New PNY SSD, fresh Windows 10 install, doesn't boot.

I just bought a new PNY SSD (120GB) for my Gateway laptop. I used the Acronis software that I had to download to clone the drive. The software went through the whole process but the drive doesn't boot. All I get is a black screen with a blinking cursor to the upper left corner of the screen. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! ????

All I did was follow the instructions included in the manual for my PNY SSD.
I downloaded and activated the software (True Image 2015) by going to the link found in the manual.
I attached the SSD to my laptop via a USB to SATA adapter.
Used the software to clone my drive (Automatic Method)
Removed old hard drive
Installed newly "cloned" SSD
Reboot
I've gone into BIOS and made the new SSD the primary boot device.
There are no other drives or peripherals attached to the laptop
I'll try your suggestion and create rescue media. I'll also get the latest software from the link you provided. Thanks so much for reply. Much appreciated. ????

I'd start with trying to get the newer software and using the rescue media to perform the clone.
Right after the clone is complete, and before shutting down, you should be able to take a system report and save it to the usb flash drive (assuming you create one for the rescue media). You can also click on logs and right click on the log and save it to the flash drive too.
You're not using encryption are you (bitlocker or anything like that?)
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I actually just finished doing that.
Created Rescue Media from new software
Reboot and booted off Rescue Media
Cloned Drive
Shut Down
Installed cloned SSD
Set boot priority in BIOS to new SSD
Received this message:
A disk read error has occurred
Press Ctrl+Alt-Del to restart
Now what? ????

Are you installing the cloned SSD in place of the original drive or in addition to it?
You should only have the one drive installed, either the original or the cloned SSD - and both should connect to the same SATA controller / port so that the information in the Boot Configuration Data store is still correct for where the boot device can be found.
If you have UEFI BIOS then the boot priority should normally be set to Windows Boot Manager rather than to an actual disk drive.
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Acronis Links : Acronis Scheduler Manager : Acronis VSS Doctor : Backup Archive Compatibility : Cleanup Tool (All versions) : Cloning Disks : Contact Acronis Support : Difference between Backup and Disk Clone : Repair program / settings
MVP Assistant (Log Viewer) latest version see pinned topic in ACPHO forum page.
MVP Custom PE Builder available from Community Tools page.
Acronis True Image User Guides available from Product Documentation page.
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haza12 - well the error says it cant' read the disk - which actually sounds like a problem with the disk of some kind.
You may want to revert back to the original again and boot to it. Run chkdsk /f /r from an elevated command prompt and scan the disk for bad sectors that will hopefully get identified, marked and possibly repaired.
After that, I'd suggest connecting the PNY to your external USB and doing the same against it too.
Then try again.
Personally, I don't clone. If you have another storage location, you can also try taking a full backup of the original disk (storing to third drive). Then pop out the old drive and putting in the new one exactly where it was. Then restore the full disk to the new drive from the backup. This is the method I always use...1) it gives you a backup point - something clones do not - if your clone goes belly up (or a drive), you're up a creek.
The backup and restore process also is less picky about drive states (sector sizes, etc). It's the reason I always go that route - yeah, cloning may be faster in theory, not when it hits a snag because of bad sectors or something else and doesn't work.
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Thanks for all the suggestions ya'll. I finally got it to boot.
I downloaded the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and downloaded the Windows 10 ISO.
I placed the ISO on a USB Flash Drive and booted off that and did a fresh install of Windows 10.
The only issue I'm having now is that when it turn off/restart the laptop, Windows takes about 8 minutes to boot. Before the windows logo appears it's just a black screen with a blinking cursor on the upper left.
I'm actually thinking that the other times that I have cloned the drive actually worked and I just didn't give it time to fully boot.
When I'm in the OS though, everything is very snappy and fast. I just wish that it didn't take so long to boot.
Is this normal for SSDs? I thought they were supposed to reduce boot times?!?

No, that's not normal. Mine boots up to the password screen in under 15 seconds and I'm logged in completely under 30. Perhaps not all are quite that fast (but the PNY is pretty decent and no SSD should take minutes to boot, not even on older SATA 2 connectors which are still 3 times faster than a spinning drive.
If this is a new install, Windows may be downloading and installying updates in the background as well and that could be slowing things down. It's about 5Gb of updates from a fresh Win 10 1607 install and it goes to work on those right away.
The black screen with cursor could be that you don't have the correct boot priority in the bios and it's going through different devices to find the correct one before it finally finds the correct one. Make sure your new SSD is first boot priority in the bios. You may also want to unplug any external USB drives and/or CD/DVD discs when booting to make sure it's going to the correct drive, but the boot priority should help ensure it tries to use the correct drive to begin with.
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Hmmm... This is really weird then. I went into BIOS and made the SSD the first boot device, followed by the DVD Drive, and then Network/Legacy PCI Device.
I'll leave it on overnight and let it download all the updates and I'll report back if the load times get better.
Someone mentioned about UEFI and Windows Boot Manager but I don't see those options in BIOS or Boot Options.
Maybe this older laptop (Gateway NV53A) doesn't play well with SSDs?

