Cloned SSD does not boot – a new twist

Question

Looked at many posts but did not find a solution: I wanted to replace the original m.2 PCIe Kingston 500GB drive with m.2 WD 4TB SN850X (both are m.2 PCIe), with the Acer PC having one m.2 slot and one PCIe 16 connector.

1. Cloned disk with Acronis
2. Replaced old disk with clone – no boot
   (UEFI firmware recognizes new drive - NVMe dev installed)

3. Error code: Kernel security check failure
   

4. After three unsuccessful boot attempts can get into Win rescue environment:
   Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → startup repair (no luck)
5. Installed the clone on PCIe.
6. Windows boots normally, all data intact
7. UEFI firmware does NOT recognize SSD
   (NVMe Device NOT installed; First boot device: Win Boot Mgr)

At this stage I am stuck:

• UEFI firmware does not recognize the SSD in the PCIe slot, yet Windows boots
• When connecting that same SSD to m.2, I get error code: Kernel Security failure
• Another strange thing: Leaving original SSD in M.2 slot, and adding the new SSD on PCIe, the system boots, and files show up on both drives; however, in this configuration Windows says that the new (larger) SSD is the boot drive!!?

With both drives installed, Windows boots, and it looks like it boots from the new drive which is not even recognized in the UEFI firmware.

Answer 1

It may because the drivers of the old SSD and the new SSD are different. Install just 4TB SSD and boot your system using Windows installation media. After booting and click "Next", click "Repair your computer" at the bottom (Do not click on "Install Now") and perform a startup repair.

Answer 2

You need to turn off 'secure boot' within the bios. Some bios require an admin password set in order to turn off. Once this 'feature' is switched off the new SSD should boot.