive, or something like that... Those were bootable..
It may be that there is something like that going on in the SATA to USB chip in your enclosure\dock, but because this is happening in Windows 7 as well... at least on my machine... There may be something else going on as this change in the coding stuff didn't apply to Windows I do not think..
I will play with this some more as it has me curious.. Are you still using the same enclosures\docks for your SSDs as before ?
Thanks a lot for going to the trouble...I appreciate it
My current P51 always cloned to a USB connected SSD, and afterwards would also boot from that USB connected SSD drive.
But working with the current new P52 Thinkpad I found it would not USB boot...then going back to my P51, found that it would no longer USB boot.
So something changed and with the large amount Internet listings about Windows software updates causing the problems...was hoping to find someone who might know that "update # 123456789" caused it for me", etc.
I'll also now start looking to the SATA chipset situation...one of the most common Internet complaints about Windows updates is that they often cause problems due to their impact to things like drivers and the chipset situation might be one of them.
In the interim, at least with the Acronis cloning copy continuing to work as it always has, if the C-drive should ever crash its only a few minute job to physically replace it.
Thanks again...
FYI...this is just one example of of Windows software changes (not Lenovo) causing Inaccessible Boot Device errors...many more on the Internet.
Hi,
Here is what I found out.. My TrueImage does in fact Clone. It turns out to be far to slow to deal with at the moment so I used pre-existing images I had saved.. I tried both Windows 10 and Windows 7.. Both failed to boot from SSD in a USB enclosure.. They both tried but failed right after the Windows Logo screen..
The USB connection did not cause a problem with the actual recovery of the images as I was able to take the SSD out of the USB enclosure and hook it up with a SATA connection, and they both booted right up..
I tried recovering the image to the SSD while connected to SATA and it worked.. I then put the SSD back in the USB enclosure and it failed..
It is entirely possible that some USB connections may in fact boot properly when others do not due to the SATA to USB conversion chipset, but that us just a guess..
It seems to me that I do remember being able to boot into windows using a USB drive at one time, but it has been years since that might have happened..
At one time there was a "Windows To Go" that I am pretty sure would boot from USB.. That was the intention for it to be portable..
So your Clones should work if hooked up internally, but not as USB drive..
What I ended up doing on my machine was to hook up a eSATA cable so that I could boot from a external drive.. This was before SSDs and USB 3.0 and it was much faster than using USB 2.0..
Let us know what you think about this...
