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
    2020-12-02T15:17:18+00:00

    Right, it didn’t boot from the USB SSD...(which in retrospect maybe they never did)...I was mainly pointing out that I didn’t get the Inaccessible Boot Device error with the 11/01/20 SSD clone without all the November Windows updates on it

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-12-02T14:59:28+00:00

    Hi,

    It is required to be marked as "Active" to be recognized as a boot device by the Bios..

    I simply mentioned this as a possible reason as to why your machine may have "Never" booted, or attempted to boot, from the USB SSD.. That it is in fact marked as Active eliminates one possibility..

    When I suggest that your SSDs may have been modified to be bootable externally, I should have been more clear.. It may have been your Windows installation that had been modified to boot externally and was carried over to your clones.. As a for instance... The "Windows To Go" feature, or something similar, may have been functioning on your original Windows installation and carried over to your clones..

    To be clear... It is an abnormal circumstance that a USB Windows installation would be bootable in the first place.. Not a "Normal" circumstance that quit working..

    The actual question now is are you really able to boot from the SSD from your storage, or is the boot failing so badly you never even get an error message..

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-12-02T14:35:16+00:00

    Thanks for that...and to be clear:

    "And here's a screenshot just now with the 11/01/20 SSD plugged in / shown as Disk 2"

    I had not tried to boot the SSD...I had simply plugged it in then went to Disk Mgt. to get the screenshot for you showing the 'active' status...don't know if that factors into the discussion or not...

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-12-02T14:12:59+00:00

    Hi,

    I would guess that you did not get the error because it did not even try to boot.. You only get the error if it tries to boot and fails.. It needs to get partially in to Windows to get the error.. If the Bios does not recognize the drive as bootable, it will never get to the point where the error happens..

    The error you are getting is a Windows error... You can not get a Windows error if the Bios does not even attempt to boot to the drive..

    Your System_Drv (E:) shows it has been marked as Active, so that answers that question, but because it has a drive letter it is not the boot drive... If you were to actually boot from the external drive, the Disk 2 would not have  drive letter for (E:)...

    If you were to right click on the (E:) partition now, you should see a "Unmark As Active" or similar...

    If you were booting from the external drive, you would not see that..

    If you compare the System_Drv status as far as the Active partition shows when right clicking on it, if you booted from the external drive, the status of the two drives would be reversed from what they are now..

    From what I can tell, your current USB SSDs are actually attempting to boot, but are failing.. The one from your storage is not even trying... I don't know the reason as to why that has changed though..

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-12-02T03:22:20+00:00

    Hello...

    Well, no external SSD drives have ever been modified...bought them as brand new Samsung 500 gb SSD Drives...I personally never knew that could be done / never had any capability to do it, so that can be eliminated.

    My main update today was just to mention that I did not get the Inaccessible Boot Device error when I USB mounted and tried to boot the 11/01/20 SSD clone.

    Correct it did not actually boot...but my point was I didn't get the error that I get when I try the exact same thing with a clone having the November rash of updates installed.

    11/01/20 Clone without November updates does NOT get the Inaccessible Boot Device error

    Late November Clone with lots of Windows Updates DOES get the Inaccessible Boot Device error

    And here's a screenshot just now with the 11/01/20 SSD plugged in / shown as Disk 2.

    Shows active according to this...is that what you were referring to?

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