970 Evo Plus problem

[YamiNoTenRyuu]

So, I bought Evo 970 awhile back and tried to install windows 10 on it, but it didn't go well, I played with it for a few days and to no avail.
I could not install properly windows on it before and could not clone my SATA SSD to it too, so I left it be
Few days ago i returned to it and managed to clone properly entire SATA SSD to my M.2, but here is the problem right now
Windows does recognize it that it is installed properly and that it is accessible, but BIOS doesn't show it up as bootable device
Any advice with steps would be appreciated on how to get M.2 to boot as default OS
what i tried so far
I seen people talking about M.2 not being GPT <--- it is checked it from diskpart
Drivers are working properly, checked from Samsung Magician and Device Manager <-- scanned M.2 multiple times, no errors, can store files on it
I tried reinstalling it and putting it into second M.2 slot and still nothing
nothing else comes to mind what to do
i know i am messing something up, question is, what?

Thank You everyone in advance for putting up with my stupid self

Build:
Asus RoG Strix x570-e Gaming
Windows 10 x64
Disk 1 - Barracuda 3TB
Disk 2 - SanDisk SSD 125GB
Disk 0 - Evo Plus 970 1TB
CPU - Ryzen 7 2700

 

[Johan45]

If you have only the 970 evo connected does the BIOS detect it then? Looks like you have more than one OS installation so keep it simple disconnect all drives but the Evo

 

[trents]

How did you clone it? What tool did you use? I would recommend using Minitool Partition Wizard free. It makes the clone job very easy and aligns the partitions correctly when going from a platter drive to an SSD.

 

[YamiNoTenRyuu]

So I used Minitool Partition WIzard to Clone it
I tried disconnecting all drives besides M.2 --> did not recognize
so i enabled CSM in BIOS and m.2 was recognized, but still would not pass as bootable device
I realized that my Active and System Partition is on my 3GB Barracuda and Boot Partition is on my SanDisk SSD
i don't know how it happened and how to fix it, but because of it I cannot Migrate OS to Evo, it won't launch
NOTE: I do not have full copy of Windows 10


I really would like to save all my data and not to do clean wipe ._. i am desperate to save this

 

[trents]

So I used Minitool Partition WIzard to Clone it
I tried disconnecting all drives besides M.2 --> did not recognize
so i enabled CSM in BIOS and m.2 was recognized, but still would not pass as bootable device
I realized that my Active and System Partition is on my 3GB Barracuda and Boot Partition is on my SanDisk SSD
i don't know how it happened and how to fix it, but because of it I cannot Migrate OS to Evo, it won't launch
NOTE: I do not have full copy of Windows 10
View attachment 209610

I really would like to save all my data and not to do clean wipe ._. i am desperate to save this

Likely, it happened because you had multiple drives connected when you installed Windows in the first place. Many of us have experienced this.

The fact that your drive wasn't recognized until you enabled CSM suggests a problem with the video card's vbios or that the system drive (or in your case, system drives) is using a MBR instead of UEFI/GPT. CSM is the bios compatibility mode that enables a UEFI bios to work with either an OS drive that is using the MB partition scheme or a video card whose vbios can't be detected for some reason. I ran into this issue a couple of months ago with my video card. Reflashing the card's vbios fixed the issue for me and it was easy to do since my card had dual bios. If you don't have dual bios you would need to temporarily install a second video card.

I'm afraid you have a mess here and I'm not sure there is any way to fix it that will not destroy installed applications. However, you could still back up data before reinstallation.

You can make your own Windows 10 USB installer by using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool found here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 Since windows 10 has already been installed on that system it should automatically activate.

 

[YamiNoTenRyuu]

so basically, i am forced to do clean install, well i will go buy 2TB external and back up my data best to my knowledge and disconnect all my drives, leaving M.2 only one connect while fresh installing, right?

 

[trents]

Yes. Also, there is a free program called produkey that you can use to extract Microsoft product keys, say if you have an expensive copy of MS Office installed. This would allow you to download the MS Office ISO and reinstall it if you don't have a physical media installer.

 

[Zerileous]

I think a clean install is always best anyway, but it's pretty painful if your internet isn't the best.

 

[trents]

By the way, just a word of caution here about mini tool partition wizard. I think the latest version has deleted this feature, but previous versions allowed you to change the partition scheme of a disk from mbr to GPT/GUID or vice versa. You wouldn't want to do that on the boot drive as it will render it unbootable.