Problems Cloning HDD to SSD

Brand000n

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May 30, 2014
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Hey everyone, so I don't really know where to start because trying to get this SSD has taken far longer than I expected and I have nothing to show for it as of now.

I'm trying to install an OCZ Vertex SSD into a Lenovo laptop. I originally hooked up the SSD to the computer through a USB port using a USB to SATA adapter while leaving the original hard drive alone. The OCZ drive came with a free activation key for the HD software Acronis. I tried to run this program but using the 'clone hard drive' thing only started the process then would stop and tell me that the software required two hard drives to be attached to the computer. So it was not recognizing the additional drive at all. I tried every USB port on the computer and still got the same result. My SATA connection is set to AHCI.

I then talked to OCZ's product support and got very short answers, the last one saying that they recommend booting the computer from the original HDD through a USB and cloning from there to the SSD. I was skeptical as to why that would make any difference... and it didn't. I've been unable to boot from the HDD through a USB - even when I set the boot drive to boot from a USB port I get nothing. When Windows starts it just goes to the prompt asking if I would like to start the computer normally or in some type of automatic recovery mode - neither of which have worked.

I'm sure I'm leaving some details out but my brain is fried from trying to do this. Also I'd like to know if I can move the whole operating system along with the clone of everything else? And if I wanted to just move Windows 7 over to the SSD without the installation disks could I do that?

Any help would be appreciated! SOS!
 
Do you have an external hard drive? I have found that the following sequence always works:
1) Create an Acronis boot disk (or thumbdrive)
2) Boot to it and make an image backup of your system drive on the external disk
3) Swap system drives (install teh SSD)
4) Boot to acronis and restore the image with the option to restore to dissimilar hardware checked.
 

Brand000n

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May 30, 2014
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Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I do have an external hard drive. Are you saying to make an Acronis boot disk to something like a CD-R/DVD-R or make it on the external hard drive?
 

Brand000n

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May 30, 2014
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OK so I made the Acronis boot drive on a flash drive and made an image on a separate external hard drive. I then installed the SSD. WyomingKnott, I'm not sure what you mean by this: "Boot to acronis and restore the image with the option to restore to dissimilar hardware checked."

I tried to add the SSD drive using the add drive wizard, but the SSD was not recognized - the external hard drive was listed but not the SSD. Shouldn't the SSD at least be recognized when it's installed? Could there be something wrong with it?



Thanks
 

Brand000n

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May 30, 2014
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It turns that there was something wrong with the original SSD, as it was never recognized by the computer.

Now I have a new SSD that is recognized in BIOS but when I try to boot (after I cloned my HD to the new SSD) I get an error message saying 'NTLDR is missing'. What do I need to do to make the SSD bootable?
 

Brand000n

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May 30, 2014
14
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4,510
Another thing to add is that when I tried to use the Acronis recover cloned disk, the destination part showed options of my external hard drive (which has the cloned image) and the SSD - but the SSD was presented in grey and could not be selected.