Ssd isn't the problem. Sata is sata and an ssd will do circles around spinning drives. That looks like it was released in 2009 (https://panam.gateway.com/s/notebook/2010/gateway/nv/nv53A/NV53Asp2.sht…). It's probably just getting close to end of life. That's ancient in computer years. Not sure how much memory you have installed but that may play a role too. It can support up to 4gb, which isn't much by today's standards, but if you're running less than that on that old and processor, performance is likely to not be great either. Might be time to consider replacing. Even a $300 laptop with that ssd should be a nice step forward in performance.
personally, I'd spend a little more to get something a little better, but for about 300 there are some ok options out there and you could put your ssd in it to upgrade the os drive performance and put the i original spinning drives in a USB external for storage and or backups.
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Gotcha. The weird thing is that the when I put the old drive in, it boots right up, within 1-2 minutes.
I have 4GB of RAM on there and it runs smooth with the old drive.
I might just do a clean install on the older drive to start fresh.
I thought upgrading to the SSD would be less of a headache.
Thanks so much for the links. I'll check 'em out.

Maybe you got unlucky with a bad, new ssd. If you have the old drive working ok, boot it up and then attach the pny via USB and grab the free trial of hard disk sentinel. It will tell you the supposed life of the drives and can help identify issues such as bad sectors. Even new drives can be bad from the factory, and although ssds are typically not prone to physical failure,as much as mechanical drives, they can still go bad. I have the luck of finding the bad one in the pile... just bought 2 nvme not long ago and one was bad out of the box. It functioned,but not the way it was supposed to and would slow to a crawl with light use. Got it replaced and all is well again.
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Last thought, how much free and usable space do you have on the pny once things are installed on it? If you're done to less than 30% while Windows is running that can be an issue too. Ssd prices have gone up a bit lately, but if it's within budget, a 240gb may be a better choice so you don't have to keep trying to keep that 20% free. Things like the paging file, hibernation file, etc. need space on the drive and get created each boot. If you're using Windows 10 and have fastboot enabled it will use hibernation and needs the space for that file which it will start from.
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I have 97GB free of 117GB. I have nothing on it except Windows 10.
I'll try to swap out the drive for a new one. Maybe I did get a bad one.

Keep us posted.
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Finally got it to work. I updated the BIOS. I thought I had the latest version but I didn't. Now it boots up in about 15-20 seconds.
Thanks ya'll for your help!

Excellent - glad that's all it took. Updating the bios often resets other default settings (not sure if that was the case on yours or not). I've had to reset my bios (reinstall the same firmware over the top) to get my bios to behave correctly after it ignored other changes I had made.
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I had a Lenovo and I have had a similar problem with a PNY SSD.
Never had any probs with my Acer though.
Try to re-install your OS.
If you have any queries regarding Acer laptops visit Acer Support Phone Number
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I had a similar experience with a PNY CS900 (in my case a 1TB model) in 2020 on a SFF HP EliteDesk 800 G1. I followed the instructions: set up the SSD in an external enclosure and began the clone process as directed. Moved over the SSD... then it wouldn't boot. It wouldn't boot in the external enclosure, it wouldn't boot up internally on the desktop. I could access the drive's directories if I booted with the HDD like normal, but it wouldn't boot.
I spent parts of several days trying to troubleshoot this and couldn't get it to work.(played with BIOS settings, re-did the clone, cloned the individual partitions manually, updated BIOS)
After spending way too much time troubleshooting, I returned the SSD and bought one made by Crucial (MX500). I followed the same instructions, just with a different SSD. It just worked, done in about 30 mins including all the copying. No troubleshooting needed at all.
I'd done the same process with a Kingston SSD (A400) and a Samsung (850 EVO) years ago and the Acronis software literally just worked.
So I suspect either 1) a bad ssd or 2) perhaps the PNY SSD has something to it that does not agree with my BIOS.
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ParticleMan1337, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with the community!
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(11). BOOT MBR vs UEFI (12). Common OEM Drivers