Imaging system with two drives - Boot Error

[vanfifty1]

I originally posted here and hoping for more feedback.

I am imaging a Dell laptop (Windows 11) using FOG. The laptop has two identical hard drives identified by FOG as /dev/nvme0n1 and /dev/nvme1n1

I imaged one of the drives a couple times, first using GParted to delete any existing partitions on any of the drives (not formatting). I recall one time after imaging Windows logged in after OOBE (the image was syspreped) and after restarting I got a Windows Inaccessible Boot Device Error. I had options to go into Windows recovery modes. I recall subsequent imaging and restart went ok.

At one point I decided to try imaging the other drive (again deleting any existing partitions first). After FOG finished its imaging and Windows started its setup, the computer started up Dell Diagnostics automatically (which happens on this laptop when both drives have their partitions erased). Subsequent imaging resulted in the imaging completing and Windows logging in as before though after restarting the Inaccessible Boot Device Error occured. I tried deleting the Windows Boot Manager entry in the firmware between reimaging however this did not resolve the issue.

I don’t see any option in the firmware to disable a drive. I physically removed the second drive and it imaged fine, about 4-5 reimages, and restarting Windows caused no issues.

Is this a UEFI/NVRAM issue or something else? Would there be anything I could try instead of having to remove one of the drives?