Acer 5534 windows 7 boot issues

Check the sata connections including the power supply lead. Use the hardrive manufacturer's software to prep the drive before installing windows. This software is included in retail boxed drives, or you can download it for free and burn a cd. It will detect drives when windows won't. You can prep the drive as boot or secondary, then clone it. Prep only one drive at a time; disconnect any others unless you want to install the software on the old drive then make a copy. After installing windows, set the secondary drive with a jumper if it's ide. I use maxblast 5.0 for maxtor or seagate drives, and it works great.