Data Recovery and Disk Utilities Forum @R-TT

Did you change the startup device in computer's BIOS or UEFI settings to enable the computer to start from a USB external device?

That's precisely the page I followed, copying the 128GB M2 C drive to the new 1TB SSD. However, when I tried to restart from the new C drive via USB (after removing the M2 drive), the machine would not restart after multiple attempts.

I wonder if it might work to restart that process, adding the D drive immediately after getting the C clone done -- but before closing down R-drive image.

Maybe, this article will help: How to Move an Installed Windows to a Larger Disk.
It's about SSDs, but the same action can be applied to HDDs, too.

I am trying to clone my 128GB M2 SATA drive with Windows 10, moving it onto a 1TB 2.5" drive on the same machine.
The 2.5" drive is currently my D (data) drive and has over 580GB free on it. My thinking was to reduce the D partition to allow space for a 300gb C partition.

In the long battle over C drive disk space, many programs and program files are now on the D drive using Windows symbolic links to point to the new location. Therefore the cloned C drive will retain those references, and I suspected that the D drive had to remain in place when I tried cloning the C drive.

I made disk images using R-Drive Image onto a backup USB drive just in case.

I thought that trying to move C onto the 2.5" drive on a live install might be problematic, so I cloned the C drive onto a new 1TB 2.5" drive using a USB adapter. I then removed the M2 drive and tried to start up with the new C drive still in the USB adapter. The Dell Inspiron 5577 would not start.

I have now re-installed the M2 drive and am operational -- with the same space issues of course.

Can someone suggest a way to accomplish this?

Thank you -- Tony