Paperdoc said:
Cloning certainly is the way to change from an old HDD to a new one. And the advice to connect the HDD containing the cloned info to the SAME SATA port as the old one is on is good. I have three points to add, though.
1. Cloning. Several HDD makers have free cloning utilities you can download from their websites. BUT they are customized to make a clone copy TO only one of THEIR HDD units. This is to induce you to buy your HDD from them. So IF you buy a WD HDD, get their Acronis True Image WD Edition utility. If you get a Seagate unit, get their Disk Wizard utility. If you get a HDD from another company, check what's available or look for a free cloner.
2. Cloning software tip. Most cloning utilities I have used will try to place the clone copy on the new HDD in a Partition the SAME SIZE as the old HDD, and that's usually too small and not what you want! A the start they analyse the hardware and offer a set of parameters and ask you to approve that so they can proceed. If you don't think they have set it up right, do NOT just press OK. Use the menu system to alter the settings so that the new HDD has the Partition size you want - usually ALL of the new HDD space. Then let it run. (See my additional note at the end.)
3. Nobody has talked yet about why you have this problem - the fact that it won't boot when the HDD is disconnected. Follow this, because it will also impact what you do with the cloning software. I SUSPECT you have run into a Windows feature that has caused this problem for others. At the time you Install Windows to any boot device (like your SSD), the Install process also checks for any other storage devices present (like your HDD). So IF your HDD and your SSD BOTH were in the machine at install time, what it did was place on the second unit (the HDD) a spare copy of key Windows files as a backup. The idea is that, in future, if ever the main boot device (the SSD) has a corrupted file, it will find the spare copy on the other device and copy it over, and fix itself, then complete the boot. Fixes its own problem automatically - nice! The problem is that, to set this up and be sure, Windows will always check for the backup copy on the second unit (the HDD) and will NOT boot if it's not there! Sounds like what happens to you. There is a fix. Disconnect the HDD so it can't boot properly. Put your Windows Install CD in the optical drive and boot from it. Do NOT do a Install! But look for a process called Repair Install or something like that. If you run this it will check and find that the secret backup copies are not on the only boot device present (the SSD) and it will put them there. When it's done you can remove the CD and reboot, and it should work just fine without the HDD in place. If that works, you can re-connect the HDD and proceed with the cloning and replacement operations, and your machine will NOT need those special hidden backups on the HDD.
Now, that adds a small wrinkle to the cloning process. If the situation is as I just described it, those secret backup files on the HDD are in a separate partition. But you do not need them any more if the machine will boot properly with no HDD attached. SO, when you go to do the cloning operation, watch out for this. The cloning software will detect that the old SOURCE unit has two Partitions on it and will plan to copy both of them, adjusting their sizes with a Proportional Partitioning scheme. You won't need that. You will need to clone only the large Partition containing all your data, and it can go into a Partition on the new HDD that takes up all of that unit's space. So again, you need to use the menu system of the cloning software to set how it will do its job.
That's great info, thanks a lot!. It's good to find out a probable cause to my issue. I can't remember if I did have my HDD in my PC at the time when I installed windows. I can vaguely remember having some issue when installing windows with both drives connected. I think it was something to do with the installation creating partitions on both drives instead of just my SSD, I think I actually did it again when I came across that.
Secondly, my HDD does in fact have a system reserved partition of about 11-20MB, I can't remember the exact figure but I remember seeing that in EaseUS Partition Master.
If we assume that the cause you mentioned is the problem, and I re-created the backup key on the SSD instead of the hard drive, would there be any need to clone my HDD apart from gaining my files back? I'm not too attached to the things on the HDD, it's just things like game installations which are easily recovered. If there was no need to clone the HDD and I was able to avoid the cloning process and just install a fresh HDD (since this one is obviously knackered) I would be very happy!
I feel I'm getting very close to solving this, thanks to you guys, I appreciate the help immensely.