HDD Cloning .. Need help

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Usfbobbybobby

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I was using Apricorn.


I have a seagate 500GB 7mm Hybrid drive with my dell laptop.

I just bought a 1TB 7mm WD blue drive. It is a regular HDD.

I have cloned it three times and it just won't boot windows 7.

I can boot into windows 7 safe mode with the new drive, but it just loads past the windows screen to a black screen with a small pointer I can move with the mouse..but nothing else happens.

Can someone else me figure this out?
 
Solution
ronintexas
RAID is typically for multiple hard drives to be combined into a single volume for Windows (i.e. two 500GB drives = 1TB volume). RAID typically requires drivers to fully function.

AHCI is actually a subset of RAID, but it does not have the ability to combined drives into a single volume. The biggest problem is not all RAID formats are compatible with all controllers - so if you change the mobo, it may not read the drive. AHCI is a standard that will work on all system....And since it doesn't require drives (it only requires being enabled), you don't have as many issues.

For home use - I try to avoid RAID at all costs (I build servers for a living - and it is a requirement for a lot of production servers), just so I don't have the...
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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The hybrid drive has a "SSD" that caches the HDD - and Windows is probably configured to use this, and since it is missing, that could be part of the problem. Also - did you copy all the partitions off the hard drive? Normally when those symptoms are present, Windows is having problems loading drivers. You may have to reinstall Windows to get it to run.

I know of several people that have gone from HDD to hybrid, but not the other way around....
 
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Usfbobbybobby

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I was worried it was a driver issue as well. Since safe mode can launch. I did copy all the partitions. the drives matched with the exception of the larger drive having a larger open primary partition which is what I want. However the full load to windows hangs. I was wondering if there was away to delete that driver from safe mode. Any thoughts? If I do a full windows install (which I can).. I risk losing software like Microsoft office and others because the Key was used to many times. i didn't want an expensive install just to get more space on my HDD.
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Looking at Seagate's website, they state, "Installs and works like a typical hard drive – no special device drivers needed."

How were the drives connected when you did the disk image (SATA & USB???)

What do you have the SATA set to in BIOS (IDE Legacy, AHCI, RAID, etc) - if you have it set to AHCI - try legacy IDE and see if it boots.
 
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Usfbobbybobby

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It is set to RAID for both drives.

I cloned the entire HDD. sector to sector match.

I tried the source HDD in the sata and the destination HDD via usb.. then I switched them just to see if it would help. It didn't.
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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For a single drive, it should be set to AHCI (preferred) or Legacy IDE. The issue may be the RAID setting - it may be loading a RAID driver to access the drive....

I would suggest taking the old HDD out of the system, put the new drive in and install Windows from scratch (make sure BIOS is set to AHCI). After updates, then you can copy the data (via USB) to the new drive (users folders). You would need to reinstall the programs.
 
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Usfbobbybobby

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Just a side note.. why is AHCI used instead of RAID in a single drive situation. I did my desktop in RAID as well. It has never been an issue.. but I am just wondering why AHCI over RAID?
 
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ronintexas

ronintexas

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Dec 10, 2012
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RAID is typically for multiple hard drives to be combined into a single volume for Windows (i.e. two 500GB drives = 1TB volume). RAID typically requires drivers to fully function.

AHCI is actually a subset of RAID, but it does not have the ability to combined drives into a single volume. The biggest problem is not all RAID formats are compatible with all controllers - so if you change the mobo, it may not read the drive. AHCI is a standard that will work on all system....And since it doesn't require drives (it only requires being enabled), you don't have as many issues.

For home use - I try to avoid RAID at all costs (I build servers for a living - and it is a requirement for a lot of production servers), just so I don't have the headaches.
 
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Solution
ronintexas

ronintexas

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Dec 10, 2012
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When you configure a system as RAID, during POST, the computer must load the RAID controller BIOS (slowing boot times by 3-5 seconds - sometimes longer), and a driver must be loaded so that the hard drive boots. AHCI is enabled in RAID (so TRIM support is enabled), but it is required to have the BIOS and driver to boot.

AHCI mode does not require a driver, the main difference between RAID and AHCI is AHCI mode can't create volumes from multiple drives.

It will work either way....AHCI or RAID. If it was done in Legacy IDE (PATA) mode, it will not boot properly and/or have TRIM support without the registry hacks and BIOS changes to AHCI/RAID.
 
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