SOLVED:Laptop with 2 hard drives: Windows 10 & Linux Mint 19. There is never an opportunity to boot into Windows

[James_Smith]

I know this is a Linux forum but this problem does have to do with Linux. Please hear me out.

This all started when I got an Alienware 15 R3 last year. Here is what I have done over the course of a year in order:

1. I took the HDD out of the Alienware and replaced it with a 1TB SATA SSD. I never once turned on MS Windows 10. I wrote "AW" on the HDD with a marker and put it in a drawer—I had plans for it right from the start.

2. I installed Linux Mint Cinnamon.

3. I bought an M.2 SATA 3 SSD last night and put it in the machine (there are slots for a total of four SSDs). I installed Linux Mint on it.

4. I cloned the original HDD (that came with the Alienware) to the 1TB SATA SSD I mentioned above.

5. I put the cloned 1TB SATA SSD into the proper slot and turned the machine on.

6. I was unable boot up into Windows but I can boot up into Linux just fine.

I thought it had something to do with UEFI vs. Legacy and/or secure boot vs. unsecured but I changed all of that stuff in the BIOS in every way imaginable to no avail.

I thought what would happen would be that I'd turn the machine on, go to Grub, and see an option for logging onto either LM19 or W10. I don't see that option nor do I see any other way to log onto Windows. Of course, I can see the other hard drive from Linux and everything looks good. It looks like a typical Windows C or D drive (or whatever it is).

Ordinarily, I wouldn't worry about it this much, but I need W10 for school and work and I use Linux for everything else.

EDIT [SOLVED]: Windows was somehow corrupted even though I never once used the original HDD

[z31fanatic]

How did you clone the original HDD to the Sata SSD?

[James_Smith]

How did you clone the original HDD to the Sata SSD?

With a WEme USB 3.0 to SATA Dual-Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station with Offline Clone/Duplicator Function. I've used it on five different hard drives with a 100% success rate so I know I did it right. That's not to say that something couldn't have gone wrong.

[z31fanatic]

Interesting product, I had never seen it before.

[James_Smith]

Interesting product, I had never seen it before.

It boots up about 3-4 seconds faster than a regular SATA SSD but it really performs when it comes to pretty much everything else. For example, I loaded a bunch of stuff from my external hard drive to the SATA SSD and it took 1 hour, 8 minutes. When I loaded the same stuff to the SATA 3 SSD, it only took 38 minutes.

[kukamuumuka]

With Etcher can make a bootable Windows 10 copy also, when selecting Unsafe Mode from Etcher's settings.

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