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I've added a Samsung SSD to my own computer without issue and the process was quick and painless with their supplied software.
My nephew has had a Kingston SSD for Christmas but unfortunately it came without any software. There's an OEM version of Acronis True Image available on their website (I use a full version myself) but it required a serial code to activate, that it appears wasn't supplied on his SSD packaging.
We downloaded a Western Digital OEM version (as he has a WD harddrive) and easily cloned his mechanical drive.
When booting from the SSD everything seems to go smoothly until the Windows 10 Lockscreen appears after which it simply flashes between that and a black screen endlessly; there's no obviously compatibility issues as everything's fine when booting from the mechanical drive again (with the SSD still in place).
Googling the issue throws up a number of similar issues but the solutions seem to be a clean windows installation (with no guarantee of success). I was wondering whether anyone could suggest anything further to try.
His system is a fairly old ASUS motherboard fitted with 12Gb of memory and a 1st gen. i5 running fully patched Windows 10 Professional 64 bit (Anniversary Edition).
Try a different free cloning software, like Macrium reflect? I've not cloned windows 10 from HDD to SSD but have done with Windows 7, so don't envisage issues. A quick search suggest trying "EaseUS Todo Backup Free" as a recommended cloning tool to try.
There are options like testing in safe mode, using a windows USB to recover the install but I'd just trying re-cloning first
Check its a genuine Kingston...
This is tested in USB sticks not SSD's but really one is just a bigger version ... a friend/colleague told me he'd had a USB stick fail and had got onto the manufacturer ... he'd bought it on Amazon or eBay but from what looked very reputable... came in authentic looking packaging etc.
When he checked it was a rip-off... so I then checked a few of mine and lo and behold about half were rip-offs (we use a lot as I use a clean one for each client)
[url= https://www.kingston.com/en/support/product_verification ]Kingston verification check[/url]
I agree, clone again with a different tool. I've used clonezilla with good results.
clonezilla +1 - I've never specifically used it for cloning, but it's always been very reliable for disk backups (and I have done full disk restores from it onto a different disk, hence effectively cloning).
Thanks, I might give that a try.
I had one system where the problem was that the ssd was too large for the motherboard (500gb). It would boot but then randomly crash. Tried a few but the solution was unfortunately to jump back to 250. Might not be your problem but flagging it in case this is a large ssd
It's just a 240Mb one and we successfully cloned his old mechanical drive to the new 1TB one with Acronis but maybe it's done something funny with the SSD. I've even unplugged the mechanical drive and booted from the SSD with the same result but maybe another cloning package would work (I'm not sure that WD make SSDs so maybe their version of Acronis doesn't work fully with them).
Another vote for Macrium Reflect. I used it to clone the HDD to SSD on two Windows 10 laptops without any problems.
Just do a clean install, it's fast and simple (done a couple now) so long as you have the network driver Windows picked up the rest.
I did a clean install on an ssd just before Christmas, finally upgraded from a mechanical drive.. due to the faster speed of the ssd,it's a lot less laborious than doing it on a mechanical drive.